Chinese President Hu Jintao
#9. China's New Leaders
Oct. 22: China's 17th Communist Party Congress unveils the new politburo that will rule the country until 2012. The notoriously opaque system of bargaining over leadership positions in the one-party system appears to have produced a compromise candidate as likely successor for President Hu Jintao: Xi Jinping, who may now have eclipsed Li Keqiang, believed to have been President Hu's preferred choice. While Li is deemed to be a Hu protégé, Xi is viewed as close to both Hu and his still-influential predecessor, Jiang Zemin.