Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, president of China from 2003 to 2013, and chairman of the Central Military Commission from 2004 to 2012. He was a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body, from 1992 to 2012, and served as the paramount leader of China from 2002 to 2012.

Born in Tai County, Jiangsu, Hu studied engineering at Tsinghua University, joining the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while in college. First working as a political counselor at Tsinghua, Hu later worked as an engineer in Gansu, later joining the province's Construction Department. He assumed leadership of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) branch in Gansu, afterwards joining the CYLC leadership in Beijing, eventually becoming the first secretary of the CYLC. Hu was later appointed as Party Committee secretary for Guizhou province and the Tibet Autonomous Region, where his harsh repression of dissent gained him attention from the highest levels. He moved up to serve as a member of the CCP Central Secretariat and vice president under CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin, becoming Jiang's presumed successor as paramount leader.