King of the silver screen

影帝 (yǐng dì): movie star

Wen Jiabao as “best actor.”

The label “movie star” is often applied to Wen Jiabao, China's premier. It is also in the Chinese title (中国影帝温家宝) of a book written about Premier Wen. (The English title is, China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao.) The author of the book, Yu Jie, has been threatened with a long prison sentence by the Domestic Security Department if he goes ahead with his plans to publish the book (see here (English) and here (Chinese)).

Because of his charisma and expressions of concern for the downtrodden, Wen Jiabao is by the far the most popular leader in China. However, critics have given him the nickname of “movie star” because they perceive his words and actions as being disingenuous and serving to conceal the repressive nature of the Party.