Hu's Successor

In light of Hu Jintao's recent visit to the United States, the New York Times published an article on Xi Linping, China's current Vice President, who is apparently being groomed to take President Hu's position. According to this article, Li has gained popularity throughout China mainly for his success in breeding economic growth within the country. In addition to this, he is also well-connected amongst big businesses and comes from a politically active family. Li currently holds the position of Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission within the country which essentially proves that he will become the party leader in 2012, and become President in 2013. It will be interesting to see how Li pursues policies with the west due to the fact that Li is popular with a greater segment of the Chinese population. It seems he is able to cross the ideological divide more frequently than his predecessor. The Times speculates that this will give him the ability to experiment with more economic policies than Hu Jintao, which is interesting considering the current economic tensions between China and the West. The article also mentions how compared to Hu, Li is somewhat of a loose cannon and has told critics of Chinese policy to "stop pointing fingers at us" and has frequently made jabs at the West. It'll be interesting to gain more insight into China's future leader, and see how relationships between China and the US change within the years leading up to the succession.

Brianna Howell