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FACTBOX-China's Hu recharts predecessor's policies
06 Sep 2007 05:01:04 GMT
Source: Reuters
Sept. 6 (Reuters) - Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has sought to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, in the past five years.

Jiang-era policies overturned by Hu include:

IDEOLOGY

Jiang's "Three Represents" doctrine opened the Party's doors to capitalists. Hu wasted little time to trumpet his own slogans -- harmonious society and scientific development -- to veer from from breakneck growth at the expense of the environment.

DIPLOMACY

Jiang mended fences with the United States and broke China out of diplomatic isolation after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Jiang did not allow the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and a spy plane crisis in 2001 to hurt Sino-U.S. relations. But during Jiang's watch, ties with Japan plunged to their lowest ebb since normalisation in 1972.

Hu has maintained China's relations with the United States while reconciling with an increasingly assertive Japan and extending China's reach into Africa and Latin America.

TAIWAN

Jiang menaced rival Taiwan with war games in the run-up to the island's first direct presidential elections in 1996. Beijing suspended dialogue with Taipei in 1999 when then-president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui, redefined bilateral relations as "special state-to-state".

Hu appeared to continue in that vein when parliament approved an Anti-Secession Law in 2005, authorising war if the island, which China claims as its own, formally declared independence. But he gave red-carpet treatment to visiting opposition leaders from the island and dangled economic sweeteners, easing tension.

HONG KONG

About 500,000 Hong Kong residents took to the streets in 2003 when Tung Chee-hwa, the city's chief executive and a Jiang ally, sought to push through a controversial anti-subversion bill.

Hu shelved the bill and buoyed the territory's economy by allowing more Chinese tourists to visit and more Chinese companies to list there. Hu replaced Tung in 2005 with a holdover from the British colonial era, but rejected public calls for direct elections for chief executive.

RICH VERSUS POOR

Where Jiang allowed capitalists to join the Party, Hu sought to portray himself as a man of the people, placing his lot with those left behind by the economic boom.

RELIGION

In 1995, Jiang put under house arrest a six-year-old boy anointed by the Dalai Lama as Tibet's second-holiest monk. Jiang was also reluctant to deal with the Dalai Lama. The Hu administration has been in talks with the Dalai Lama's envoy on his possible return, although there has been little progress.

China is also eyeing normalising relations with the Vatican.
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Protesters burn a North Korean flag during a protest in Seoul October 17, 2007. A peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War cannot be signed as long as Pyongyang possesses nuclear arms, China's envoy to Seoul said on Wednesday.



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