Hu Jintao Becomes China’s New President in No-Surprises Generational Transition
BEIJING March 15 – After years of preparation and months of maneuvering, China finally made Hu Jintao its president on Saturday, handing power to a new generation of leaders expected to continue liberal economic policies while maintaining tight Communist Party political control.
Jiang Zemin, 76, stepped into the political twilight with a grin to his successor and wide expectations that he would still wield significant influence over a government coping with a growing role in international affairs and increasing turmoil over economic reforms at home.
Hu, 60, anointed long ago by the late Deng Xiaoping, now controls both party and government, the two most prominent posts in China. His election by the rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, marks the crescendo of the first orderly power transfer in communist China’s 54-year history.
“These leaders will work hard to help improve lives for ordinary Chinese, especially farmers and people in state businesses,” said Yang Lanzhi, a delegate from Hunan, a province in China’s south-central interior.
Legislative delegates reappointed Jiang chairman of the government commission that leads China’s 2.5-million-member military. He already chairs an identical party commission, and there was no indication when he might give up those posts. Jiang had been party chief since 1989 and president since 1993.
Hu claimed the head-of-state title four months after succeeding Jiang as party chairman, the most powerful position in the land. He still faces challenges from rivals on the party’s decision-making Politburo Standing Committee, some of them Jiang proteges. It could be years before he consolidates control.
Delegates voted exactly as expected in a process that seemed more committed to spectacle than democracy. The vote for Hu was overwhelming: 2,937 to 4.
Starting with Jiang, delegates placed ballots in a computerized box that tabulated the results electronically, When the results were read, Hu rose, smiled, bowed to delegates and shook hands with a beaming Jiang.
Though the presidency has few official powers in China, Hu’s elevation to it and the prestige it brings on the world stage reinforces his status as the country’s new paramount leader. But no wholesale policy shifts appeared to be on the agenda, and the emphasis was on continuity.
“It doesn’t matter who holds the top leadership post,” said Zhang Tinghao, a delegate from the northern province of Shaanxi. “They will all wholeheartedly represent the people and work for their interest.”
China’s new leaders take charge of an increasingly restive society of 1.3 billion people that is struggling to cope with unemployment, rural poverty and other strains brought on by economic reforms and competition through entry into the World Trade Organization.
Despite those transformations, China’s communist political system remains a closed, secretive apparatus that harshly punishes any moves it sees as threatening its monopoly on power.
One longtime back-room operative, Zeng Qinghong, Jiang’s former closest aide and chief political strategist, was named vice president. Zeng ranks fifth on the party’s Standing Committee. The country’s second-ranking party man, Wu Bangguo, replaces Li Peng as head of the legislature.
One top-level position remains unresolved. On Sunday, a new premier will be selected to replace Zhu Rongji. Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, another top party official, is considered the odds-on candidate to run government operations and oversee the economy.
Hu, a hydrological engineer by training, spent the first decades of his career working in some of China’s poorest and most remote areas. He oversaw crackdowns on dissent as party chief of Tibet, then was picked in the early 1990s by then-supreme leader Deng as the top contender to succeed Jiang.
Hu spent the past decade handling increasingly demanding tasks meant to test him and prepare him for leadership. Most recently, he held top party management posts that handled promotions and other sensitive business.
Most Chinese came to know him only after he appeared on television to urge calm amid furious anti-U.S. protests in China following the NATO bombing the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Hu won accolades for the performance, in which he backed popular rejections of Washington’s insistence that it was a mistake.
Delegates and average Chinese alike expressed optimism Saturday that the new leaders could breathe new life into government and help alleviate economic apprehensions.
“I hope Hu Jintao will help make us more prosperous not just some of us, but the whole country and all of the people,” said Beijing construction worker Wang Zhibin, 45.
Hu received congratulations almost immediately from Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea, whose Stalinist dictatorship is one of China’s last fellow governments in the dwindling coterie of communist states.
“I would like to express the belief that the bilateral friendship that was forged in blood would grow stronger and develop thanks to the common efforts exerted by both sides and wholeheartedly wish you great success,” Kim said in a statement carried by his government’s Korean Central News Agency.
