Wen Jiabao

温家宝
People’s Republic of China state institutions Marxism–Leninism China China 1942–

Premier from 2003 to 2013 who abolished the agricultural tax and spoke for political reform

Born into a family of teachers in Tianjin in 1942, he joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1965 while studying at the Beijing Institute of Geology. After more than a decade with the Gansu Geological Bureau he became vice-minister of geology in 1983, and, promoted by Hu Yaobang, directed the party's General Office from 1986 to 1993. He accompanied Zhao Ziyang to Tiananmen Square during the 1989 protests yet survived the purge. In 1998 he became vice-premier under Zhu Rongji, overseeing agriculture and finance. As premier from 2003 he sought to shift priorities from coastal, export-driven growth towards easing the burdens of farmers and migrant workers, and abolished the agricultural tax. A leading reformist, he spoke for political reform, but a 2012 New York Times exposé of his family's wealth shadowed his legacy. He was succeeded by Li Keqiang in 2013.

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