New leaders will soon inhabit China’s top decision-making bodies
Will they change the country?
For an aspiring Communist Party bigwig, Hu Chunhua’s back story seems hard to beat. One of six siblings born into rural poverty, he was the first in his county to attend China’s prestigious Peking University. On graduation in 1983, he joined the party and volunteered to work in Tibet. There he caught the eye of the local party chief, Hu Jintao (no relation), who became China’s top leader in 2002. Soon Hu Chunhua (pictured) was the youngest provincial governor and a member of the party’s Central Committee. Insiders began referring to him as “little Hu” and as one of the favourites to become China’s leader in 2022.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Next-generation thinking”
From the September 17th 2022 edition
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