FOUR YEARS ON, the hopes invested in Premier Zhu Rongji have soured, especially in the countryside.
Mr Zhu looked tired and defeated while he read out his government work report which put the welfare of China's rural poor at the top of the agenda. This time delegates at the National People's Congress only responded with polite clapping.
He had launched himself into an ambitious reform programme in 1998 with a blast of rhetoric. 'Whether there are landmines or an abyss in front of me, I will press on courageously with no hesitation or misgivings. I will do all my best and contribute and devote myself to the people and the country until my last breath,' he had said to wild applause.
In rural China, the disappointment seems particularly acute. As this reporter went to a press conference this week on the new agriculture policies, a petitioner from Heilongjiang, a peasant woman who claims she lost her dairy farm to corrupt local officials, telephoned.
She was in Beijing trying to deliver her appeal directly to the National People's Congress when she was detained. Scuffles and threats from police could be heard in the background as she talked. Before the line went dead, she shouted: 'If I disappear, you will be able to tell the world what happened.'
Peasants remain powerless against local bureaucrats. Mr Zhu had promised to slash state intervention in agriculture and halve the size of the costly bureaucracy.