Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Hu's long-awaited rise to the chairmanship of the party's powerful Central Military Commission culminates a leadership transition that began in November 2002 when he replaced Jiang as party head.
Hu, 61, replaced Jiang as president in March 2003.
He has now solidified his position as the core of the fourth generation of communist leadership following the revolutionary Mao Zedong (
Hu's appointment was confirmed on the final day of a high-level meeting of the party's Central Committee, which was also due to approve a wide-ranging policy document aimed at consolidating party power through the democratization of its secretive inner workings.
Sources had said before the announcement that there was much pressure within the central committee for Jiang to retire, following in the footsteps of Deng who quit as chairman of the military commission in 1989 in favor of Jiang.
There was also speculation that he was in poor health, stricken with prostate cancer.
As well as Hu's promotion, General Xu Caihou (
The commission itself was expanded from four to seven members.
While Jiang still holds the chairmanship of the state military commission, his removal from that post is expected to be a formality when the National People's Congress (NPC), or parliament, meets for its annual session next year.
Jiang's resignation is expected to help Hu to make his mark on politics and to push through his pet reforms -- bringing greater transparency and democracy to the ruling party and stifling corruption in the party and government.
Such reforms, however, are expected to be carried out only if they work to consolidate the party's stranglehold over China's one-party political system.
Last week, in a major speech marking the 50th anniversary of the NPC, Hu ruled out the implementation of Western-style democratic reforms, saying it would lead the country into a "blind alley."
"All the political systems introduced into old China ... failed to change their nature as representative of the interests of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, and the Chinese people remained in the miserable position as the oppressed, the enslaved and the exploited," he said.
Premier Wen Jiabao will also expect to see his powers to control the country's booming economy strengthened, since Jiang's resignation will likely streamline the chain of command at the highest levels.
Although Hu and Wen are seen as representing a new generation of leaders, there is little doubt that ensuring the Communist Party's one-party rule remains the priority of all top party leaders.
"Enhancing the party's ruling capacity is a major issue of strategic importance to the fate of both the building of socialism and the Chinese nation," Xinhua said last week at the opening of the meeting.
Paul Harris, a political scientist at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, cautioned that it was still too early to say that the transition was over.
"The assumption is that Jiang Zemin is out nominally, he has given up his title, but all along he has been trying to be like Deng Xiaoping and he wants to be active from behind the scenes," he said.
Jiang's ability to rule behind the scenes would be strengthened by a cabal of senior party and government leaders whom he promoted during his 15 years in power, including Vice President Zeng Qinghong (
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