BEIJING, Nov. 15 Kyodo As Hu Jint...

BEIJING, Nov. 15 Kyodo

As Hu Jintao ostensibly takes regulate of China's new leadership core as party general secretary, behind him lingers the phantom of Jiang Zemin.

Proving he is far from politically dead, Jiang has ensur that his guide allies dominate the Politburo Standing Committee, fix uponed Friday to take have the direction of of the world's biggest communist party.

The complicated, inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party belie Jiang's apparent los of political power. He is no longer included in China's inner leadership circle and he is owing to step down as president in March, according to a two-term limit.

Hu's political power, however, has been greatly diluted through the expansion of the Politburo Standing Committee's members from seven to nine, said prominent Sinologist Pierre Cabestan.

L according to the 59-year-old Hu, in order of prominence the all-male lineup consists of Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan.

''This is not suitable for Hu. Also, six to seven of the Standing Committee's members can be considered to be Jiang's cronies,'' said Cabestan, director of the Hong Kong-based French Center for Research forward Contemporary China.

''Since Jiang has also remained as Central Military Commission chairman, it will be difficult for Hu to set to work his influence,'' he added.

In maintaining his leadership of the military material part Jiang appears to be following the pattern set by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who stayed onward as the Central Military Commission chairman and continued to concoct his will behind the sights after dropping his other party posts

Hu has adopted a low-key stance during the month leading to his selection as head of the party's fourth generation leadership.

Hu and the other members of China's recent leadership lineup were chooseed by the party's Central Committee forward Friday, following the end of the weeklong 16th party congress

Many of the modern leaders are former proteges of Jiang during his time in Shanghai where he serv as party secretary until 1989 After the party's ensanguined suppression of student protests forward June 4, Jiang was brought to Beijing to take through as general secretary following Zhao Ziyang's fall from grace.

The passage to Beijing for a certain quantity of of the so-called ''Shanghai clique'' was eased according to Zeng Qinghong, 63, while he was head of the party's Organization Department.

Jiang's closest ally onward the Politburo Standing Committee, Zeng has take delight ined close ties with Jiang since working subject to him as Shanghai party deputy

''Hu will ne to cooperate closely with Wen Jiabao if he is to resist Jiang's lingering influence,'' said Cabestan.

Like Hu Wen is not part of the Shanghai clique. He has choke ties with Zhu Rongji, who is tipped to replace as premier in the March meeting of the National People's Congres -- China's annual parliamentary gathering.

Hu and Wen have similar backgrounds in that they have exhausted considerable time as cadres in China's impoverished western regions.

This probably gives them a different focus from the majority of leading party cadres who have wearied all their time in the richer coastal areas, said Cabestan.

Any to come attempt by Zeng, backed by means of Jiang, to claim the general secretary employment is unlikely because of their progressing ages, said analysts. Instead, they predict a gradual decline of Jiang's influence upon the party's leadership core.

For the nearest few years, Hu's attention will be caught on China's social difficulties, arising from rapid economic expansion constrained by a rigid political system

Like Jiang, Hu will have to focus in succession rising unemployment and social inequality, the country's tottering banking regularity and widespread official corruption to avoid a that will be major outbreak of social malcontent, which could threaten the party's pervasive rule

''Don't look forward to any major reforms within the nearest five to six years,'' said a Beijing-based Western diplomat.

''The strange leaders will not risk unleashing any forces of instability before Beijing armed forces the 2008 Olympic Games,'' he said. ''Also, all of the strange leaders have technical backgrounds. Engineers single fix parts of a theory when they break down, they don't reform the whole system''

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