Friday, November 22, 2002
D. MICHAEL HEYWOOD, Columbian editorial writer

As nine men marched in line from behind an ornate screen on stage in Beijing's Great Hall of the People last week, the world could not but wonder who they were and where they came from.

They were dressed alike in dark suits, white shirts and long print ties. All are Han, the dominant nationality group in China and in Communist Party membership. More of them spent their formative careers in Shanghai than spent them in Beijing, although their resumes include most parts of the vast country.

All appeared trim and healthy. None showed the least flair of individuality.

That they were led by 59-year-old Hu Jintao was the least surprise. He had been heir apparent to the pinnacle of Chinese power for most of a year as speculation whirled about the new generation of leadership.

That there were nine members of the new standing committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was something of a surprise. That select group holding maximum power over the lives of 2 billion people has numbered as few as five.

All but one were engineers, like Hu, who was graduated from Tsinghua University in Beijing with credentials in hydrology. The sole exception, Wen Jiabao, was trained as a geologist. He marched third in the line, second behind Hu in the pecking order of power. Between them was 61-year-old Wu Bangguo, also an alum of Tsinghua as an electronics engineer and said to be a close Shanghai protege of retiring leader Jiang Zemin.

Behind Wen in fourth place marched Jia Qinglin. In fifth was Zeng Qinghong. Sixth was Huang Ju. Seventh was Wu Guanzheng. Eighth came the youngest of the group, Li Changchun, born in 1944 and another Jiang protege.

Last in the line and particularly fascinating was Luo Gan. At 67, he is the oldest member of the ruling committee. Like seven of his colleagues, he trained as an engineer. But he didn't get his higher education or his mature outlook in China. In 1953, in his 18th year, he was shipped off to East Germany to learn the steel industry. He remained there until 1962.

The top cop

He is considered to be the top cop, the boss of internal security. He is most worried about dissent to the ruling view. He is most avid about the repression of such groups as Falun Gong deemed threats to the ruling ideology.

And he hates and fears the Internet. As one Associated Press file from Beijing put it last weekend, "Luo Gan, one of the leaders of Hu's New Openness generation, is doing his utmost to control the Internet and prevent Chinese from seeing ideas that might get them thinking about who rules them."

As Luo and his minions struggle to keep the clamps on, hundreds of millions of Chinese hack through the barriers to taste a richer world.

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