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2 SPEAKING
FREELY Let us
now praise Hu Jintao By
Michael Chang
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When the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) held its 14th National
Congress in 1992, among other things, it duly
elected the so-called third-generation leaders to
fill the then-seven-member
Standing Committee of the
Politburo, the real power center that rules China.
As suggested by Deng Xiaoping, the
paramount leader of China at the time, Hu Jintao
was elected into the Politburo Standing Committee.
At the age of 50, Hu became the youngest member
elevated to the Standing Committee, with the full
understanding that he would eventually succeed
Jiang Zemin when the latter retired.
Hu's
elevation to national prominence was greeted
throughout China with puzzlement. The question,
"Who is Hu Jintao?" instantly dominated
conversations inside and outside the government
apparatus, but few had answers.
For the
next 11 years, Hu served in different capacities,
each with increasing duties and responsibilities,
seemingly going through a tailor-made training
program for this future supreme leader. But he
largely remained a shadow behind Deng Xiaoping and
Jiang Zemin. Rarely were his pictures or
activities conspicuously displayed on Chinese news
media, let alone printed and reported outside
China. In the eyes of the Chinese people, Hu was a
non-entity.
Few people expected that Hu
would actually succeed Jiang, especially after
Deng passed away in early 1997. Since he was not a
member of the so-called "Shanghai clique" headed
by Jiang, it was thought that Hu would more likely
be eased out of the Politburo Standing Committee
after Deng's death, a typical political power play
in the communist-style regime to get rid of one's
potential challenger.
But not only did Hu
manage to crush plot after plot to derail his
political future, but also made steady progress
inside as well as outside of the Standing
Committee, lining up support, especially among the
party's elder statesmen, for his eventual takeover
when Jiang retired. In 2002, he smoothly succeeded
Jiang as the CCP's new general secretary in the
16th Party Congress, and subsequently was
dispatched to visit the White House, signaling to
the world that Jiang would completely retire soon
and Hu was ready to take over the helm.
A
catch phrase of "who is who (Hu)" was circulated
during his US visit, as the news media there tried
to size him up without a success. After his visit,
Hu remained a political enigma in the eyes of the
US public.
On March 15, 2003, Jiang passed
the state presidency to Hu without the slightest
opposition, though Jiang did not give up his last
but very powerful post as chairman of the CCP's
Central Military Commission (CMC) until September
2004.
If the entire world was frozen at
that particular date, Hu had already made history
in China: rarely in the long and treacherous
history of the country had a peaceful transfer of
power taken place without bloodshed. In addition,
the fact that Hu was able to thwart every plot
imaginable against him during his 11 years as
heir-in-the-waiting was a tremendous achievement
itself.
How Hu managed to persuade Jiang
and his Shanghai clique to hand over the powerful
posts of CCP general secretary in 2002, president
of People's Republic of China in 2003, and
chairman of the CMC in 2004 is a testimony to his
perseverance, determination, discipline,
shrewdness, and political agility.
When he
first took over the helm in 2003, the Chinese
people as well as the rest of the world had no
clue of the man, his political ideas, domestic
agenda, foreign policies, ruling style, and so on.
Up to that time he had left almost no trails to be
analyzed as a base to predict his future
directions. He is a man of few empty words,
preferring to let actions speak for him.
Between 2003 and the present, Hu has piled
up tens of thousands of impressive kilometers of
travel, more than any of his predecessors within
the same time period. Domestically, he visited
hundreds of remote villages, small towns,
construction sites, military bases and
installations, schools, local governments,
hospitals, and community centers.
He
mingled well with peasants, factory workers,
retirees and students. He has been called "elder
brother Hu" by millions of Chinese Internet users,
a nickname denoting a strong sense of camaraderie
and bonding; it is a genuine rarity in Chinese
politics that the nation's president can be
identified as a "brother".
Internationally, Hu has paid state visits
to several dozen countries, lavishly doling out
economic assistance without strings attached,
signing trade agreements based on mutual needs,
and offering technical assistance, especially in
infrastructure construction, without getting
involved in local politics. In some poor
countries, especially on the Africa continent, he
was hailed as a new descending "messiah".
Under Hu's administration, ably
complemented by Premier Wen Jiabao, the reputation
of China has soared to new heights. Never before
in the history of mankind has a nation been under
such tight scrutiny and attention by the rest of
the world community, targeted for international
intrigues and plots, mingled with jealousy,
propaganda, innuendo, and outright lies about the
Hu-Wen government, its policies, directions, and
accomplishments.
The US press in general
has been unfairly critical of Hu, often with
biased reporting and commentaries. Last year, the
Wall Street Journal ran an article describing Hu
as weak, indecisive, and a shallow head of state
at best. Yet the Hu-Wen government is riding high
in popularity, with a more than 80% approval rate
in China.
Under Hu's government, China's
foreign-currency reserve has exceeded the US$1
trillion mark, never achieved by any other nation
on Earth. Furthermore, last year, China hosted an
African summit and a Southeast Asian conference,
with more than 50 heads of state attending. Even
in its heyday, the US couldn't muster such an
awesome display of prestige. It makes one
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