From the New Yorker blog:
In China, inaugurations are frequent affairs, though they have nothing to do with presidents. A news cycle rarely passes without some fanfare over the inaugural ride on a new subway line or the inaugural trip across an unusually large bridge. By contrast, when China’s paramount leader Hu Jintao rose to become chief of the Communist Party six years ago, he was virtually unknown to his own country and had been selected in secret by a tiny group of political elites. By tradition, his appointment was revealed only when he and the other eight members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo appeared before television cameras. (He gave brief remarks that, unlike President Obama’s, were devoted to praising the work of his predecessor and upholding the status quo.)