China's favourite uncle Wen reprises disaster role

BEIJING, May 14 -- Seen repeatedly on state TV cradling infants and offering hope to earthquake victims, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is reprising his role as the kinder, friendlier face of a communist leadership often viewed as aloof and distant.

Within hours of China's southwest being devastated by the worst quake disaster to strike the nation in a generation, Wen, 65, the smiling life-long party bureaucrat, was on his way to the worst hit areas.

Once on the ground, Wen showed how he can empathise with China's least fortunate citizens in a series of intimate meetings with victims in which he promised that the central government would never let them down.

"We will try our best to send milk powder to parents and ensure children do not go hungry," he told survivors on Tuesday in Dujiangyan, a town with a population of 60,000 people about 50 kilometres (32 miles) from the quake's epicentre.

"It is raining and fairly cold. You are having a hard time, but please hold on. Things will be better after a while and you will be back home soon."

State-run China Central Television cameras have never been far away as Wen clutches the outstretched hands of weeping survivors and consoled tearful mothers waiting for news of their missing children.

On Wednesday, he spent the morning meeting residents of Beichuan county where 5,000 people are believed to have been killed, then flew by helicopter in the afternoon to the epicentre of the quake where whole towns were flattened.

The job is nothing new for Wen.

Since he spent his first Lunar New Year as premier down a coal mine talking to miners in 2003, Wen has often played the part of China's favourite uncle, with a ready smile that is nevertheless etched with deep lines of concern.

"It is very much his character, what he is like, and it is a role he plays well," said David Zweig, social sciences professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"He was very quick off the mark this time... and he seems to be doing a pretty good job."

Ordinary people still look up to the central government, while bitterly angry at some local officials who are often seen as corrupt abusers of power.

"The people think that if only the central government was closer to them and knew of their problems they would get help," said Zweig.

"Wen reinforces this image that the central government is good and really cares. That is an important function. It is certainly important for stability."

The mild-mannered Wen is tailor-made for the role.

Since he came to power in 2003, he has visited AIDS patients and offered a hand of friendship to destitute farmers whose crops were lost to drought or flooding.

He also fronted China's disaster relief effort during massive winter storms in January and February this year

Born in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing, Wen has been a life-long party bureaucrat after graduating from university as a geologist.

(Agencies/AFP)