Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged progress on sustainable economic growth,
currency reform and democracy on Tuesday but stressed change would be gradual
rather than radical.
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Premier Wen Jiabao meets visiting WTO
Director-General Pascal Lamy at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
yesterday. [China Daily]
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Wen also sought
to flex China's diplomatic muscle by urging Iran to heed international concerns
over its weapons programmes but said dialogue, not sanctions, was the proper
means of securing solutions to the Iran and North Korean nuclear crises.
Wen, in a wide-ranging interview with Reuters and a small group of foreign
media, stressed that resolving conflicts ranging from the economic to the
diplomatic in a harmonious manner was critical to the sustainable development of
the world's fourth-largest economy.
"We need peace, we need friends, and we need time," Wen said, closing a
one-hour interview in the Purple Radiance Hall inside the Zhongnanhai compound
ahead of a visit to Finland, Britain and Germany.
China's economy, which has grown 9 percent a year over the past three decades
and more than 10 percent in the past three years, faced unbalanced development
and environmental and energy constraints, but Wen was confident growth was far
from over.
"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 when asked if China could orchestrate a soft
landing.
NO SURPRISES
Wen, point man on economic policy and third ranked in the Communist Party
Politburo Standing Committee that rules China's 1.3 billion people, promised in
March there would be no surprises in currency policy and continued in that vein
on Tuesday.
"We will continue to deepen the reform on the renminbi exchange rate setting
mechanism," he said, using the formal name for China's yuan currency.
"This means that the floating of the renminbi exchange rate will be mainly
determined by market supply and demand, and the floating band will be gradually
expanded," Wen said. "So there will be no more 'surprise' adjustment to the
renminbi exchange rate."
The premier's talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel were expected to
focus on concerns over piracy in China of everything from Hollywood blockbusters
to designer bags. Here too, Wen said China needed time despite having set up a
legal framework to protect copyrights, patents and trademarks.
China could come under pressure to do more to rein in Iran and North Korea at
the meeting of Asian and European leaders in Helsinki at the start of his
week-long tour, which begins on Saturday.
Wen urged Tehran to be responsive to global diplomatic efforts to resolve its
nuclear crisis.
"We also hope Iran will heed the concerns of the international community and
take constructive steps," he said.
At home, Wen acknowledged illegal land grabs and forced resettlements --
often by corrupt local officials -- had sparked social unrest in many Chinese
communities.
"China is a large country with a vast population, weak economic foundation
and unbalanced development in different regions," Wen said.
"The conditions are not yet ripe for conducting direct election at a higher
level of government," he said, adding that he supported improvements to the
system and that current experiments could provide a base for further political
development.
"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."
