BEIJING, March 15: China’s parliament elected Communist Party chief Hu Jintao as state president on Saturday, putting the formal seal of approval on a historic transition to a younger generation of leaders.
However, Hu’s predecessor in both jobs, Jiang Zemin, remained a powerful figure holding sway over military and foreign affairs as he was re-elected chairman of the Central Military Commission, China’s top military post.
There was virtually no opposition among the nearly 3,000 legislators in the largely rubber-stamp National People’s Congress to Hu becoming president.
Just four delegates voted against him and three abstained.
There was more opposition to Jiang staying on in a position which is effectively military commander-in-chief — 98 voted against him and 122 abstained.
Delegates queued up in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People to cast their votes with classical Chinese music in the background while Jiang and Hu sat shoulder-to-shoulder at the centre of the stage.
In the first results of the voting from the legislature, Wu Bangguo — a Jiang ally — was picked as its new chairman, with 2,918 votes for, 20 against and 12 abstentions.
Jiang, 76, handed the party’s top post to Hu in November in China’s first orderly transition since the Communists took power in 1949.
Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, 60, is set to take over 74-year-old Premier Zhu Rongji’s post on Sunday.
But the new jobs also bring along the headaches of swelling unemployment, rural discontent and a widening gap between rich and poor.
Polishing their credentials as men of the people, Hu and Wen have used state media to champion the downtrodden in the run-up to the annual session of parliament. Although the 76-year-old has handed the reins of the state and the Communist Party to his successor, Hu Jintao, he retains immense clout as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
“Crucial to Jiang’s influence is the CMC seat,” said Andrew Nathan, US-based co-author of the book ‘China’s New Rulers’.
“The head of the CMC controls the country’s armed force and also the guard forces that protect the central leaders.”
Jiang Saturday relinquished the presidency to Hu, 16 years his junior, four months after he handed him the top post of secretary general of the Communist Party.
It has been hailed as the most sweeping political change in China for more than a decade, but analysts question how much power has really been transferred.
As head of the CMC Jiang will be a key player on foreign and security policy, areas that have had his special attention for years.
The CMC also wields decisive influence on the issue of Taiwan, the number one headache in China’s most crucial bilateral relationship, that with the United States. Even more importantly, reports have emerged about a new rule at the top rungs of power demanding that Jiang still be heard, and sometimes obeyed, on key national issues.
This determined bid to hold on to as much power as possible has not gone unchallenged, however.
While Jiang has been active in recent months, so have Hu and the next premier Wen Jiabao, who have gone on high-profile trips and spoken up for China’s disadvantaged.
“No one expected Hu Jintao or even Wen Jiabao to come out with their own agendas, their own policy directions, so quickly,” said David Zweig, a China watcher at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.—Reuters/AFP