President Jiang Zemin, far from stepping down after giving up his post as general secretary of the Communist Party, appears to have bolstered his position vis-a-vis his successor as party leader, Hu Jintao. Mr Jiang is expected to relinquish his position as state president to Mr Hu in March during the annual session of the National People's Congress. But even then it is likely that he, rather than Mr Hu, will be considered China's paramount leader. This is because, even though Mr Hu is now nominally the party leader, Mr Jiang has been elevated within the party by having his name written into its constitution. For the past 13 years, Mr Jiang has been known as the core of the third generation of party leaders. Mao Zedong is seen as the core of the first generation, while Deng Xiaoping was the core of the second. The idea of a core member did not elevate the person above their peers, but suggested that they were the first among equals. But the new party constitution adopted at the 16th congress has introduced another concept - the idea of a chief representative. The constitution's general programme calls Mao the first chief representative of the party, implying that he held this status from the founding of the party in 1921 until his death in 1976. Then it says that after the third plenary session of the 11th party central committee in 1978, Deng became the party's chief representative. But apparently Deng held this status only until 1989, when Mr Jiang became the party's general secretary and its chief representative. This means Deng served as chief representative for only 11 years, while Mr Jiang has already been chief representative for 13 years. Significantly, while Mao was chief representative until he died, Deng lost his status eight years before his death. The constitution is silent on whether Mr Jiang will lose his position as chief representative to Mr Hu or whether, like Mao, he will keep this status for the rest of his life. Since the constitution was adopted at the same congress that saw the elevation of Mr Hu, the implication is that Mr Jiang will continue to be the chief representative of the party, even though he has given up the post of party chief. It appears clear that Mr Hu, though he is now the party's nominal leader, is not its chief representative. A routine official phrase describes Mr Hu as general secretary of the party's Central Committee. He is only referred to as general secretary, not the chief representative or even the core of the fourth generation of party leaders. General secretaries can come and go, but this does not happen to either the core or the chief representative. In fact, two of the past three general secretaries did not even serve out their full term. Mr Jiang's predecessor, Zhao Ziyang, was removed from his post because of his sympathies for the students during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in June 1989. And Mr Zhao's predecessor, Hu Yaobang, was removed in 1987 because he, too, was not considered to have been tough enough on student demonstrators the previous year. Armed with this unprecedented title of the party's chief representative, Mr Jiang is in an extremely strong position. The chief representative would appear to be a more important person than the general secretary, who can be relegated to being little more than a party functionary who carries out administrative duties. It is extremely dangerous for the party to elevate a living person to such a height. Imagine what would happen if Mr Jiang was to give a public speech tomorrow in which he announced that communism was bad for China. Granted, this is unlikely, but it is theoretically possible. Mr Jiang has been put in the position of being able, in effect, to destroy the Communist Party if he wishes. Meanwhile, the terminology of third generation and fourth generation seems to be little used these days. After all, if there is a chief representative, his role does not have to be limited to one generation of communists. The concept is flexible, since one can argue that Mao was the chief representative for more than half a century. Mr Jiang's tenure of chief representative seems limited only by his mortality. Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator
