china’s “new” approach: empathy

by Brady Burr

Published: May 28, 2008

China has a historical PR problem. Most people can still recall images of tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square to answer the complaints of a few college students. Recent reprisals faced by Tibetan monks seemed to spell more of the same, but that was before the Sichuan earthquake and the rise of Grandpa Wen.

Wen Jiabao (A.K.A. Grandpa Wen) became China’s prime minister in March of 2003 and vowed to improve the lives of Chinese peasants. His agenda is a Chinese remedy for the policies of former President Jiang Zemin, who installed a host of capitalist concepts into the economy and poured billions of dollars into grandiose work projects from gargantuan dams and to colossal bridges. Zemin’s policies elated the elite but alienated much of the rural peasantry. Rural folk saw Zemin as a panderer to China’s wealthy and claimed he was out of touch with the basic thrust of Chinese communism. After all, Mao Zedong, China’s first Communist leader, would never have been able to defeat Chiang Kai-shek without millions of peasants swelling his ranks on his historic “long march.”

Perhaps mirroring Mao’s legacy, Wen is often seen with coal miners and farmers. He even went so far as to spend the 2003 New Year’s holiday in a mine shaft. In January of this year, Wen visited a crowded train station where nearly 600,000 travelers were stranded due to wintry weather. He stood amidst the throngs of disgruntled travelers and promised that the government was doing all it could. His message was clear: “China’s government works for the people.”

When the dust cleared after a massive earthquake in Sichuan province last week, “Grandpa” Wen came to the rescue yet again. He openly wept and even stood outside a collapsed building giving encouragement to trapped survivors through a megaphone. When addressing the survivors he simply stated, “Your sorrow is our sorrow.”

All these scenes of political do-good are almost reminiscent of the American political routine of kissing babies and hugging grandmas. What is going on in China?

The change in approach is likely due to fears of instability. The Tibetan crisis is well known and has been followed up by widespread calls for reform. The earthquake could make things even worse. Chinese officials will probably do all they can to keep the Sichuan earthquake from turning into a Chinese version of Hurricane Katrina. In many ways, Bush’s approval ratings still haven’t recovered from the dip they took when an outraged public felt his administration cared little for the plight of victims.

The Chinese government, unlike the Bush administration, has a few things going for them not available to their American counterparts. First of all, they control the media. China has learned from past disasters such as the Tangshan earthquake and the SARS outbreak that stifling communication gets people killed and worse - makes for bad press. In both those scenarios, the government held back information to avoid looking weak. After the quake last week, TV stations have been giving round-the-clock coverage of the recovery efforts. Hurricane Katrina also had coverage, only it showed desperate victims screaming for help from their rooftops. President Bush was powerless to temper those powerful images with ones portraying him in a more sympathetic light.

In stark contrast, Grandpa Wen has used the media coverage of the disaster to boost his image, and his efforts have been handsomely rewarded. A wave of nationalism has hit China by storm. On May 19, demonstrators filled Tiananmen Square, chanting pro-China mantras. This kind of demonstration in a place that has come to symbolize oppression is the icing on the cake of reform sliced up by China’s prime minister. Whether or not the new media-savvy government can make it’s apparant reforms a reality, is yet to be seen. For now, at least people feel safer on Granpa Wen’s watch.

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