Professor of Government Cheng Li was quoted in a Reuters article, "Hu Cautiously Emerges from Jiang's Shadow," about Hu Jintao, China's new communist party chief, as he moves to take over from out-going leader Jiang Zemin:
China's Communist Party chief, Hu Jintao, moved the wife of an Inner Mongolian herdsman to tears when he braved temperatures of minus 35 degrees Celsius to visit the couple's tent home last month.
In the days that followed, Mr Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, rubbed shoulders in Beijing with visiting dignitaries from France, Myanmar and Slovakia.
In the three months since Mr Hu took over as head of the party, the division of power between the two men has been made clear. Mr Hu, 60, may have taken over the top job, and is destined to assume the presidency in March, but Mr Jiang, 76, quietly grips the reins of power and calls the shots when it comes to top diplomacy....
... Mr Hu has begun to emerge from Mr Jiang's shadow.
He has moved to consolidate power through appointments of key allies to top party and government posts, championed the downtrodden, declared that no one is above the law and tried to push for more transparency in the party.
But Mr Hu has carefully avoided stepping on Mr Jiang's toes, mindful that his predecessor is still the power behind the throne, analysts say.
'[Mr] Hu has made smart moves. He has focused his attention on poverty and rural issues while continuing to show respect for [Mr] Jiang,' said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at Hamilton College in New York. ...
The first thing Mr Hu did after becoming party chief was pay tribute to Mr Jiang, pledging at the inaugural meeting of the new Politburo to "always bear in mind what comrade Jiang Zemin has entrusted us with."
