China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, bowed out from public life yesterday after delivering his tenth and final annual “state of the union” address and announcing an economic growth target this year of 7.5 per cent.

中国总理温家宝昨日退出公共生活，此前他作了第10次、也是他的最后一次《政府工作报告》，宣布中国今年经济增长目标为7.5%。

Mr Wen warned that, in contrast to most of his time in office, this year’s growth target of 7.5 per cent was a “goal we will have to work hard to attain”. Unlike previous years, when growth exceeded the official figure by a wide margin, the economy expanded by just 7.8 per cent last year, its slowest annual pace in 13 years.

温家宝警告，与他在任期间的多数年份不同，今年要实现7.5%的经济增长目标“需要付出艰苦努力”。与往年经济增长远远超出官方预测的情形不同，去年中国经济仅扩张7.8%，这是13年来最低增速。

If the economy were to grow by exactly 7.5 per cent this year, it would be the worst performance since 1990. It would, however, also no longer be a problem for the man who likes to be called “Grandpa Wen”.

如果中国经济今年不多不少增长7.5%，那将是1990年以来最糟糕的表现。不过，这将不再是喜欢被称为“温爷爷”的温家宝的问题。

After the National People’s Congress wraps up on March 17, Mr Wen will disappear into the obscurity and secrecy that surrounds most retired Communist leaders.

全国人大年会在3月17日闭幕后，温家宝将像多数退休的共产党领导人那样，低调、隐秘地从公众视线中消失。

Mr Wen appeared emotional as he bowed three times to the assembled delegates and once to his colleagues on the stage behind him in the Great Hall of the People.

在北京的人民大会堂，温家宝看上去情绪激动，他向与会的人大代表鞠了三次躬，然后转身向主席台上的同事们鞠了一次躬。

“He’s a tragic figure who will be remembered for trying as best he could to preserve the seeds of political reform and liberalisation, at least on a rhetorical level,” said Willy Lam, a Chinese politics expert in Hong Kong. “He didn’t have the power to do much about it and he even failed to set an example of being an honest official; failed to stop his children and cronies from using their political connections to make a big killing in the market.”

“他是一个悲剧性的人物，他将作为一个尽己所能、保护政治改革和自由化种子（至少是在言论层面）的人留在世人的记忆中，”研究中国政治的香港专家林和立(Willy Lam)表示。“他没有权力在这些方面做很多实际的事，甚至未能树立一个诚实官员的榜样；他未能阻止他的孩子和亲信利用其政治人脉在市场上大捞一把。“

Mr Wen’s supporters are adamant the premier is a democrat at heart and that he is talking about free and fair elections for China when he says the “trend towards democracy cannot be held back by any force”. His critics, however, revile him as a cynic whose man-of-the-people persona is cover for the billions of dollars amassed by his wife and children.

温家宝的支持者们坚称，这位总理内心是一个民主人士，在他表示“这种民主的趋势是任何力量不可阻挡的”时，他实际上说的是中国应当有自由、公平的选举。不过，他的批评者对他相当鄙视，称他是一个口惠而实不至的人，他的亲民形象只是一个幌子，用来掩盖他的夫人和孩子聚敛巨额财富。

A detailed report on the Wen family’s shareholdings published in the New York Times late last year suggested the premier’s relatives had earned billions as a result of their proximity to power. The report undermined Mr Wen’s credibility in the closing stages of a decade-long tenure that many already regarded as ineffectual. “His achievements [as premier] are negligible when it comes to political or economic reform and his loud cries for democracy have no significance whatsoever,” said Mo Zhixu, a prominent Chinese columnist and former student activist during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising.

去年秋天，《纽约时报》(New York Times)发表有关温家宝家人持股情况的详尽报道，暗示总理的亲属利用自己近水楼台的地位大举敛财。这篇报道在温家宝10年任期接近尾声之际削弱了他的可信度。此前已有很多人认为，温家宝任内建树不多。“就政治或经济改革而言，他（作为总理）的成就微乎其微，而他大声发出的民主呼吁毫无份量，”中国知名专栏作者、1989年天安门广场抗议期间曾是学生活动家的莫之许表示。

As he gave his final address, Mr Wen seemed to have abandoned his former bold demands. “We should govern the country on the basis of the law and fully respect the authority of the Constitution and laws,” he said, implying that this was not current practice.

温家宝在最后一份《政府工作报告》中没有重提以往的大胆诉求。他说：“（我们应当）坚持依法治国，充分尊重宪法和法律的权威，”似乎暗示中国目前没有做到这一点。

To his detractors, this was more of the same from “China’s best actor”. Others suggested Mr Wen would be treated more kindly by history. “I think he really wanted to implement political reforms but he just was not able to overcome opposition within the system,” said He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University and advocate of judicial reform. “In the end lip service is still an important service.”

在他的批评者看来，这是“中国影帝”的又一场表演。其他人则提出，历史将对温家宝作出更为正面的评判。“我认为他真心想要推行政治改革，但他就是无法克服体制内部的反对，”北京大学(Peking University)法学教授、司法改革倡导者贺卫方表示。“即使是口惠，仍然也是很重要的。”