China's transition.

Byline: The Register-Guard

China's new, younger leadership, which assumed power earlier this month, has committed itself to moving the country's economic expansion beyond its eastern regions and into the countryside, where hundreds of millions of people still live in poverty. Whether China's leaders can fulfill that commitment without aggravating the already sharp conflicts between capitalist economics and Communist government will be its greatest test.

The country's new president, Hu Jintao, debuted as president in a speech to the National People's Congress broadcast throughout the country. "China's development is at a new historical starting point," Hu said. And while Hu and new Premier Wen Jiabao pledged themselves to continuing the Communist Party's increasingly capitalistic economic policies, neither man spoke of alterations in Communist political ideology.

Hu and Wen represent the fourth generation of Chinese leadership since Mao Zedong founded the Communist nation. But old ties are hard to break. Outgoing President Jiang Zemin, while relinquishing the reins of the presidency, will stay on as head of the commission that runs China's military, a post that will provide him with ample and continuing influence over the affairs of state.

But Hu did speak of a changing China, with emphasis on reforms that create jobs and a financial system capable of supporting the new economy. With its economy having roared forward at a rate of between 7 percent and 10 percent over the past dozen years, China is emerging as a world power in trade and manufacturing. Its military might has increased apace - though in the country's newly approved budget, the rate of growth in military spending has been kept below double digits for the first time in 14 years.

The manner in which Hu exerts China's growing economic and military influence will have far-reaching effects, ranging from the price of goods on American store shelves to the prospects for am end to the crisis in North Korea. But Hu's greatest challenge will be the increasing tension between a dynamic economy and a creaking, undemocratic political system. Whether that tension can be resolved peacefully, and in favor of the rights of ordinary Chinese citizens, is one of the most momentous questions of the new century.

CAPTION(S):

Hu Jintao