Hu Jintao faced great resistance. The first crisis of Hu's leadership happened during the outbreak of SARS in 2003. Following strong criticism of China for initially covering up and responding slowly to the crisis, he dismissed several party and government officials, including the health minister, who supported Jiang, and the Mayor of Beijing, Meng Xuenong, widely perceived as Hu's protégé. On 15 November 2002, a new Hu Jintao-led Politburo nominally succeeded Jiang. Although Jiang, then 76, stepped down from the powerful General Secretary and the Politburo Standing Committee to make way for a younger "fourth generation" of leadership, there was speculation that
Hu Chunhua leadership. He toed the party line and is seen as a close confidant and loyalist of Hu Jintao. After Xi Jinping assumed leadership of the Communist Party, Hu continued to play a prominent role politically - his record in Guangdong was praised by the central authorities and by Xi personally. There was wide speculation that Hu would advance directly to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2017 and be groomed as a putative successor to the top leadership, but this ultimately did not occur. However, Hu was selected to become Vice-Premier in 2018, continuing to be the youngest leader among the