Don’t be misled by scenes of President Hu Jintao’s smart-looking suits and his imperial-style entourage during his overseas trips to project the prestige of resurgent China. In Beijing, he is respected for his egalitarian style, which might have been due to his having started work at the rural grassroots in western China’s backward Gansu Province in 1968. He stayed there until 1982 when he became a member of the secretariat of the Communist Youth League of China Central Committee and president of the All-China Youth Federation. A new thrust of Hu’s leadership focuses on the less developed western and interior provinces of China, more help for the masses and a social justice priority in economic policies.

One possible reason the iron-willed Deng Xiaoping had chosen Hu Jintao as future leader is his track record of decisiveness. He was not a vacillating weakling who would buckle to pressures, who might be squeamish in implementing unpopular but wise policies. He would not pander to the masses or to popularity surveys. He is the first party chief to have joined the Communist Party after the 1949 Revolution, but he is known for his toughness. He was party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region and he once declared martial law in early 1989 to quell rebellious activists.

Hu Jintao served with distinction as a leader in far-flung and poorest provinces of China. Since then, he steadily rose through the ranks of the party hierarchy and political leadership in a quiet and phenomenal way. In November 2002, Hu was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee at the 16th National Congress of the CPC. In March 2003, he was elected president of China at the first session of the 10th National People’s Congress, the top legislature of the country.

Hu Jintao’s baptism of fire as new leader of China was during the SARS crisis. When the World Health Organization criticized the government’s initial slow response and cover-up of the crisis, Hu swiftly and resolutely kicked out several high-ranking Communist Party leaders, including the health minister and the mayor of Beijing who was just three months in office. He also enhanced transparency in government reporting to international health organizations.

Unlike most of the world’s politicians who love long-winded speeches or photo-ops and high-profile public acts, Hu Jintao maintains a quiet, steady yet decisive leadership style. When the capitalist enclave of Hong Kong was rocked by massive protests in mid-2003 against Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa, President Hu assessed the Hong Kong public’s mood and quietly resolved problems. Despite the unpopularity of HK chief Tung, Hu remains respected in Hong Kong.

The separatist politicians in Taiwan should not test his leadership, because Hu Jintao is iron-willed as evidenced by his passing the March 2005 Anti-Secession Law. Due to his uncompromising stand on the reunification of Taiwan combined with his public relations-charm offensive, top political leaders like Kuomintang/Nationalist Party leader Lien Chan and another top politician James Soong have accepted Hu’s invitation to visit China for direct talks. These visits by Taiwanese presidential contenders are unprecedented and augur well for Asian stability.

Restoring traditional Confucian values of discipline and thrift, President Hu Jintao ordered cost-cutting measures in government amid China’s growing wealth and rising foreign exchange reserves. In 2004, he ordered all new and old Communist Party officials and elite cadres to stop going to the Beidaihe retreat for their yearly summer conferences. He cut down what he considered unnecessary costs like splendid send-offs and welcome rites for leaders going to overseas trips, and other government expenditures.

Ever since the reforms of Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s, China’s economy has grown by leaps and bounds in what western commentators describe as "the greatest economic transformation in history," the political leadership has steadily become institutionalized around CEO-type leaders such as Hu Jintao. It has also become more de-personalized as it veered away from revolutionary helmsmen cult figures like Mao Zedong, who laid the foundations of national unity. Out of patriotism and genuine sense of historic duty to sustain China’s economic renaissance, leaders like President Hu Jintao and his premier, Wen Jiabao, have strengthened orderly succession, as well as rigorous nationwide talent search for new generations of dynamic future leaders.

The Hu Jintao government seems to be veering away from the previous era’s policy of sizzling economic growth at all costs, in favor of China’s solid economic growth with strong emphasis on social progress, social equality, balanced development of rich and poorer regions, environmental protection (which surprisingly includes the use of the so-called "green gross domestic product" in policy-making decisions).

We can all learn valuable lessons on management and the complex challenge of leadership from our recent visitor to the Philippines. One of Hu’s rare recorded statements reflects his strong character, his quiet decisive leadership style now guiding resurgent China into an exciting new golden era. He said that success in life "requires resolve, attention to concrete matters and courage in making decisions."

BULL MARKET, BULL SHEET By Wilson Lee Flores The Philippine STAR 05/02/2005