Jiang Zemin, the most powerful figure in China for most of the past 15 years, has relinquished his sole remaining official position, chairman of the Central Military Commission.(Brief Article)

* Jiang Zemin, the most powerful figure in China for most of the past 15 years, has relinquished his sole remaining official position, chairman of the Central Military Commission. The 78-year-old Jiang has now handed all his positions over to his successor, 61-year-old Hu Jintao, and we may regard the Jiang Zemin era of modern Chinese history as over. The principal characteristic of that era was, of course, a continuation of the breathtaking pace of economic advance that the policies of Jiang's own predecessor, Deng Xiaoping, had set in motion. This progress must be counted a plus for the Chinese people and the world, though the main demand it imposed on Jiang was that he keep out of the way. ...