page_title: Wen Jiabao
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Wen Jiabao / Second-term Premiership / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: English: Wen Jiabao at WEF Annual Meeting in Davos 2009
context_page_description: Wen Jiabao is a retired Chinese politician who served as the sixth Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and serving as China's head of government for a decade between 2003 and 2013. In his capacity as Premier, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind Beijing's economic policy. From 2002 to 2012, he held membership in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the country's de facto top power organ, where he was ranked third out of nine members and headed by Party general secretary Hu Jintao.
  He worked as the chief of the Party General Office between 1986 and 1993, and accompanied Party general secretary Zhao Ziyang to Tiananmen Square during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In 1998, he was promoted to the post of Vice Premier under Premier Zhu Rongji, his mentor, and oversaw the broad portfolios of agriculture and finance.
  Wen was dubbed "the people's premier" by both domestic and foreign media. Instead of concentrating on GDP growth in large cities and rich coastal areas, Wen advocated for advancing policies considered more favourable towards farmers and migrant workers.
context_section_description: Wen Jiabao played a prominent role advancing China's foreign policy positions, and became increasingly visible on the world stage as China's economic power expanded. He went on an official working visit to North Korea on 4 October 2009, the first time a Chinese Premier has visited North Korea since Li Peng's visit in 1991. He was greeted at the Pyongyang Airport by ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Kim rarely greeted foreign dignitaries himself upon their arrival at the airport. Reuters believed this to be a show of solidarity from North Korea and that the country was serious in fostering a good relationship with China. Wen also met with European Union leaders at a China-EU conference in late November 2009, where he refused calls for China to revalue its Yuan and re-examine its foreign exchange regime. Wen remarked in Nanjing that "some countries are on the one hand pressuring China to appreciate its currency while on the other hand they are practising trade protectionism against China in many different forms."
  In December, in what was seen as a mild rebuke of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the latter's working visit to China, Wen stated, "This is your first trip to China and this is the first meeting between the Chinese Premier and the Canadian Prime Minister in almost five years. Five years is too long a time for China Canada relations." However, the interpretation that Wen rebuked Harper was later disputed in select newspaper editorials. Wen also travelled to the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, where he met with U.S. President Barack Obama twice to secure an 11th-hour non-binding agreement on emissions cuts.
caption: Wen at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos.
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