CHINA’S Communist Party unveiled a new generation of leaders yesterday in which Hu Jintao, the new General-Secretary, will share power with several allies of Jiang Zemin, his predecessor.
At a bizarre ceremony reminiscent of a fashion show, Mr Hu presented the new men at the helm of a country of 1.3 billion people and addressed the international media for the first time in his long political career.
According to analysts, the new power constellation is the result of intense last-minute horse-trading in the run-up to the party’s congress this week.
Mr Jiang is believed to have made the elevation of a number of his allies a pre-condition for his retirement — and the first entirely peaceful and voluntary transfer of power in half a century