Li Ruihuan

Li Ruihuan, the "manager" of ideologv of the CPC, has been re-elected a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Party's Central Committee.

Li, 58, was born into a peasant family in Baodi County in north China's Tianjin Municipality. He worked as a carpenter at a construction company in Beijing in the early 1950s. Inventor of a "simplified calculation method," which updated the traditional "lofting" method of carpentry that had been passed down over thousands of years, he was known throughout the country as a young "Lu Ban," a legendary master carpenter in ancient China who invented the saw.

Li has rich experience in grass-roots work. From 1951 to 1965, he was a worker in the Beijing No. 3 Construction Co. During this period, he studied in the Beijing Spare-time Civil Engineering Institute from 1958-63. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in September 1959.

After 1971, he served as secretary of the Party Committee of the Beijing Building Wood Materials Factory, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of the Building Materials Industry, vice-chairman of the Beijing Capital Construction Commission and concurrently director of the Beijing Capital .Construction Headquarters, vice-chairman of the Beijing Trade Union Federation, member of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People's Congress and permanent member of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

After 1979, he worked as a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League and vice-chairman of the All-China Youth Federation.

After 1981, he was a member of the Standing Committee and secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee, and then vice-mayor, acting mayor and mayor of Tianjin.

In 1987, he became a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

In 1989, Li was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee and member of the Central Secretariat.

Liu Huaqing

General Liu Huaqing, 76, is the only military member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Party's Central Committee. He was also elected vice-chairman of the CPC's Central Military Commission at the First Plenum of the 14th Central Committee.

A veteran of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Liu was promoted to the rank of vice-chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC) in November 1989 after CMC Chairman Deng Xiaoping retired.

Born into a poor peasant family in October 1916 in Dawu County in Hubei Province, Liu joined the Chinese Communist Youth League (CY) in 1929 and became a CPC member in October 1935.

Liu began doing revolutionary work in 1929 and joined the Red Army in 1930. Since then, he has been serving in the army for 62 years.

After New China was founded in 1949, Liu devoted himself to the establishment of a Chinese navy. He was made a rear admiral in 1955. He studied naval commandment in a Soviet military academy from 1954 to 1958. After returning home, he assumed successive leading positions in the armed forces including deputy-commander of the Beihai Fleet of the Chinese Navy, presidency of a military academy, deputy chief of the Navy Staff and deputy chiefdom of Chinese Armed Forces Staff.

In 1982, Liu was appointed commander of the Chinese Navy.

Zhu Rongji

Zhu Rongji, a 63-year-old man of resolve and keen intellect, has been elected a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC.

Zhu is a native of Changsha, Hunan Province. He joined the CPC in October 1949.

After his graduation in 1951 from the prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing as an electrical engineering major, he served as deputy head of the Production Planning Office under the Northeast China Industrial Ministry's Planning Section. He then worked long years for the State Planning Commission and State Economic Commission.

After 1983 Zhu was appointed vice-minister in charge of the State Economic Commission. In 1987, he became mayor of Shanghai. Two years later, he doubled as the city's Party chief when Jiang Zemin left to work in Beijing.

Zhu was appointed vice-premier of the State Council in April, 1991.

Zhu was an alternate member of the CPC's 13th Central Committee. As vice-premier and concurrently director of the State Council Economic and Trade Office, he is in charge of nationwide industrial production.

Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao, 49, is the youngest provincial governor in China. In 1982 Hu became the youngest member of the CPC Central Committee, at the age of 39.

In 1987, he became secretary of the CPC Guizhou Provincial Committee, again the youngest among his peers.

In 1988, Hu was appointed secretary of the Party's Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee.

Hu's rapid rise through the Party's echelons is a reflection of the Party's long endeavours to cultivate and promote young cadres.

He once said success in life "requires resolve, attention to concrete matters and courage in making decisions."

This view stemmed largely from his youth-related work for many years. In 1982 he became a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Youth League and chairman of the All-China Youth Federation and, in November 1984, head of the Secretariat.

Hu Jintao was born in Jixi County, Anhui Province, in December 1942.

Hu was a member of the 12th and 13th CPC Central Committees and a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.