Monday was a slow day for the Communist Party official who might be in charge of constructing a cult of personality for Hu Jintao.
Presented to the nation on Friday as the new party boss, Hu was notably absent from the evening news Monday, while the front page of every newspaper featured the same story: A stirring, if also 10-day-old, speech by Jiang Zemin, the former party chief.
In China’s state-run media, there is no such thing as an accidental political snubbing, which means the obsession with Jiang and invisibility of Hu sent the same message: 76-year-old Jiang Zemin is still very much in charge despite his retirement as general secretary of the Communist Party.
The media play buttresses speculation that Jiang did not want to retire and intends to keep a grip on power into his dotage. At the very least, it suggests that Hu Jintao, 59, needs time to prove publicly that he is ready to take control of China.
Many China watchers seem more fascinated than worried about the lack of a clear-cut transition from Jiang to Hu. It is early, after all, in a process unprecedented in China: an orderly transfer of power.
Interpretive guideposts scarce
“We really don’t have very good guideposts for how to interpret political culture,” said Dali Yang, an associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago who is traveling in China.
Yang’s best guess is that a more “normal” system of government will unveil itself slowly, and unless a political crisis ensues, Jiang will surrender power at the end of a period in which he is given a deeply respectful Chinese-style sendoff.
“My sense is that because the transition is not complete, Hu and others have an interest in making sure Jiang feels quite good and is given his due both in terms of respect and praise,” Yang said.
The opposing view is that Jiang’s continued presence will disrupt Hu’s ability to build a power base, rendering him a weak transitional figure whose eventual fall could set off a destabilizing power struggle.
“The last time led to Tiananmen,” said a Western diplomat, reflecting on the tension between hard-liners and liberals in 1989 that presaged the purging of party boss Zhao Ziyang and the violent crushing of the student protest movement.
Jiang has not spelled out his intentions, but he has done nothing publicly to show he is serious about giving up power besides retire as general secretary.
Within minutes of Hu’s introduction Friday at a nationally telecast coming-out media appearance, Jiang re-emerged at the center of power when state-run media broadcast a bulletin that Jiang had been reappointed to another position: chairman of the Central Military Commission, which controls the army.
Arguably, it is a more powerful position than head of the party, and no one has said how long he intends to keep it. He could give up the position in March when he is expected to turn over the presidency to Hu, or he may retain the military position for years.
In China’s authoritarian system of government, the ruling Communist Party has no obligation to air its decision-making process and in fact prefers to keep its inner workings secret.
Much of the puzzlement over Jiang’s future is heightened by the mystery surrounding his successor. Hu was mostly invisible in his past role as vice president, and he has done nothing in recent days to illuminate his ambitions or talents.
Besides being considered an intelligent technocrat, his sole claim to fame is that he toed the party line to its pinnacle, surviving the political minefield of the upper echelons of Chinese politics.
Hu remains in Jiang’s shadow
Hu showed himself capable of smoothly reciting platitudes during the brief press appearance Friday but otherwise remains in the shadows. He was introduced to the Chinese public via a bare-bones biography in the state-run media, and was the subject of just one prominent newspaper article, in the maverick publication Southern Weekend.
The article, which looked at his youth, reported that he was “not naughty” as a child and was dutiful during the disastrous famine years of the Great Leap Forward.
“We were sent to work in a quarry and many students complained about it,” a high school classmate recalled. “But Hu said it was useless to complain, so why didn’t we finish the work well and then talk about it.”
On Monday, Hu’s loyalty to Jiang was reflected again in his humble press coverage. Following orders from party headquarters, the newspapers kept Hu off the front pages, writing instead about the speech Jiang gave on Nov. 8 at the opening ceremony of the party congress.
Hu was no more visible on the main evening news on China Central Television. Nor could he be found in Beijing’s Xinhua book store, where there was not one book for sale about the man who now has the same position once held by Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
There were 16 books on Jiang Zemin.
Among the browsers was 29-year-old nurse Zhang Li Yiang, who decided to pick up a 40-cent pamphlet on politics because her hospital occasionally requires employees take a political awareness test.
When asked what she knows about the new leader, Zhang replied: “The first new leader is Jiang Zemin.”
As for Hu Jintao, she said, “I don’t know much about him.”
