Jiang allowed to stay senior leader for life
President Jiang Zemin has largely obtained the party's blessing to remain the top leader as long as his health permits.
Yesterday's parade confirmed the 73-year-old politician as having a stature equal to that of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
This was made clear at the symbolic level by the three equally huge portraits of the leaders.
Moreover, Mr Jiang was the only member of the Politburo who wore a Mao suit, a clear indication of his special ties with heroes in the party pantheon.
A Beijing source said Mr Jiang's publicists had originally earmarked the anniversary to unveil Jiang Zemin Theory.
The postponement of this was made up for by the fact that official television commentaries cited areas where he was said to have gone beyond Mao and Deng.
These included keeping stability while maintaining high economic growth; speeding up the pace of national unification; raising the PLA's combat standards to world levels; and an activist foreign policy.
The giant Jiang portrait showed him reading the Political Report at the 15th Party Congress of 1997, which was seen as a theoretical breakthrough.
The report advocated the coexistence of a 'wholly state-owned economy' with other forms of ownership through developing shareholding companies and firms with foreign and private capital.
The festivities yesterday allowed Mr Jiang to show he had obtained the blessings, or at least acquiescence, of party elders as well as contemporaries who had been his political foes.
Xinhua quoted a party elder, Bo Yibo, as saying that after watching the parade, he felt the people would 'rest assured'.
One of the so-called Eight Immortals, Mr Bo played an instrumental role in ensuring Mr Jiang's pre-eminence at the 15th Party Congress.
Two foes, former National People's Congress chairmen Wan Li and Qiao Shi, made their appearances at the rostrum. They were prominent members of the party's moderate faction.
A party veteran said Mr Jiang wanted to project the image that he had the support of the party's different wings.
'In the mid-1980s, after Deng had left most public offices, there was an internal party resolution saying the patriarch would still call the shots in major policies,' the veteran said.
'It is likely that even if Jiang leaves the position of party boss in 2002, he will still have the same ability as Deng to remain the final arbiter in Chinese politics.'
