China's Leadership Lineup

'Fifth generation' leaders come of age
If the recent past is any indication, the 17th National Congress of
the Chinese Communist Party will see plenty of new faces on the main
party organs. Among them will undoubtedly be the person who will
succeed Hu Jintao. That is for the future, however. For the present,
the congress will strengthen Hu's hold over the party. - Cheng Li (Mar
28, '07)


Very interesting 3 page article. Do read it. My highlight below is to
emphasize that to be the top honcho of China one must have gone
through a long grooming process and prove oneself in high office
first. There will not be any IQ challenged cowboys like dubya.

Abstract: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IC28Ad01.html
Hu's successor designated?
Rightly or wrongly, a great deal of public attention will be given to
the issue of Hu Jintao's successor. This is understandable because Hu
served on the Politburo Standing Committee for 10 years before taking
the post of general secretary in 2002.

Hu's previous 10-year-long membership on the Standing Committee not
only allowed him to gain leadership experience in the country's
highest political institution, but also placed him as the first among
equals in the fourth generation in line to succeed president Jiang
Zemin. Based on this political precedent, it seems necessary for the
Chinese political establishment to identify Hu's successor during this
upcoming congress. With an adequate "reserve" period near the center
of power, this heir apparent will be able to take over the top
leadership when Hu completes his second term at the 18th Party
Congress in 2012.

Largely because of the current Chinese obsession with age in elite
recruitment, the heir apparent is unlikely to be chosen from the pool
of current members of the Politburo. The youngest member of the
current Standing Committee, Li Changchun, is only two years younger
than Hu Jintao, and the youngest current Politburo member, Liu
Yunshan, is only five years younger than Hu. The CCP's norm of
promoting leaders in batches, within somewhat narrow age brackets,
suggests that Hu's designated successor will most likely be a new face
in the 2007 Politburo.

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