|
China's Hu steps abroad with power at home in view
2002-05-05
BEIJING - Hu Jintao, the man tipped to become China's next leader, is a deft politician who has kept experts and colleagues guessing about his personality and ideology since he was anointed heir apparent 10 years ago. As a sweeping leadership change looms, Hu has taken a series of carefully choreographed steps into the limelight to boost his status at home and abroad -- the latest and most significant being a trip to the United States that ended on Saturday. But while he has demonstrated obvious talents as a politician -- and a firm grasp of the Communist Party line -- Hu has given few clues as to how he will govern the world's most populous nation when he takes over its top jobs. Now vice president, Hu, 59, is the favourite to succeed Jiang Zemin as Communist Party boss at a five-yearly congress in September or October and as president at a parliament meeting in 2003. Yet nothing is set in stone in the opaque world of succession politics and Chinese history is littered with heirs apparent who never made it. To avoid a similar fate, Hu must establish his leadership credentials without upstaging Jiang or alienating China's increasingly diverse interest groups. "The last thing anybody wants to do usually in the three or four months before a party congress is to undertake anything that could be considered as new, bold, or contentious," Tony Saich, a China specialist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said. "Normally people just like to keep their heads down until everything is finalised." CARDS CLOSE TO CHEST Hu rejects the media's portrayal of him as a mystery man. "That description is not fair to me," he said in a rare off-the-cuff remark to reporters in Malaysia last month. But he left it at that. China watchers say they still know precious little about him except that he likes dancing and table tennis and is said to have a photographic memory. Hu offered no further insights in meetings with U.S. officials last week. "It was a very scripted meeting in that, as vice president, he did not come to the United States to make new policy or to break the mould," said one participant in Hu's meeting with U.S President George W. Bush in Washington last week. "He came here representing the Chinese government, and very faithfully spoke the Chinese government positions." Whether those positions reflect his own views is a moot point. Some call him a political hardliner, pointing to his role in suppressing pro-independence protests in Tibet as party chief there in 1988-89 and his speech backing anti-U.S. protests after the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Others see him as a reformist, citing his leadership of the Communist Party School, a think-tank pioneering ideological reform which has been studying "new" socialist parties in Europe. But his political survival, despite rumoured differences with Jiang, is proof of his formidable skills as a networker and consensus builder. "Hu is in many ways far more capable than Jiang Zemin," said Cheng Li, professor of government at Hamilton College in New York. "There are obvious tensions between them." Most notably, Jiang has his own favourite, Zeng Qinghong, who heads the party's powerful Organisation Department. And Jiang is widely believed to harbour ambitions to cling to power from "behind the curtain" -- most likely as head of the Central Military Commission -- after his retirement. LEADER OF A NEW GENERATION Hu was effectively anointed Jiang's successor when he was promoted to the all powerful, seven-man Politburo Standing Committee by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in 1992. Prior to that he headed the party in dirt-poor Guizhou and then in Tibet. The promotion was potentially a poisoned chalice. China has had a string of anointed heirs who never made it. Hua Guofeng, named successor by Mao Zedong, was toppled by Deng in the late 1970s. Deng's first handpicked successor, Hu Yaobang, was ousted by party hardliners in 1987 and his second choice, Zhao Ziyang, was purged for sympathising with student-led demonstrations for democracy in Beijing in 1989 that were crushed by the army. Not least because of his low profile, Hu has avoided falling victim to such factional infighting, so far. Now ranked fifth in the Communist Party hierarchy, he is the youngest member of the Politburo Standing Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. FOURTH GENERATION FIGUREHEAD He has become the figurehead of the "fourth generation" of leaders after Mao Zedong, Deng and Jiang. "Hu's rapid elevation through the Party's echelons is a reflection of the Party's long endeavour to cultivate and promote young cadres," said his official biography on the Web site of the People's Daily, the Communist Party newspaper. "Long years of work in remote and poor areas inhabited by ethnic minorities have tempered Hu's character as well as made him a staunch supporter of the policies of reform and door opening," it said. One of Hu's weaknesses, however, is his lack of experience on the international stage. His diplomatic debut in the West came only last year, when he visited Europe. And then in February he had a brief meeting with Bush in Beijing. So his tour of the United States, taking in Honolulu, New York, Washington and San Francisco, was a crucial chance for him to burnish his political credentials. "As when Deng and Jiang visited the U.S., this trip really consolidates Hu's position at home," said a Western diplomat. "But with a few months until the congress, it does not make him unassailable." Reuters... ... | Note: this page has been archived under Muzi Premium Version and is only available to premium members. Please use the Premium Personal Password (PPP) to log in.
Premium Member Click Here Login 
|
|
