China: A look at the men in charge

Jiang Zemin

BEIJING (CNN) -- When it comes to power politics in China, 71-year-old Jiang Zemin appears to outsiders to be the one and only decision-maker leading the nation.

He is the president, the head of the military and the head of the Communist Party. U.S. President Bill Clinton will talk with Jiang both privately and in official summit meetings over the weekend in Beijing.

But according to political analysts, Jiang works with two other men in an informal coalition government, a type of collective leadership that is relatively new to China. Analysts say Jiang's predecessors Deng Xiaoping and Mao Tse- tung did not share power in this way.

An informal collective leadership

The two other key leaders who reportedly share power are former Prime Minister Li Peng and the man who replaced him, Zhu Rongji.

"Zhu is the guy who is really in charge of revamping the Chinese economy," according to China watcher Kenneth Lieberthal of the University of Michigan. "So he's playing a tremendously important role in domestic economic issues," he said.

ALSO:

Clinton arrives in Beijing for summit

A one-time mayor of Shanghai, Zhu distinguished himself during the tense weeks of the spring of 1989 by avoiding, in his city, the bloodshed witnessed in China's capital.

Li Peng

Li, on the other hand, was in power during the protests at Tiananmen Square, and is still remembered, almost 10 years later as the hard-line Communist official who refused to negotiate with students demonstrating for democracy. Instead he imposed martial law.

Li retired a few months ago after two terms as prime minister but continues to exercise considerable power as head of the National People's Congress.

Lieberthal told CNN it's ironic that Li now heads China's legislature. "His position now almost requires that he become China's chief advocate for the rule of law and for limitations on the power of the Chinese Communist Party."

Few expect that to happen anytime soon. Instead the immediate future for China's collective leadership is filled with more pressing problems, such as reforming an economy weighted down by thousands of state-owned money-losing factories, and finding jobs for laid-off workers.

Jiang a latecomer to politics

Jiang, who now leads the world's most populous nation, entered politics at a relatively late age. He was a full-time engineer until age 50. Then in the mid-1980s he was appointed mayor of Shanghai and quickly rose through the Communist Party.

China analyst David Lampton of the Nixon Center told CNN Jiang's contribution to Chinese history may be more benign than his predecessors.

He said, "I have been told by people close to Jiang Zemin that he believed Mao's legacy was that the Chinese people stood up, threw the foreigners out. Deng's legacy was modernization and economic growth. Jiang's legacy will be a more humanely governed China."