In this report in the Asian Times, Pepe Escobar wrote, since coming to office, “Hu has wholly asserted his authority over the third generation’s Jiang Zemin (former party chief, president and military commander) in the Politburo Standing Committee (although five of the nine men in dark suits are Jiang’s allies). Hu has ordered a crackdown against any kind of dissent by public intellectuals, democracy, labor and rural rights activists, and ‘Net surfers; and with the publication of the 85-page 2004 Defense White Paper – which calls for a non-nuclear China but warns that the military tolerates “no separatists” (a message to Taiwan) – he has the military on his side.”
This report, a profile of Hu Jintao, concludes that “Hu believes China is too complex and turbulent to be governed by democracy. He believes China needs strong leadership to conduct both domestic development and foreign policy. He believes China still needs an emperor – not a Gorbachev. So the emperor will remain fully clothed in his made-in-China dark suit.”
