- BEIJING (Reuters) - China's
Hu Jintao took the helm of the world's most populous nation Friday to steer
its booming economy and maintain tight Communist Party control with predecessor
Jiang Zemin pulling strings from retirement.
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- Hu, 59, was formally appointed Communist Party chief
and head of the "fourth generation" of leaders -- following Chairman
Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang -- after months of secretive jockeying
for power among the retiring old guard.
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- The new lineup emerged from behind a carved wooden screen
in the Soviet-style Great Hall of the People in the final act of the first
succession in Communist China untainted by purges, plots or bloodshed.
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- The televised ceremony was the first many ordinary Chinese
learned of the most sweeping shakeup since Jiang took power in 1989 after
a bloody crackdown on student protests on Tiananmen Square.
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- The new Politburo Standing Committee, expanded from seven
to nine members, was stacked with six Jiang allies, guaranteeing him a
say in decision making as China grapples with rising unemployment and emerges
as a world power.
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- "The more people you have, the less power each individual
has," said one Chinese political scientist, who declined to be identified.
"And the more allies Jiang has, the more he can influence decision-making
after retirement.
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- Jiang also kept his post as head of the Central Military
Commission (CMC), which commands the world's biggest armed forces, as Deng
did for two years after leaving the Standing Committee in 1987.
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- NEW GUARD
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- Vice Premier Wu Bangguo, 61, emerged second and is expected
to take over the parliament in March next year, when the old guard leaders
step down from their government posts.
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- Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, backed by Premier Zhu Rongji,
was third in line and could take over the reins of Asia's fastest growing
economy next year.
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- Parliament chief Li Peng's protege, internal security
Czar Luo Gan, 67, was the last in the lineup.
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- The rest were all allies of Jiang, either through personal
friendship or as part of a "Shanghai Gang" of natives and former
officials from the country's financial center and surrounding provinces,
Chinese sources said.
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- Jiang's main protege and hatchet man, Zeng Qinghong,
63, took the number five slot and is expected to take over the day-to-day
running of the party.
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- Beijing's former party boss, Jia Qinglin, 62, a close
friend of Jiang, joined the Standing Committee despite being tainted by
a huge smuggling scandal that unfolded when he was party boss in the southeastern
province of Fujian.
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- He is expected to take a back seat role in the leadership
-- most likely as head of the toothless Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference, Chinese sources say.
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- Huang Ju, 64, who stepped down as Shanghai party chief
last month, took the number six slot. Wu Guanzheng, 64, party boss in the
eastern province of Shandong, was number seven and took over the party's
anti-corruption body.
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- Number eight was Li Changchun, 58, party boss of the
southern province of Guangdong.
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- POWER BEHIND THE CURTAIN
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- With so many of Jiang's allies in the new leadership,
Hu will have to defer to his predecessor for the next few years -- just
as Jiang ruled in the shadow of Deng until his death in 1997.
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- Jiang will also wield power as author of the "Three
Represents" political theory written into the party constitution Thursday,
putting him on a symbolic plane with Mao and Deng, whose theories are also
enshrined in the charter.
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- Having the theory, which allows the party to recruit
private entrepreneurs, in the constitution boosts Jiang's power in retirement,
requiring him to be consulted on any further reforms.
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