Wen did not delve much into the issue of China’s history of alleged human rights violations in yesterday’s speech.

“I am not suggesting that China’s human rights situation is impeccable,” he said. “The Chinese government has been making efforts to improve practices and correct efforts in this field.”

Some at Harvard have taken a particular interest in this issue recently, as a Harvard alum has been detained in China for more than a year-and-a-half.

Yang Jianli, a former Kennedy School graduate student and pro-democracy activist, was arrested for entering China using false documents in April 2002. He was tried this past August but has not been sentenced.

Yang’s wife, Harvard Medical School researcher Christina Fu, wrote to Harvard-based supporters urging them to sign a letter to Wen asking for her husband’s release.

Fu faxed a request to the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Monday for a meeting with Wen himself, according to The Boston Globe. But as of Tuesday night, she hadn’t received a response.

Fu was unavailable for comment this week.

University President Lawrence H. Summers has raised Yang’s case to Chinese and American officials and has written a letter concerning the matter to the Chinese ambassador to the United States.

A University spokesperson said yesterday he was not aware of the details of Summers’ discussions with Wen.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

Wen’s visit to Harvard was met with much fanfare by the University.

The red and yellow Chinese flag flapped beside its American counterpart in the breeze outside University Hall yesterday, as fan boats glided down the frozen Charles River.

The event, arranged by the Office of the President in conjunction with the Asia Center and the Fairbank Center, comes six years after the last major Chinese official spoke at Harvard.

In November 1997, 1,000 people requested tickets to attend a speech by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Nearly 4,000 supporters and protesters rallied outside the event, including members of the Tibetan Association of Boston and The Coalition for Freedom and Human Rights in Asia who protested China’s policies and criticized its then-president.