A laid-off worker set himself on fire in Tiananmen Square yesterday, and President Hu Jintao (
In Beijing, hundreds of thousands of people converged on the square, China's political epicenter, to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the People's Republic. They included former president Jiang Zemin (
It was unclear what motivated 49-year-old Yang Peiquan to set himself on fire in the morning, but the act highlighted the socio-economic disparities that have ballooned with China's economic boom and which the government has vowed to tackle.
Premier Wen Jiabao (
Hu, meanwhile, urged "efforts to expand citizens' orderly participation in political affairs and guarantee the people's rights to carry out democratic election, decision making, management and supervision according to law," the official Xinhua news agency said.
Both Hu and Wen have cultivated "men of the people" images since taking up the reins of power over the past year.
A witness saw Jiang, Hu's predecessor as Communist Party chief and state president, emerge from a limousine in the north of the square, near the Tiananmen gate where a huge portrait of Mao Zedong (
Jiang's last known public appearance there was in July 2001 after China won its bid to host the 2008 summer Olympics.
Although his exit from the main stage capped China's first peaceful political transition, Jiang retains power as chairman of the Central Military Commission, the head of the armed forces.
The week-long holiday is the first so-called "Golden Week" extended break since the government cut the International Labor Day vacation in May because of SARS. It hopes tourist revenues and consumer spending will give a boost to the economy.
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