State-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying on the aircraft to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, that the government had called on "officials at all levels to be at the frontline of fighting the earthquake and lead the people in their rescue work".
The country's health minister and Beijing's mayor were sacked after widespread condemnation that local authorities had not been frank in chronicling the spread of the highly infectious disease.
And in March, China's crackdown and foreign media blackout on Tibet after anti-government riots in the capital of Lhasa led to sharp international criticism of Beijing's human rights record and its rule over Tibet.
Wenchuan, the county where the epicentre of the quake is located, sits near the provincial border with Tibet.
No politics
Anbin Shi, a professor of media and cultural studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that China's government was more responsive and open to the quake than to the recent riots in Tibet because there were no political overtones to the crisis.
He said China's state-run media reported on the quake 10 minutes after it occurred and the government held a press conference within an hour.
Guidelines issued in the lead up to the August Olympic Games demanding that local authorities provide accurate information about disasters, have helped, Shi said.
But he added that information found on the internet also put pressure on the government to respond.
"Following the increasing trend of Chinese netizens playing the role of journalists, the website tudou [potato] was showing pictures of the earthquake straight after it occurred," he said.