Ling Jihua Secretary Hu Jintao. On September 19, 2007 Ling was promoted to become Director of General Office of the Communist Party of China, the nerve center of the party that was in charge of all manner of administrative activities of the party's central authorities, including communications and leaders' scheduling and agendas. He also became a Secretary of the Central Secretariat, in charge of the implementation of tasks set forth by the party's Politburo. Throughout Hu Jintao's leadership, Ling accompanied Hu on trips abroad and was often seen with Hu on inspection visits around the country. As one of Hu Jintao's closest
35th G8 summit invited to attend the summit and to participate in some, but not all, G8 summit activities. The G8 plus the five largest emerging economies are known as G8+5, including: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and South African President Jacob Zuma. Hu Jintao curtailed his participation following the eruption of ethnic rioting in Ürümqi. In his place, State Councilor Dai Bingguo led the Chinese delegation at the summit. Previous G8 summits have invited other world leaders to participate; and the Italian duty Presidency invited a number