".... More dramatically still, trains have been knocked out of service on the country's most important routes, leaving mind-boggling numbers of passengers, most of them migrant workers, without a way home for the annual Spring Festival, the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, the figure who excels at putting a human face on Chinese politics like none other these days, took the extraordinary step of flying to the southern city of Guangzhou to address a crowd of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who were desperate for seats on trains that weren't coming. And he did it in an extraordinary way, with a rare touch of humility.
First, Wen, the prime minister of the world's most populous nation, began by introducing himself: "Hello everyone," he said, "I'm Wen Jiabao." There was more to it, though, than just the modesty. Inadvertently or not, Wen's words spoke to the huge gap between China's rulers and its ruled, a gap that his personal style has often labored to overcome.
It was a quiet but powerful recognition of the fact that the millions of migrant workers who keep the country's economy churning are too busy, or too poor, too tired or too alienated, to have followed the news on television closely enough to recognize their country's second-highest official simply by seeing him before a crowd with a megaphone. Or was it that they never dreamed that someone like him would come to address them?
Wen was not finished surprising, though. Moments later, he voiced an apology for the difficulties the stormy weather has imposed on so many. He actually said, "I apologize. ...."
