Chinese leaders have made their fair share of mistakes — the Great Leap Forward, which led to famine that killed 28 million people being just one example — but apologies are rarely forthcoming. Times are changing, however, and Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister, has caused a sensation with an unprecedented letter of apology by a Communist leader.

His blunder? He apparently got his rocks mixed up, using the term “volcanic” when he should have said “metamorphic” while addressing some schoolchildren — and as a graduate of the Beijing Institute of Geology, he really should have known better.

A copy of his note of apology to the editorial board of the state-run Xinhua news agency — in his handwriting — was published on the front page of the People’s Daily, the party mouthpiece. It read: “In my article ‘Teachers Are the Pillars of Our Education’, which was published by your agency yesterday, the categories of petrology ought to be “sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic”. I wish to make this correction and to express my apologies to readers.”

Mr Wen was originally quoted as saying “sedimentary, igneous and volcanic rock”.

His apology has been praised by state-run media as yet another sign of his modesty. During the more than six years since he was appointed, Mr Wen has earned a reputation as a man of the people; a grandfatherly figure who comforted victims of last year’s earthquake.

One internet comment read: “Our Premier’s serious attitude towards science set an example for scholars; his sense of responsibility set an example for officials; his sincerity set an example for all of us.”

However, the tale may be a little more complicated, and one media source said that Mr Wen may not have been at fault at all when he spoke at the school. The blame could lie with the reporter who covered the speech and apparently omitted the words “for example” at the start of the offending sentence.

The fate of the hapless reporter is unknown.

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