Chinese president (2003 ). He trained as an engineer, and rose to prominence as head of the Chinese Communist Party's youth league, becoming party secretary in Guizhou (1984) and Xizang (Tibet) (1988), where he pursued a hardline policy, crushing anti-Chinese demonstrations at Lhasa in 1989. A member of the Politburo standing committee in 1992, he was appointed vice-president in 1998, and succeeded Jiang Zemin as president in 2003 and as head of the Central Military Commission (2004 ).
Hu Jintao胡锦涛
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| General Secretary of the Communist Party of China | |
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| Incumbent | |
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In office since 2002 |
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| Vice President(s) | Zeng Qinghong |
| Preceded by | Jiang Zemin |
| Succeeded by | incumbent |
| President of the People's Republic of China | |
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In office March 15, 2003 – present |
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| Preceded by | Jiang Zemin |
| Succeeded by | incumbent |
| Born |
December 21, 1942 Jiangyan, Jiangsu, China |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
| Spouse | Liu Yongqing |
Hu Jintao (Simplified Chinese: 胡锦涛; born December 21, 1942) is currently the Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China, holding the titles of President of the People's Republic of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2003, succeeding Jiang Zemin in the fourth generation leadership of the People's Republic of China. In 1964, while still a student at Beijing's Tsinghua University, Hu joined the Communist Party of China, just prior to the Cultural Revolution.
In 1965, Hu was transferred to Gansu and worked for a hydro-power station under Mao Zedong's policy of Youth Going To The Mountains and Rural Areas (上山下乡). Song appreciated Hu's talent, and with Song's assistance, Hu was promoted to deputy director of Gansu's Ministry of Construction in 1980. In 1981 Hu, along with Deng Xiaoping's daughter Deng Nan and Hu Yaobang's son Hu Deping, were trained in the Central Party School in Beijing. Hu Deping even invited Hu Jintao to his home and met with Hu Yaobang, who was a standing member of the politburo at that time. Hu Jintao's modesty created an impact on Hu Yaobang. With the support of Hu Yaobang and Deng Xiaoping, Hu was ensured of a bright future in the party. In 1982, Hu was transferred to Beijing and appointed as secretariat of the Communist Youth League Central Committee ("CY Central"). During his term in the Youth League, Hu escorted Hu Yaobang, who was General Secretary of CPC then, in visits around the country. Hu Yaobang himself was a veteran coming from the Youth League, could reminiscence his youth through Hu's company. The profound feeling between Hu Yaobang and Hu led to Hu's insistence of rehabilitation of Hu Yaobang in the years he came to prominence nationally.
In 1985, Hu was transferred to Guizhou as the Communist Party of China Guizhou Committee Secretary, which began his time as a provincial governor. In contrast to the members of the "Shanghai clique", Hu spent most of his career in China's poorer hinterland rather than in the economically prosperous coastal regions. In 1987 Hu Jintao handled the local students protest parallel to the Democracy Wall carefully, whereas in Beijing similar protests resulted in Hu Yaobang's forced resignation.
Hu was appointed Party Chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1988, during a time of political instability and rising demands from Tibet's people for its independence.
Candidacy
Before the opening of 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the leaders of the Communist Party of China, including Deng and Chen Yun, chose candidates for the Politburo Standing Committee to ensure the transition of power from the so-called second-generation leaders (Deng, Chen, Hu Yaobang etc.) to third-generation CPC leaders (Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Qiao Shi etc.) went smoothly. It became fairly apparent that Hu would eventually succeed Jiang as the core of fourth-generation CPC leaders. In 1993, Hu took charge of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, which oversaw day-to-day operations of the Central Committee, and the Central Party School, which was convenient for him to bring up his own supporters among senior CPC cadres. Although Hu was destined to succeed Jiang, he always took care to leave Jiang in the spotlight. In 1998 Hu became Vice-President of China, and Jiang wanted Hu to play a more active role in foreign affairs. Hu became China's leading voice during the US bombings of China's embassy in Belgrade in 1999.
President
Since taking over as Party General Secretary at the Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Hu and his premier, Wen Jiabao, proposed to set up a Harmonious Society which aims at lessening the inequality and changing the style of the "GDP first and Welfare Second" policies. Hu and Wen Jiabao have also attempted to move China away from a policy of favouring economic growth at all costs and toward a more balanced view of growth that includes factors in social inequality and environmental damage, including the use of the green gross domestic product in personnel decisions.
SARS crisis
The first crisis of Hu's leadership happened during the outbreak of SARS in 2003. Following strong criticism of China for initially covering up and responding slowly to the crisis, he dismissed several party and government officials, including the health minister, who supported Jiang, and the Mayor of Beijing, Meng Xuenong, widely perceived as Hu's protégé. Hu and Wen took steps to increase the transparency of China's reporting to international health organizations, indirectly dealing a blow to Jiang's stance on the issue.
Another test of Hu's leadership was Beijing's low key response to protests against the implementation of Article 23 of the Basic Law in Hong Kong in 2003. Many observers see the Central Government's handling of the situation as characteristic of Hu's quiet style, and unlike Tung Chee-Hwa, Hu remains a popular figure in Hong Kong.
Succession of Jiang Zemin
Although Jiang Zemin, then 76, stepped down from the powerful Politburo Standing Committee to make way for a younger fourth generation of leadership led by Hu, there was speculation that Jiang Zemin would retain significant power because Hu is not associated with Jiang's Shanghai clique, to which six out of the nine new members of the all-powerful Standing Committee are linked.
China has a history of fallen heirs-apparent, which many observers believe explains the caution with which outside observers have long associated Hu Jintao. Deng was able to appoint three party secretaries, and was instrumental in the ousting of two of them, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.
However, speculations around the political rivalry between Jiang and Hu largely subsided when Jiang resigned as Chairman of the Central Military Commission in September 2004, his last official post. Hu succeeded Jiang as the Chairman of CMC and thus gained effective control over the state, the party, as well as the army.
Economic inequality
One of the biggest challenges Hu faces is the big inequality between Chinese rich and poor, for which discontent and anger mounted to a degree which wreaked havoc on CPC's reign. It remains to be seen if Hu is capable of managing the continued peaceful development of China while avoiding international incidents, at the same time presiding over an unprecedented increase in Chinese nationalist sentiment.
Positions
Observers indicate that Hu distinguishes himself from his predecessor in both domestic and foreign policy.
Foreign policy
In 2004, Hu ordered all cadres from the five major power functions to stop going to the Beidaihe retreat for their annual summer meeting which, before, was commonly seen as a gathering of ruling elites from both current and elder cadres to decide China's destiny.
Media Control
At the same time, Hu has contradicted some initial expectations that he was a closet liberal. Furthermore, while Hu has attempted to make decision-making more transparent and to increase rule of law he has also explicitly stated that his goal is to strengthen and make the party more efficient rather than weaken the party or move toward a pluralistic political system. In December 2004, the Hong Kong magazine Open quoted an alleged instruction by Hu to propaganda officials in September in which he wrote that, when managing ideology, China had to learn from Cuba and North Korea.
Taiwan
While Hu Jintao has given some signs of being more flexible with regard to political relationships with Taiwan as in his May 17 Statement where he offered to address the issue of "international living space" for Taiwan, he appears unwilling to reconsider Chinese reunification as an ultimate goal.
Eight Do's and Don'ts
In the March of 2006, Hu Jintao released the Eight Do's and Don'ts as the moral codes to be followed by Chinese. It has been widely regarded as one of Hu Jintao's ideological solutions to the moral problems in modern China.
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