Biographies: China's Movers and Shakers

Zhu Rongji

China's "economic czar" is as charming as he is capable, in the eyes of international audiences. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji has been impressing foreign investors since he came to the post in 1998, and with a reputation for getting a job done, seems to be determined to stabilize China's economy, reform the bureaucracy, and maintain social order.

In 1949, during his student days at Qinghua University, where he studied electrical engineering, Zhu joined the Communist Party. Fresh from school, he went to work as a deputy chief of the Production Planning Section and a year later, in 1952, became a deputy division chief in the State Planning Commission.

China's Cultural Revolution did not leave Zhu untouched, and he was twice sent to the countryside for political re-education. The 1970's and 1980's saw him holding a number of positions, notably in the State Economic Commission, and in 1989 he became mayor of Shanghai.

As the effects of student protests and political unrest spread from Beijing to Shanghai in 1989, Zhu, along with the Party Chief and former mayor, Jiang Zemin, who would later become president, managed to avoid a repeat of Tiananmem Square in his city by promising not to use the army against demonstrators, thereby maintaining public support.

After Li Peng stepped down as Prime Minister in 1998, Zhu stepped in to the difficult job. Analysts noted that Zhu would most likely be ready and able to make the tough decisions required of the post as his future political career was not dependent on maintaining popularity. He is expected to retire after the Communist Party Congress convenes in 2002.

Jiang Zemin

It does not matter to Jiang Zemin which of the three top posts in China holds the most power. He owns all three. As the President, Communist Party General Secretary and Central Military Commission Chairman, Jiang is in a position to carve out a place for himself in the annals of history. Some doubt he is capable of doing that.

Born on August 17, 1926, Jiang left his birthplace of Yangzhou in 1945 to travel to Shanghai and pursue a career in engineering. A year later he joined the Communist Party and began his slow and steady rise in the ranks of industry. The 1950's and 1960's were not dramatic years for him, and though both the rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution affected so many others, Jiang's non-controversial work and personality

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