Hu Jintao

Background

• president of people’s republic of china and general secretary of chinese communist party since 2003

  • former youth leader & hydraulic engineer

  • increased the presence of the communist party

  • economic reform a primary goal

• born in 1942, oldest of three to upper-middle class tea merchants

  • involved in politics / joined CCP in 1964 due to befriending the university president, jiang nanxiang

• during the cultural revolution, hu was one of the many instructors who was deported and forced into manual labor in 1968

  • gansu province to work a gansu liujiaxia power station

  • father, hu jingzhu was also imprisioned and accused of political crimes — capitalist sympathizer

• 1969 — secured a position with central government engineering department in gansu

  • song ping — chairman of gansu provincial construction department

    • was impressed by hu talents and dedication to communist ideology and promoted hu to director of gansu provincial construction commission.

• trained in beijing, named deputy secretary of the gansu provincial communist youth league (CYL)

  • CYL — one of china’s most influential youth organization and plays major role in recruiting and training citizens for leadership in CCP

• transferred to beijing in 1982 to work as secretary for national branch of CYL

  • was thanks to recommendations from song ping and former tsinghua president, jiang nanxiang

Early Political Career

• 1984 — became leader of national CYL and worked closely with leader hu yaobang

  • fearing damage of his career, was transferred to guizhou in 1985

    • served as provincial party committee secretary

    • proposed sweeping economics and educational reforms

• 1986 — acted as a negotiator during a student riot at guizhou university

  • visited the university and personally negotiated with students to defuse the situation

  • success of his economic reforms and handling university protest increased his reputation in beijing

• 1988 — appointed part secretary in tibet autonomous region, due to recommendation of song ping

  • unable to defuse the violent demonstrations in lhasa without the aid of police, leading to a declaration of martial law from beijing

    • decisive management caught attention of deng xiaoping (most powerful leader in china) and recommended him for future advancement in the party

• 1992 — appointed to organize the fourteenth party by deng xiaoping

  • replaced song ping as member of the seven-seat politburo standing committee.

  • youngest member

  • standing committee — group that represents the elite members of state and military leadership, often call the most powerful political body in chinese government

• 1995 - 1997 — toured central asia, europe, central america, mexico, and cuba

  • diplomatic travels helped hu to establish his credibility as an international figure

• 1998 — selected as jiang zemin’s vice president

  • citied hu’s history as political reformer and his ability to decisively quell political turmoil as reasons for his appointment.

    • symbolic leader of the reform movement

    • leader of conservative movement

    • vice chairman of central military affiars commission in 1999 where he began a military reform program to enforce president jiang’s orders

Communist Leadership

• continued visits to foreign nations like — Iran, Syria, Uganda, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, and Great Britain.

  • organized a committee to investigate the issues of Chinese-US relations and build a strong alliance

• 2002 — replaced jiang zemin as communist part chief

  • further economic reform, elevated conditions to China’s lowest regions, and updated the nation’s conservation polices

• 2003 — became president and faced a crisis over the SARs epidemic

  • openness with the international health community and demanded the resignation of leaders responsible to the slow reaction

  • faced protest in hong kong

    • over proposed legislation that woudl grant chinese government additional powers in punishing citizens

• 2004 — jiang took control of the central military commission

  • china underwent economic revival, still faced problems related to dissatisfaction of the communist regime, economic inequality, and increase in nationalist sentiment amongst china’s youth

• under hu, websites and publications used to debate politics were shut down and newpapers were warned.

  • strengthen government propaganda and ordered liberal leaders arrested or censored

• 2006 — critized for establishing politics and law comittees at local levels to influence legal decisions

  • advocated debate with taiwan, refuses to withdraw the threat of military action if taiwan declared independence