China Will Maintain Its Right to Develop, Premier Says

In a lengthy interview with Xinhua News Service given on Sunday, December 27, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gave a rather detailed description of the work of the Government, following the outbreak of the economic crisis. He also gave a feisty defense of the Chinese position at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, giving a bit of a tweak to the Brits. While upbraiding the developed countries for not living up to their commitments to cut their emissions, Wen referred to an article he had read prior to going to Copenhagen, which described a mother in the south of China who was lighting her coal fire stove in order to keep herself and her family warm. "It seems that perhaps these types of conditions do not affect the children of England," Wen said. "We must squarely face certain facts: namely, that there are 1 billion, six hundred million people without electricity, and 2 billion, three hundred million people who have to use coal or firewood to heat their homes or prepare their food," he said. "China during these years is developing, but per capita use of electricity is only one-fourth to one-third that of the developed countries, per capita ownership of automobiles is also small compared to the developed countries. The population is large, the development in the country is uneven, and much of the land is poor for cultivation; these are the conditions we face," Wen said. "We will not follow the old road to industrialization as the developed countries did, developing our economy while sacrificing environment," he said. "But we will maintain our just rights to develop our country."

Wen was also adamant when asked about maintaining the value of the renminbi. "We will absolutely not agree to the various calls pressuring us to appreciate the yuan," he said. "They are, on the one hand, demanding the yuan's appreciation and, on the other, imposing a variety of trade protectionist measures, which, in essence, is to retard China's development."