Word: hu
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...hard to say good-bye, and China's outgoing President Jiang Zemin seems determined not to. Despite hopes for a real transfer of power to new Communist Party leader Hu Jintao, officials say Jiang will remain as chairman of the Central Military Commission for several more years. Army general Xu Caiyou, whom Jiang just promoted, declared that his boss's continued leadership ensures "lasting political stability." Less charitable observers have portrayed it as a simple lust for power...
...That places Hu, a smart but bland technocrat, in the awkward position of having to consolidate his power through Machiavellian wiles. Every Chinese leader since Mao has signaled his own arrival by ousting his predecessor's followers. Deng Xiaoping cast out Mao's choice, Hua Guofeng, to become China's supreme leader in 1978. And Jiang himself declared his independence in 1995 by ordering the arrest on corruption charges of Deng's faithful Beijing Party chief, Chen Xitong. "The congress has resolved very little, and Hu will have to move against someone" in Jiang's camp to show his strength...
...Jiang's power play may claim another victim: political reform. Pro-democracy advocates had hoped that Hu, who during his rise through the ranks has dropped tantalizing hints that he might want more open political institutions on the mainland, would quietly allow electoral experimentation. That's unlikely if he is operating in Jiang's shadow. Provincial leaders close to Hu are the types most likely to move ahead with local elections in regions far from Beijing?especially if there were a supportive hand in the capital. But now, "if Hu tries to do anything new, it implies that Jiang...
...Will Hu remain among them? Certainly he didn't spend his career rising to the top of the world's most populous country just to parrot Jiang's slogans. Eventually, he'll want to introduce his own ideas. "I think he's got two years," says an editor at a Party-run newspaper. "If he doesn't have a platform by then, he's lost his chance." The best Hu can hope for is that Jiang will surrender his position atop the military in March and his power will ebb slowly over the next few years. But it doesn...
...China: Hu's in Charge...