The World: Most Likely to Succeed

For nearly a half-century now, Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai have loomed large on the world's stage. Who will eventually replace them?

Occupying prominent front-row seats on the rostrum at the recent National People's Congress were sixteen Chinese leaders, any one of whom could one day rule their country. They are the je-hsin—the Chinese expression for the ambitious, the zealous, the hot-hearted. Most likely to succeed: the diminutive (5 ft.) Teng Hsiao-ping, 70, who has achieved the most spectacular political comeback in Communist China's history. The congress named him first among Chou's twelve Vice...