BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Friday) -- As Vice President Hu Jintao takes the helm of the Chinese Communist Party, another Chinese leader to watch is Zeng Qinghong, a powerful aide to outgoing President Jiang Zemin and a shrewd infighter who helped pack the new leadership with Jiang's allies -- and his own.
For the past 13 years, Zeng has labored behind the scenes of Communist politics, taking on sensitive assignments in relations with the United States, Japan and Taiwan, helping Jiang defeat his enemies and, occasionally, intervening to protect liberal intellectuals and other dissidents. Now, at 63, Zeng has emerged from the shadows and taken a seat alongside Hu on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
As Jiang's favorite, he is Hu's only potential rival. Some Chinese analysts and official sources believe he may eventually replace the new party chief as China's paramount leader.
A rocket scientist by training and the son of one of Mao Zedong's first security chiefs, Zeng is perhaps the most interesting man in Chinese politics.
In early 1990, when communism was falling across the globe and China's Communists were in lockdown, Zeng, working on Jiang's behalf, sought a back channel between Beijing and Washington, according to a former American official involved in the talks. Zeng helped find a solution to the standoff between China and the United States following the collision of a Navy reconnaissance plane and Chinese jet fighter on April 1, 2001. He also conducted secret talks with an envoy of Taiwan's former president, Lee Teng-hui, Chinese sources said. And in 1999 and 2000, when Beijing's relations with Tokyo were in free-fall, he grabbed responsibility for relations there from the foreign minister, Asian diplomats said.
In August, Zeng was the driving force behind regulations that suggested for the first time that local party officials should be elected by villagers. Earlier in the year, he presided over an internal conference in Shenzhen on good governance and political reform.
Joseph W. Prueher, a former U.S. ambassador to China who left Beijing in 2001, said Zeng distinguished himself from other Chinese officials because "he's comfortable in his own skin. He wasn't looking over his shoulder all the time."
"He's the only senior Communist I've ever met who doesn't make you feel like he's a Communist," said a Western businessman who has met with Zeng on numerous occasions. "He doesn't need to tell you how important he is. He exudes power."
And self-confidence, too. When Jiang went swimming on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii during his trip to the United States in 1997, Zeng was there, too, doing a mean butterfly stroke -- with sunglasses on.
Chinese sources said they believe Zeng will become a key member of several of the party's "leading groups" that set policy, particularly those dealing with foreign affairs, Taiwan and propaganda.
Domestically, Zeng played a decisive role in the purging of four of Jiang's strongest challengers -- the downfall in 1992 of a senior army leader, Yang Baibing, and his half brother, President Yang Shangkun; the jailing of Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong, who was sentenced to 16 years in 1998 ; and the removal of Standing Committee member Qiao Shi in 1997.
A report by a Western embassy on Zeng said it was unclear whether Jiang could have survived in Beijing without "Zeng's well-developed political skills."
Zeng's dexterity with the political scalpel and his tendency to barge into other people's business have also made him enemies. Jiang has faced enormous opposition in his attempt to promote Zeng over the years, Chinese sources said.
Zeng got a break in March 1999 when he was appointed head of the party's organization department. That department chooses many of China's senior officials, from provincial leaders to ministers. Zeng has proved adept at elevating Jiang loyalists all over China.
Zeng's drive, competence and close relationship with Jiang pose clear challenges to Hu's authority. But Hu is not without weapons. For instance, he could challenge Zeng's claims to power by beginning a reevaluation of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Zeng rode into power on Jiang's coattails, and Jiang would not have acceded to China's seat or power without the crackdown. Any reevaluation of Tiananmen will undoubtedly be followed by questions about Zeng's claim to power.
That may provide one explanation as to why Zeng has cultivated some political dissidents -- to inoculate himself against questions about his legitimacy. But another explanation may be that he sympathizes with their cause.
Wu Jiaxiang, a former party official who was jailed in the crackdown after the Tiananmen protests, said Zeng has a track record of quietly intervening on behalf of liberal intellectuals and reformers.
Wu personally benefited from Zeng's largesse in 1992, shortly after he was released from prison. He was suffering from depression and attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. Wu said his wife called the Party Central Office, his former employer, and officials there arranged for emergency care at a military hospital and then paid for long-term treatment at one of the city's best psychiatric institutes.
At the time, Zeng was the head of the Party Central Office. "It would not have happened if Zeng did not approve it," he said.
Both Prueher and James Sasser, who preceded him as ambassador, said they believed Zeng had a deep appreciation for the importance to China of good ties with the United States. During Jiang's 1997 visit to the United States, Sasser spotted Zeng gazing out at the Washington Monument from the room above the Oval Office.
When he approached him, Sasser said, Zeng turned and said, "This is a great country."
"I've been around Chinese officials a long time," Sasser said, "and I think he was clearly moved."
