February 17, 2009
Wen Jiabao is one of the few genuinely beloved faces in a government that is so often criticized by its own citizens for being corrupt. The premier’s enviable popularity is not without basis: Today’s newspapers reported that Wen used his influence to save a child with leukemia.
The short report translated below appeared in today’s Wuhan Evening News, and it was also featured on top of Xinhua’s own website:
Yesterday afternoon at 2:49 pm, Premier Wen Jiabao had just finished his inspection work in Tianjin and was about to take the train back to Beijing. In the railway station waiting room, he met Li Rui, a two-year-old leukemia patient from Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. When the Premier learned that Li’s family could not afford treatment and had decided to take him back home, the he asked the staff members with him to arrange for the child to stay at a hospital in Beijing. By 5 o’clock that afternoon, little Li Rui had checked into Beijing Children’s Hospital. Li’s parents were given money donated by the staff of the State Council.
- Wuhan Evening News (Chinese): Wen Jiabao saved the leukemia kid in the railway station waiting room
- Xinhuanet: Wen Jiabao encounters child with leukemia in Tianjin train station and offers a helping hand