A useless question

It has become a tradition that China's premier meets the Chinese and foreign press following the closing session of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress. The questions reporters are allowed to ask are vetted beforehand, perhaps with a few exceptions when a final question is granted at the end of the press conference and a reporter is chosen who may reasonably be expected not to pose a question which might turn out controversial.

The first part of the question posed by Bruno Philip of Le Monde was certainly pre-arranged, seeking clarification of an article premier Wen had written for the People's Daily about the long period the initial stage of socialism would last. That, however, was only the intro for the ambush he had prepared to be aired on live TV. A book has been published in Hong Kong, entitled “Zhao Ziyang: Captive Conversations”, written by the 87-year old Zong Fengming, who had more than a hundred casual conversations with Zhao between 1991 and 2004. (Asia Sentinel: What China Might Have Been)

The former premier and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party regretted that he hadn't pushed political reform more vigorously. What did premier Wen had to say about this, Bruno Philip inquired.

Well, of course nothing at all. This kind of ambush-questioning never works. It may achieve either of two things: get the person to whom the question is directed to lose his or her temper and thereby lose face. This is very unlikely to happen to premier Wen. Or, cause embarrassment all around, which is not going to get your question answered. And so it happened: “your question about the book has no relation whatsoever with my article in the People's Daily and I haven't read the book”, was Wen's short reply.

The only thing Bruno Philip achieved, was to utter the name of Zhao Ziyang in the Great Hall of the People during a live broadcast and to have all references to his question and Wen's answer purged from transcripts of the press conference. His ambush-question was utterly futile and ensures that it will be a long time before he will be allowed to ask another question on live TV, if ever... The bottom line is: be sensible and don't play stupid games...