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Yao Yilin (73)
Member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the senior Vice Premier, who stands in for Li Peng when he is abroad. Yao is still the leading economic specialist in the current leadership, although he has relinquished his post as Chairman of the State Planning Commission and is no longer involved in the practical side of running an important economic organisation. In economic thinking, he is closer to Chen Yun and Li Peng than to more extreme reformers such as Zhao Ziyang. He has close personal connections throughout the government bureaucracy, and with the conservative Party veterans.
Song Ping (73)
Member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Until recently Director of the Party Organisation Department (which is in charge of senior personnel appointments). Song, along with Li Ruihuan (q.v.), was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee following the disgrace of Zhao Ziyang in June 1989. Many years ago, he was Zhou Enlai's political secretary, and he has strong ties with the Party and government bureaucracies. He was head of the State Planning Commission during the early 1980s when the role of state planning was being reduced. Probably sympathetic to the hardliners politically, and to those in favour of a more moderate pace of economic reform.
Li Ruihuan (55)
Member of the Politburo Standing Committee, and of the Central Secretariat, appointed in June 1989. Li made his mark most recently as Mayor and then Party Secretary of Tianjin municipality, during which time his vigorous approach revitalised the city's economy. This may well have recommended him to the current leadership, as well as his success in ensuring that Tianjin was not troubled by student demonstrations. He now has the immensely difficult propaganda and ideology portfolio, an area in which he has little previous experience. He has so far managed both to maintain a high profile, and to avoid too many sensitive political areas, by conducting a strenuous campaign against pornography. He first became known for his energetic involvement in the building of the Great Hall of the People, in 1959.
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OTHER MEMBERS OF THE POLITBURO (ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Li Tieying (53)
Member of the Politburo. State Councillor. Chairman of the
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