Hu Jintao and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and then later First Secretary of the Central Secretariat and Vice-President under former leader Jiang Zemin. Hu is the first leader of the Communist Party without any significant revolutionary credentials. During his term in office, Hu reintroduced state control in some sectors of the economy that were relaxed by the previous administration, and was conservative with political reforms. Along with his colleague Premier Wen Jiabao, Hu presided over nearly a decade of consistent economic growth and development that cemented China as a major world power. He sought to improve socio-economic equality domestically through the Scientific
Li Ruihuan behind only Hu Jintao. Thus, many Li supporters assumed that he and Vice President Hu would have been the only two PSC incumbents to have their five-year terms renewed at the 16th congress. Thus, he would have been in place likely to assume the post of chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC), a post held by Li Peng prior to the party congress. Some were even expecting that Li Ruihuan would have formed a triumvirate together in the post-16th congress PSC with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Many expected that such a triumvirate would have relegated Jiang's "Shanghai clique,"