China Ushers Into Position Its Next Era Of Leaders

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 22, 2007; Page A17

BEIJING, Oct. 22 — Xi Jinping, the son of a Chinese guerrilla leader who rose through the ranks to become Communist Party chief in business-friendly Shanghai, was designated Monday as the most likely successor to President Hu Jintao as leader of the world’s most populous nation.

Xi Jinping 习近平

Xi, 54, a Ph. D. in economics, was the highest ranked of four newcomers in a new Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China’s Communist system. The nine-man group, including Hu and four other holdovers, was unveiled at a ritual introductory appearance before journalists following its acclamation by the new Central Committee that emerged Sunday from the party’s week-long 17th National Congress.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/20/
AR2007102000462.html?hpid=topnews

China’s influence spreads around world

By WILLIAM FOREMANSeptember 2, 2007

KARRATHA, Australia (AP) – For nearly three decades, Chinese peasants have left their villages for crowded dormitories and sweaty assembly lines, churning out goods for world markets. Now, China is turning the tables.

Here in the Australian Outback, Shane Padley toils in the scorching heat, 2,000 miles from his home, to build an extension to a liquefied natural gas plant that feeds China’s ravenous hunger for energy.

At night, the 34-year-old carpenter sleeps in a tin dwelling known as a “donga,” the size of a shipping container and divided into four rooms, each barely big enough for a bed. There are few other places for Padley to live in this boomtown.

Duct-taped to the wall is a snapshot of the blonde girlfriend he left behind and worries he may lose. But, he says, “I can make nearly double what I’d be making back home in the Sydney area.”

The reason: China.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070901/ap_on_re_as/china_global
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