Jiang Zemin

President of the People's Republic of China (1993 -), General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1989 -), Chairman of the Central Military Commission China (1989 -). Jiang was born the son of a intellectual. He attended Shanghai Jiaotong University, one of the pretigious polytechnic universities in China. Due to his political consciouness and shrewdness, he was never purged during the Mao era, and by early eighties he was already holding ministerial offices. He was deputy minister and minister of foreign trade (1982-1985), mayor of Shanghai (1985-87) and party secretary of Shanghai (1987-89), he was appointed to the politburo of the Communist Party in 1987. After the military suppression in June 4, 1989 and the subsequent fall of General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, Jiang was named by the "party elders" inclding Deng Xiaoping as general secretary because of his subservience to them. His position was further strengthened in 1993 when he was elected president.