How does Hu Jintaos style differ from Jiang Zemins?
In style [Hu] is different from Jiang Zemin. Hu is someone who quickly gets down to business and focuses very much on the international issues at hand. Jiang in almost every meeting would find some way to review Chinese philosophy, poetry, or culture, or talk about his own upbringing, in addition to the issues at hand. There was a real mixture of hardnosed grappling with the issues and this personal overlay that went off in all kinds of directions. Jiang was a great believer in the importance of personal diplomacy — [the idea that] people do make a difference, especially when leaders deal with each other. Jiang became heavily invested in his personal relationship with leaders of the U.S. We don’t know whether Hu Jintao will put a similar emphasis on personal relations. Q: Isn’t Hu playing a more active role than Jiang did on issues such as North Korea? A: With North Korea, China clearly has increased its engagement. [In the past,] they have sought a non-nuclear Korean peninsula. They
