Wen Jiabao: Populist trapped in a rigid political system

Premier Wen Jiabao is the new poster boy of Chinese politics. The least wooden of the otherwise universally poker-faced top communist leaders, the poetry-loving, baseball-tossing premier has successfully projected a populist public persona that has won him fans on the mainland and abroad.

Compared to his mysterious boss, Hu Jintao , anecdotes about this so-called 'man of the people' are legion. Mainland journalists are fond of telling tales of him breaking off from inspection tours meticulously planned by local cadres to chat with random villagers. And an old green coat, that has reportedly accompanied him for over a decade, would be a worthy exhibit at any museum to communism as testimony to his grass-roots credentials.

As he trots up and down the country to remote backwaters, it is said he has inspected about 2,500 counties - a total that would take nearly seven years to reach at the rate of one county per day.

He's been televised hugging rural children, eating dumplings with coal miners and shaking hands with Aids patients. And he's believed to be the first senior leader to acknowledge the country's HIV/Aids problem and to call on the nation to treat those affected with 'care and love'.

'I'm sure Wen goes home crying every night,' veteran New Jersey-based China watcher Gordon Chang said. 'This guy's got a heart.'

The mild-mannered premier is, in fact, known to have a heavy heart.