At a recent meeting, he said declining moral standards in Chinese society, as evidenced by a spate of food safety scandals, had to do with the absence of political reform.
Wen's lonely fight for political reform
By Ching Cheong, Senior Writer
Mr Wen pointed to tainted milk powder, the use of illegal additives and dyed steamed buns to show how low moral standards had plunged in China.
'A country cannot be truly great and respected by others unless it improves the quality of (its) people and moral standards,' he told a meeting of the Cabinet's new advisory team as well as members of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History.
'We must deepen political and economic reforms... to punish lawbreakers and immoral people,' he said.
It was the first time a senior leader had commented on moral degeneration in China.
The official Xinhua news agency, which censored his previous calls for political reform, published his speech in full three days later.
Mr Wen told the meeting that the solution lies in political reform to help weed out corruption, which he sees as the root of declining morality and integrity.
'As I said in the press conference (following the annual National People's Congress session last month), eradicating corruption requires systemic and structural reform, so as to allow people to criticise and supervise the government and to keep its power in check,' he said.
Political reform is needed - together with economic, cultural and legal reforms - to raise credibility and moral standards. However, reform in the political space is by far the most important.
Mr Wen urged the advisers to speak the truth, but conceded that to do so, 'there ought to be an environment for hearing the truth'.
In order to create such an environment, he called for greater tolerance. 'A country will not be great unless it is open and tolerant,' he stressed.
Knowing full well how difficult it can be to speak the truth, he said: 'Any country would need to have people who have the public's interest at heart and the courage to speak the truth regardless of the consequences to themselves.'
Mr Wen cited three food scandals as examples of moral degeneration, but these were only the more recent ones. There are many more examples, involving cereals, dairy products, vegetables, fruit, poultry and seafood.
Netizens documented more than 15 major food safety crises in the past two years, or one every two months.
Food safety scandals are only one aspect of declining credibility and moral standards.
According to a report released at the 2011 Sixth Summit on China's Quality and Credibility, economic losses resulting from a lack of credibility have amounted to 585.5 billion yuan (S$110.8 billion), or about 1.5 per cent of China's gross domestic product of 37 trillion yuan. About 200 billion yuan was due to fake products.
Fakery is found not only in the manufacture of food and goods. The Chinese saying - 'everything is fake except the swindler' - only underscores the gravity of the problem.
There are 'fakes' in academic circles as well.
Last year's Jan 12 issue of Nature magazine cited a government study as saying that a third of the 6,000 scientists at China's top six institutions had admitted to plagiarising or fabricating research data.
According to another study by the China Association for Science and Technology, more than half - 55 per cent - of 32,000 scientists said they knew of someone who had committed academic fraud.
Even celebrities have been outed for faking their academic credentials. The list includes former Microsoft China president Tang Jun and prominent TV network operator and anchor Yang Lan.
At the height of Mr Tang's fake doctorate scandal last year, a reference to Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping's doctorate from Tsinghua University was removed from his official webpage.
A People's Daily report in 2009 cited a survey on perceptions of credibility, which turned out some interesting, albeit embarrassing, findings.
Most people interviewed said they considered government officials and property developers to be the least credible - with the latter being labelled 'money-driven devils'. In contrast, they found farmers, religious leaders - and even sex workers - the most credible.
Scientific or not, the survey gives a glimpse into China's ethical status quo, wrote People's Daily journalist Li Hongmei. It marks a time for 'seeking short-term successes and quick profits and reflecting a social context contrary to reason', she added.
It is doubtful if Mr Wen can single-handedly reverse the decline. At the very least, however, it shows he's single-minded when it comes to political reform.
chingcheong@gmail.com
