Who is Hu Jintao, really? What are his plans for the future of China as its economy continues to power forward? And is this cipher of a new leader strong enough to stand up to outgoing President Jiang Zemin and his cronies, and perhaps even begin to push a modicum of political reform? These were the big questions asked in capitals around the world when Hu took over as President of the People's Republic of China in March.
Then came the outbreak of SARS. While the rapid spread of the disease presents China with its biggest challenge in more than a decade, it also is providing some answers about the new, 60-year-old President. This is a ruler who seems to understand that China has changed. In a more affluent society that depends upon foreign investors to keep the economy humming, and where Chinese citizens have more access to outside sources of information, Hu is now trying to restore the government's battered credibility.
He has met with doctors and nurses battling SARS in China's Southwestern province of Sichuan, visited highway quarantine stations and bus terminals, and warned local officials that any negligence in the fight against the epidemic will not be tolerated. His frank and swift acknowledgment of the crisis marks a radical departure for the top echelon of the party and gives hope that Hu could trigger a renaissance in China's leadership. That's why Hu is a star.
He is, admittedly, far from a perfect candidate. No one knows for sure whether Hu played any role in the initial coverup of the SARS epidemic by China's rulers. He may still be bested by the old guard in the struggle for real power in Beijing. And Hu could still revert to the usual behavior of China's top apparatchiks once the crisis is over. "When the pressure subsides, they may go back to business as usual," cautions Bates Gill, a China expert for Washington's Center for Strategic & International Studies. But Hu has surprised observers so much with his openness and drive that he makes it onto the BusinessWeek list.
Hu's early career gave little hint of his future power -- or his ability to change his public behavior so abruptly. He was born into a tea merchant's family in Shanghai in 1942. Soon after, his family moved to the provincial city of Taizhou, Jiangsu, not far from where ex-President Jiang Zemin grew up two decades earlier. A good student who is said to have a photographic memory, Hu attended Tsinghua University, China's top science academy and a training ground for other technocratic leaders, including former Premier Zhu Rongji.
But unlike Jiang and Zhu, both of whom rose to prominence in Shanghai, China's commercial capital, Hu spent years working as a party official in the impoverished provinces of Guizhou and Gansu, and in Tibet. (Wen Jiabao, the new Premier, followed a similar career path.) Experience in the hinterlands, analysts say, strengthened Hu's populist leanings -- now reflected in his push for policies aimed at boosting the income, education, and health care of China's vast rural population and unemployed workers.
For many years, until 2002, Hu also headed the Central Party School, which provides midcareer training for party officials. Under his tutelage, its scholars began research into political reform, including the development of social democratic parties. Analysts see this work as a sign that Hu is less ideological than his predecessors. That may explain his decision to be less secretive about the scale of the epidemic, firing top officials for incompetence and allowing the media to begin reporting more openly, although many press restrictions remain. "This is an effort to recover the government's credibility," says Tsinghua scholar Hu Angang (no relation to the President). "This is good news for the people of China."
Can Hu successfully cement his new leadership position? And will he stick with the policy of transparency? Open questions. But for now, there are intriguing signs that Hu may usher in real change. That would be good news not only for China but for the world.
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