Wen Jiabao has been a vocal proponent of political reform during his nine years as premier, but his reputation rests more on his capacity for empathy -- a rare quality among China's leaders.

On Wednesday, as he delivered his final press conference as the head of China's government, Wen made his strongest call yet for change, warning of a repeat of the Cultural Revolution's deadly chaos if reforms were not implemented.

Once close to disgraced former party heads Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, both reformists, Wen's nomination in 2002 to the Communist Party standing committee, its highest organ of power, raised hopes of change in the one-party system.

But those hopes have not been fulfilled, and critics have accused Wen of paying lip service to the notion of reform and democracy.

China expert Willy Lam said the premier, who turns 70 in September, displayed an "air of resignation" at the press conference, with little time remaining to implement the reforms he has repeatedly called for.

"His statement about political reform is actually an emphasis on his legacy... as the only politburo standing committee member who is still calling for political reform," said Lam, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"As the prime minister, he has limited power as a lot of the major decisions concerning the economy and so forth are made by the party leaders. He wants to reiterate the importance of separation of power and government."

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a politics professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, compared the Chinese premier to "a general whom the army does not really obey".

Wen may be the head of the government, but China's Communist Party holds the real power, he said.

Wen enters his final year in office amid slowing economic growth and rising social tensions, and his lasting legacy is likely to rest on his man-of-the-people image rather than reforms.

Few Chinese leaders have ever shown Wen's almost Clintonesque capacity for empathy and he appears to have a genuine following not just among lawmakers, but in the population at large.

Since he came to power in 2003, he has visited AIDS patients, commiserated with miners after fatal accidents and held hands with poor farmers whose crops were destroyed by unseasonal weather, earning the nickname "Grandpa Wen".

During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that swept the world in 2003, Wen met medical staff and patients in hospital -- a move that shocked many in China, where infectious diseases are feared like the plague.

He has generally projected an image of a down-to-earth politician deeply in touch with the needs of China's poorest.

It is an image that has been widely welcomed by ordinary Chinese, although some have accused him of putting on an act.

In 2010, author Yu Jie questioned Wen's reformist and humanist qualities in his book "China's best actor: Wen Jiabao".

Born in Tianjin city, Wen graduated from university as a geologist and spent much of his early career in remote Gansu province.

In 1984, under former party boss Hu Yaobang, Wen was elevated to head the Communist Party's general office, which looks after day-to-day affairs, and survived the purges of both Hu and his successor Zhao Ziyang.

Before becoming prime minister, Wen was perhaps best known for appearing with Zhao as he addressed protesting students on Tiananmen Square in 1989, just before Zhao was sacked for opposing the crackdown on the democracy protests.

Wen survived his relationship with the ousted Zhao and was named a vice premier under then prime minister Zhu Rongji in 1993 and placed in charge of agriculture and state-owned enterprises.

He advanced to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2002 and the premiership in 2003.