Speaking to a select group of Western journalists at the headquarters of the Chinese Communist party in Beijing before leaving for Europe, an upbeat and cheerful Wen, 64, said the absence of democracy posed no obstacle to the advance of economic reform.
'We are in a position to ensure continued and fairly fast growth of China's economy for a considerable period of time to come, and we have full confidence in our ability to do so,' he said.
'China's economy has been growing at an average annual rate of over 9% during the past three decades. In the last three years, its annual growth rate has exceeded 10%. Many people are asking whether China can maintain sustained and long-term development. My answer is in the affirmative. The key is we have pursued the right domestic and foreign policy and we are well prepared to respond to new developments,' he said.
On China's currency, the renminbi, which many see as undervalued, he said: 'The floating band will be gradually expanded. So there will be no more `surprise' adjustments in renminbi exchange rate.'
Asked about China's commitment to Intellectual Property Rights, he said: 'Frankly, it is only in recent years that we have given priority to the protection of intellectual property rights as a matter of strategic policy. This has something to do with the level of development China has achieved, and China should be given some more time. But what I wish to stress is that no one should fail to see the Chinese government's commitment to protecting IPR and the steps it has taken. In short, China's IPR protection effort will carry the full force of steel, and it will definitely not be something that is soft as bean curd, so to speak.'
As for democracy, 'it is a value pursued by all mankind and a fruit of civilisation created by mankind. However, in different historical stages and different countries, democracy is achieved through different forms and in different ways,' he said.
'The power of a government comes from the people, and the government must hold itself accountable to the people and subject itself to people's supervision. There is no denying that many problems that have occurred in China have to do with the performance of the government and the system of selection of officials. For instance, the industrial accidents and environmental incidents which have occurred in some places in China were caused by human faults, particularly by dereliction of duty and corruption committed by officials. The poor handling of land requisition, housing demolition and enterprise restructuring in some localities hurt the interests of local people and undermined social stability,' he said.
'A major cause of these problems is that the relevant management systems and supervision mechanisms are not well developed. To resolve these problems, we are working to reform government administration and the system for selecting officials, improve institutional supervision and oversight and fight corruption. I am confident that as we make continued progress in institutional reform and the fight against corruption, these problems will eventually be curbed and resolved. An effective system will prevent bad people from running wild while a dysfunctional system will keep good people from performing good deeds and even make them commit wrongdoing. In this sense, the system is of fundamental importance. Therefore, when we are pressing ahead with economic reform, we should also advance political reform including official selection and the election system.'
'However, China is a large country with a vast population, weak economic foundation and unbalanced development in different regions. The conditions are not yet ripe for conducting direct election at higher level of government. Democracy and direct election in particular, should develop in an orderly way in keeping with the particular condition of a country,' he argued.
'We are confident that when the people are capable of running a village through direct election, they will later be able to run a township, then a county and a province, true to the principle that our country is run by the people.'
In conclusion, he said: 'China's development is a long-term and daunting task. To achieve development, we need peace, we need friends and we need time.'
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