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Hu Jintao, new General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
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BEIJING,
November 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hu Jintao Friday,
November 15, became the head of China's ruling Communist Party, but
President Jiang Zemin was set to keep a grip on power after packing
the new leadership with allies and retaining his role as armed forces
chief.
Up
to seven Jiang associates were named in the nine-member Politburo
Standing Committee, China's top ruling body, which 59-year-old Hu now
leads after the first smooth transition of power in half a century,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Jiang,
76, who stepped down as party head Thursday, November 14, and is due
to retire as state President next spring, hung on to the vital post as
head of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
The
stage is set for Jiang to wield enormous influence over Hu and the new
leadership, a role one expert likened to that of "the emperor's
father" which evoked comparisons with late leader Deng Xiaoping.
Deng
ruled
China
for more than a decade until 1990 by holding only the post of CMC
chairman, and continued as paramount leader until his death seven
years later without any formal title.
The
leadership was announced in the traditional way as Hu led out the
Politburo Standing Committee before the media at
Beijing
's Great Hall of the People for a quick, well-orchestrated unveiling.
"This
is a united, triumphant and highly progressive meeting, as well as a
meeting which carried on the past and opened a new chapter for the
future," said Hu, a cautious bureaucrat who has been groomed for
leadership over the past decade.
Many
of the new leaders have engineering backgrounds, giving them practical
experience on how a country works but perhaps less idea where it
should be heading, analysts said Friday.
The
two dozen people who will form China's political elite for at least
the next five years typically studied how to drill holes and build
bridges, and then went on to do it in practice for some decades.
"The
trouble with engineers is they don't know how to tackle social
problems," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, director of the Hong
Kong-based
French
Center
for Research on Contemporary China. "But if they have to do it,
they'll do it."
However,
analysts said that far from a new beginning,
China
was set for more of the same.
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Members
of the new all-powerful standing Committee of the elite
Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party |
"It
seems Jiang has been winning quite a few personnel battles," said
Joseph Cheng, a
China
watcher at City University of Hong Kong.
"This
shows Jiang Zemin is still
China
's real ruler," added Ho Pin, a U.S.-based
China
watcher.
"Number
one, he's chairman of the CMC. Number two, in the new Politburo
Standing Committee lineup, most of the people are Jiang's men,"
said Ho, who correctly predicted the nine new leaders.
"Jiang
has made himself into a boss' role... He's in essence
"Taishanghuang", the emperor's father," he said, using
an analogy from
China
's imperial past.
The
new party number two is Wu Bangguo, a member of the so-called "
Shanghai
clique" led by Jiang, a former mayor and party boss of the
eastern metropolis.
Another
key Jiang protege is Zeng Qinghong, considered Jiang's closest ally
and hatchet man, who got rid of political rivals when Jiang first came
into power in 1989.
Jia
Qinglin, ranked number four, is a former
Beijing
party boss and Jiang crony whose reputation was badly tainted by a
vast smuggling scandal in
Fujian
when he led the eastern province.
Both
Zeng and Jia are considered unpopular, and the fact that Jiang was
able to get both into the Standing Committee counts as a significant
political victory.
The
other clear allies are former
Shanghai
party Huang Ju and Li Changchun, the party boss of south
China
's booming
Guangdong
province.
Two
more are also considered close to Jiang.
Wu
Guanzheng - the newly-appointed head of the party's powerful internal
discipline section - and Luo Gan, best known for his brutal anti-crime
work.
The
announcement of the new leaders was made one day after the men who
have ruled
China
since the 1989 crackdown on
Tiananmen Square
pro-democracy protests retired en masse.
"Leadership
realizes transition," the state-run China Daily said on
its Friday front page, using a triumphant red ink employed only in
rare situations.
President
Jiang, Premier Zhu Rongji, parliamentary chairman Li Peng and three
other ranking leaders were retiring, the party said at the end of its
16th Congress on Thursday, November 14.
They
will all continue to hold their government positions for another few
months, but are expected to step down from those posts as well when
the national parliament meets next March.
When
Jiang relinquishes the presidency next spring, that post is also
expected to go to Hu.
Although
heavily stage-managed, it is the first leadership change since the
Communist Party took power in 1949 not to feature a death or an
internal coup.
However,
it barely counts as a generational change: while the last Politburo
Standing Committee had an average age of just over 65 when it was
appointed in 1997, the current crop reduces the figure to only 62.
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