The IHT reports:
He is widely known as "the crying prime minister," although he prefers to be called "Grandpa Wen." Over the past week, as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao toured earthquake-shattered towns and cities across northern Sichuan Province, he has hollered out words of encouragement to those trapped beneath fallen buildings and shared tearful moments with newly orphaned children.
If a story widely circulated on the Internet is to be believed, Wen has been barking orders to army generals and dispatching paratroopers to remote towns hit hard in the quake, even though as China's head of government operations he has no power over the military.
Since ascending to the post in 2003, Wen, 65, has cultivated an image as a man of the people, a rarity in the pantheon of Chinese leaders who are often seen as placing stability and the authority of the Communist Party above the wants of individuals. The state news media have long labored to spread the notion that Wen cares for ordinary folks, broadcasting his visits with coal miners and migrant workers and showing him eagerly shaking the hands of drug addicts and people with AIDS.
To read more:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/21/asia/wen.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert
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