
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 28, 1993                   TAG: 9303280049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: BEIJING                                LENGTH: Medium

CHINA ANNOINTS PRESIDENT

China announced Saturday that Jiang Zemin, its Communist Party leader, would also become the nation's president, a move that gives one man the top posts in the party, government and military for the first time since the 1970s.

Not since Hua Guofeng picked up the three posts after Mao Zedong died in 1976 has one Chinese leader been given so much formal authority. The promotion, which had been expected, is a reversal of the leadership's recent efforts to begin separating the Communist Party from the government.

But Western diplomats and Chinese intellectuals note that the presidency is largely ceremonial.

For now Jiang holds power only at the pleasure of Deng Xiaoping, China's 88-year-old senior leader, who holds no official posts. Deng presumably wanted to give Jiang the presidency in part to increase the chances of an orderly succession, but even so it is not clear that the titles will help him much in the power struggle that is expected after Deng dies.

Another reason is more mundane: as president, Jiang will find it easier to travel than when he was only the Communist Party leader. Jiang, a 66-year-old engineer who delights in showing off his English, Russian, Romanian and bit of Japanese, was also re-elected Saturday as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Deng and other leaders decided on the moves over recent months, but Saturday the National People's Congress obediently elected Jiang president. There was no other candidate.

Rong Yiren, the 77-year-old chairman of a state investment company, was named vice president. His promotion is intended to bolster China's image of economic progress.

by CNB