| Hu's on First |
December 2002
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A Red Guard by Any Other Name
The Communist Party of China has held its 16th congress, and the way for the fourth generation of Red leaders of China has been blazed by Hu Jintao, who was annointed heir apparent to Ziang Jemin. Much has been written already about what this means for China and the world, but the truth is that Hu is another in a long line of Chinese leaders with a mailed glove covering an iron fist.
His defenders say that, as former head of the Communist Youth League, Hu represents a more reformist wing of the Party. The truth is he was instrumental in suppressing the pro-independence demonstrations in Tibet in 1989 while stationed in the occupied country.
The same kind of non-sense was put about when Yuri Andropov took over the USSR -- we were told he was a westernizing jazz-lover. In truth, he crushed the Hungarian uprising in 1956 while Soviet ambassador to that country with great brutality.
A society produces leaders that are the product of the nation's education system, political-economy and recent history. Born in 1942, Hu is the product of World War II, the Communist victory of 1949, the Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, Mao, Deng, and the rest. A man the rest of the world can work with? Quite possibly (the Chinese are culturally pragmatists). A liberal reformer? Not a chance.