BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has appointed a political ally as acting party boss of Tibet, a move that further consolidates his power base.
The party’s elite Central Committee recently appointed Zhang Qingli, 54, vice governor of the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang in China’s northwest, as acting party boss of the Himalayan region, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. It gave no further details.
Zhang cut his teeth in the China Youth League — Hu’s power base — from 1979 to 1986 when he served as section chief and later vice minister with a responsibility for young workers and farmers.
Hu, 63, has been moving allies to key positions to further consolidate his power base since taking over the top job in the military from Jiang Zemin, 79, last September and completing China’s first smooth generational leadership succession since the 1949 revolution.
Hu replaced Jiang as party chief in 2002 and state president in 2003.
He has tightened his hold over the media, the Internet, non-governmental organisations, lawyers and civil rights campaigners as part of efforts to prevent “colour revolutions” along the lines of popular protests which toppled dictatorial regimes in post-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia.
