Li Lanqing

Li Lanqing, 68 years old and a close associate of Jiang Zemin.  He joined the party in September 1952.  He is currently a Politburo Standing Committee member and a vice-premier of the State Council.

After graduating from Fudan University as an enterprise management major in 1952, Li was assigned to work in the No. 1 Automobile Factory in Changchun.

He worked as a trainee at Moscow's Liharchev and Gorky automobile factories in the former Soviet Union in 1956 and 1957. After his return home, he worked in the Changchun No. 1 Automobile Factory as chief of its planning section.

He became director of the Foreign Investment Administration in the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade (Mofert) in 1982, and he became vice-mayor of Tianjin in 1983.

He held the post of Mofert vice-minister from 1986-90, and served as its minister from 1990-92; he has been vice-premier of the State Council since 1993.

Li Lanqing was elected to the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in 1992, became deputy director of the Economic and Trade Office of the State Council, and made a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the 15th CPC National Congress in the fall of 1997.

While Li Lanqing is older than many potential Standing Committee members, it is likely that he will retain his post as a stabilizing influence, and a bridge between the third and fourth generations.  Jiang Zemin is pushing hard for Mr. Li, giving him yet another shadow vote on the committee.

Prediction:  Politburo Standing Committee, Chairman Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference