Profile: The Heir Apparent

Abstract

If the consensus of the 15th Party Congress of 1997 is upheld, in October 2002 Jiang Zemin will retire from his position at the helm of the Party and from some of his government positions. The heir apparent, Hu Jintao, will then be in place to initiate another era in Chinese politics. The consensus on the forthcoming succession in Party leadership that was first spelled out back in 1997 stipulated that, in principle, all four of the present members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo who are above the age of 70 (Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and Wei Jianxing) should step down from the Standing Committee this year. Among the three members who are to remain, Hu Jintao, who is now 59, was informally designated the likely successor as Party secretary. The other two who are expected to retain their seats on the Standing Committee, Li Ruihuan and Li Lanqing, are today 68 and 70, and if the Party continues to abide by the over-70 retirement rule, their reappointments in October will be for their last term.'