Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - December 13, 2004
Benjamin Kang Lim

Hu only replaced Jiang Zemin in the country's top military job in September after taking over as party chief in 2002, and political analysts say Hu is still consolidating power in the wake of his influential predecessor's retirement.

The official Xinhua news agency said on Monday longtime Hu ally Li Keqiang had been removed as party chief of trouble-ridden central Henan and appointed to the northeastern rustbelt province of Liaoning, which houses the booming port city of Dalian.

"It's a sign Hu Jintao's sun is rising and Jiang Zemin's is setting," Kou Chien-wen, a Taipei-based China watcher, told Reuters by telephone.

New York-based news portal chinesenewsnet.com also said Hu was expected to promote at least three allies to party chiefs of northeastern Heilongjiang province, northern Shaanxi province and southern Guangxi province.

At 49, Li is one of China's youngest provincial governors and a rising star in the party. He was previously with the Communist Youth League, Hu's power base.

Li went to Henan as acting governor in 1998 and was promoted to party chief in 2002.

But Henan is potentially bad news for any politician's career because China's most populous province has been hit hard by AIDS, which spread through botched blood-selling schemes in the 1990s, before Li became the provincial party boss.

Activists estimate more than one million are likely infected with HIV in Henan.

"Li Keqiang had wanted to leave Henan for some time now because he did not want to be held responsible for the mass deaths over AIDS," activist Hu Jia said.

In other problems in the province, 150 workers were killed in a coal mine explosion in October. The same month, at least seven people were killed in clashes between minority Muslims and Han Chinese after a traffic accident involving members of the two groups sparked fighting in several villages.

Forty-two people were injured, numerous houses set ablaze and 18 people were detained after authorities declared martial law.

Unrest in rural China has been on the rise, fuelled by dissatisfaction over poverty and corruption and raising long-held fears of instability threatening the supremacy of the party.

The mine accident and the ethnic unrest did not seem to have had any effect on Li's career, analysts said, adding that ultimately this would undermine party efforts to introduce a system of individual accountability.

Li's transfer was a sign that Hu was strong enough to put political allies -- even ones with troubled work records -- into key positions, analysts said.

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