China’s president and the country’s top athlete launched the Beijing Olympics torch relay on Monday amid cheering, dancing and tight security, marking the symbolic start to a Games overshadowed by activism and unrest in Tibet. Chinese President Hu Jintao lit a cauldron on a red-carpeted rostrum on Tiananmen Square before handing the torch to World and Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang.
China’s Parliament re-elected Wen Jiabao as premier on Sunday, but a next-generation leader was passed over for promotion to a top military job. The rubber-stamp National People’s Congress gave Wen, ranked third in the Communist Party hierarchy, a second five-year mandate with 2 926 votes for, 21 against and 12 abstentions.
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/ 22 October 2007
Chinese President Hu Jintao’s most powerful rival in the politburo has been pushed into retirement in a reshuffle of the communist party’s inner sanctum. Zeng Qinghong, the Vice-President, was among three of the party’s most senior cadres who lost their places on the new central committee unveiled on Sunday.