Hu Jintao waited quietly in the wings for more than 10 years, playing his cards close to his chest and keeping rivals guessing about his politics, until fully emerging from the shadows of his predecessor yesterday.

Almost two years into his mandate as Communist Party chief, Hu, 61, replaced Jiang Zemin, 78, as chairman of the decision-making Central Military Commission, giving him China's top three posts and completing a leadership succession.

"The Hu Jintao era has started," said a Chinese political analyst who asked not to be identified.

Hu succeeded Jiang as Communist Party chief in 2002 and state president in 2003, but played second fiddle to his ageing but still influential predecessor in the military body until recently when he became more assertive after further consolidating power.

Seizing opportunity from crisis during the outbreak of SARS last year, Hu emerged from his first real test with a surer grip on power after declaring war on the epidemic.

With decisiveness that surprised many of his critics, Hu ended a government cover-up, ordered honest reporting and sacked the health minister and the Beijing mayor.

With Jiang looking over his shoulder, Hu has built his power and popularity by portraying himself as a man of the people.

"Use power for the people, show concern for the people and seek benefit for the people," Hu said in early 2003 in remarks aimed at winning popular support.

He huddled with a Mongolian herdsman in a tent in freezing weather, shook hands with medical workers battling SARS and spent just 30 yuan ($3.63) on two days of meals on an official trip.

Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, a political ally, appear to be guiding the world's most populous nation and Asia's fastest growing economy to a soft landing, lending credibility to their decision to cool overheating despite opposition from Jiang's men.

On the diplomatic front, Hu has built on new-found respect for Beijing after bringing Washington and Pyongyang to the negotiating table to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis.

In the past two years, Hu has raised his international profile with trips to Europe and the United States and summits with US President George W. Bush.

But to many, Hu remains something of an enigma. Few personal details are known about him save that he likes dancing and ping-pong and has a photographic memory.

As for his politics, some call him a hardliner, citing his role in crushing protests in Tibet and his speech backing anti-US protests after the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999.

However, Hu has moved to make the party more transparent and flirted with limited political, media and judicial reforms to help curb corruption and make officials more accountable.

Hu has few qualms about showing his conservative credentials to allay fears among party hardliners and elders that reforms could erode the party's grip on power.

Authorities have gagged academic debate on constitutional reform and jailed cyber-dissidents and democracy campaigners.

Hu has expanded his power base through the appointment of proteges to top posts and cultivated allies in the top echelon, leaving no opening for his chief rival, Vice President Zeng Qinghong, Jiang's closest political ally.

He has chiselled away at party traditions and Jiang's policies. He scrapped the send-off and welcoming ceremonies for leaders that for years brought out all leaders for obligatory smiles and handshakes when the top man went abroad.

But Hu was careful not to step on his predecessor's toes and avoided a political showdown. Being heir-apparent is a precarious position in Communist China. Many have come to a sticky end.

When Hu was anointed as future ruler by Deng Xiaoping and catapulted to the Standing Committee in 1992 at age 49, he was by far its youngest member and had never served on the party's powerful Politburo, let along the elite Standing Committee.

Acquainted with poverty as the party boss of some of China's poorest provinces, Hu has championed the have-nots and called for faster rural reform to raise living standards and curb unrest.

"We must make efforts to resolve practical problems that closely affect the masses, deal realistically with employment and re-employment, speed up construction of a social security system and expand efforts to alleviate poverty," he said last year.

"Hu has made smart moves. He has focused his attention on poverty and rural issues while continuing to show respect to Jiang," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at Hamilton College in New York.

A hydraulic engineer by training, Hu cut his political teeth in dirt-poor Guizhou and then Tibet, where he earned his stripes overseeing a crackdown on pro-independence protests in 1988-1989.

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