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From hydropower engineer to top boss of Chinese communist party

Anil K Joseph in Beijing

Hu Jintao, a technocrat and politician, who on Friday assumed the most powerful job in Chinese politics as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, is credited with the view that India and China should handle their bilateral ties with a long-term perspective and avoid 'undesirable disturbances'.

Set to replace Jiang Zemin as president in March of the world's most populous nation and Asia's fastest growing economy, 59-year-old Hu was the only one of China's seven important leaders who returned to office at the Communist Party's 16th Congress in Beijing on Thursday.

"Under the current complex and changing international situation at the turn of the century, India and China should look closely and handle bilateral relations from the historical perspective and a long-term viewpoint," Hu, who has been China's vice-president since March 1998, had said on the bilateral ties.

"Sino-Indian relations have progressed along the normal development track over the past decade thanks to the joint efforts of the leaders of the two countries," he had said, regretting that the process of progress in bilateral relations suffered 'undesirable disturbances'.

Hu visited India in the mid-eighties when he was president of the All China Youth League, generally regarded as the reformist wing of the Communist Party.

Trained as a hydropower engineer from Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, Hu rose through the CYL and served as the first Communist Party chief in Tibet with a civilian background.

Hu played a key role in quelling the pro-independence demonstrations in Lhasa staged by the supporters of the exiled Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama, in March 1989.

His ability to protect the interests of the Chinese government and Communist Party in Tibet was said to be a key factor behind the surprise decision by late patriarch Deng Xiaoping to elevate him to the Politburo Standing Committee, China's most powerful political body, in 1992.

During his rapid rise to the top of the Communist Party, Hu has set records for being the youngest leader in nearly every post he has held.

People who have met Hu often describe him as 'bland, competent and enigmatic'. He is supposed to possess a photographic memory and speaks eloquently without notes.

They say that since Deng anointed Hu as Jiang's successor in 1992, he has tried to avoid controversy by keeping silent on any divergent views from that of his mentors.

Analysts say though Hu has been echoing Jiang's ideas till now, he has ideas of his own. He is unlikely, however, to display them publicly as long as he has not established his power base within the party and the powerful Chinese military.

A native of the eastern farming province of Anhui, Hu is married and believed to have at least one son and a daughter.

In 1982, at 39, Hu became the youngest member of the party's governing Central Committee before being sent to Guizhou, a depressed inland province, as party secretary.

His official biography plays down Tibet, noting that Hu was the only party chief there 'with a civilian background'.

It says he contributed to 'unity, stability and development' while serving in the post.

In 1992, Hu was elevated to the party's Politburo and, at about the same time, was tapped by Deng to succeed Jiang. He was made vice-president in 1998 and is also Jiang's deputy on the powerful commissions that control China's army.

While little is known about his personal tastes or habits, Hu has displayed key traits for success in Chinese politics: loyalty, discretion and conformity. A saying attributed to Hu in his biography says success in life 'requires resolve, attention to concrete matters and courage in making decisions'.

To introduce himself to the outside world, Hu toured Europe last year and visited the United States this year, meeting with President George W Bush. Hu introduced Bush at Tsinghua this year by saying China and the United States 'bear important responsibilities and have extensive common interests'.

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