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 Chinese President Jiang Zemin (left) and his successor Vice President Hu Jintao (right) with the new Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Jia Qinglin.
Photo: GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images |
INTERNATIONAL NEWS China's change of guard The National People's Congress, China's parliament, elected Hu Jintao as president of China, replacing Jiang Zemin, who served two terms. Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu was elected on March 15 and will serve for five years. The 3,000-member Congress also named Zeng Qinghong as vice-president, Wen Jiabao as prime minister, Wu Bangguo as chairman of the Standing Committee, and former president Jiang Zemin as chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China. The reshuffle completed the country's leadership changes, steered through by the ruling Communist Party and ratified by China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress. The average age of ministers is 58.7, most of who have high academic degrees. The cabinet, considered biased towards technocrats, engineers, and scientists, is expected to push through economic reform to boost the living standards of the poor. There are two notable cabinet assignments: Li Zhaoxing was appointed foreign minister and Cao Gangchuan defence minister. Li is a veteran diplomat and US specialist who served as China's ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations. General Cao extends China's tradition of having a soldier as the top defence official. He led the country's recent and successful manned space program and the effort to modernize China's military weaponry. Text: Ramananda Sengupta
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