Hu Jintao started his second innings as Chinese President on Saturday in the shadow of the pro-independence riots in Tibet where he had crushed a similar uprising two decades ago that catapulted him to the power centre and brought him near patriarch Deng Xiaoping.Seen as an enigmatic figure, Hu, 65, started his political career after the 1949 communist revolution and has worked his way up the party apparatus in a steady political ascent.A trained hydro-electric engineer, Hu had his political baptism in 1964 when he joined the communist party. At the age of 39, he was the youngest-ever appointee to the CPC Central Committee, a powerful organ of the ruling communist party. Analysts look at Hu as a reformer anchored to traditional policies.Recognition came quickly for Hu who was given a major break in his political rise by Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping when he picked him as member of the CPC Central Committee’s Political Bureau in 1992.He was posted as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1988-89, when it witnessed anti-Chinese riots before they were quelled in a crackdown with the imposition of the martial law.And the reward was there for Hu.He won praise from Deng, the supreme leader, who was reported to have said, “Hu is good”, a remark that was later widely circulated in party and government circles. He is known for his cautious approach and as a man endowed with a photographic memory and greatly focused with full command of facts. Hu was born in Jixi in east China’s Anhui Province in December 1942. Blandness is a hallmark of the media-shy, technocrat-turned-politician, who is a son of a tea merchant.
