Beijing: Hu Jintao was on March 15 elevated to the post of President of the People's Republic of China, but he remains an enigma to the world and his 1.3 billion countrymen.

"Who is Hu?" is the lingering question among ordinary Chinese people, who are not sure about his plan to lead China in the new Century amid growing unemployment and the volatile twists and turns in regional and international politics.

Hu's career path gives few clues about him and 'China watchers' are not sure whether he is a liberal or conservative. The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), which groomed him to take up the responsibilities, has so far shielded him from prying eyes of the international community.

However, on March 15, the CPC lifted the veil and the nearly 3,000-member-strong China's Parliament, with the approval of the CPC, gave Hu, 60, strong backing by approving his candidature as head of state for the next five years, succeeding Jiang Zemin.

Hu, who was appointed general secretary of the CPC on November 2002, has visited India once in the mid-80s when he was president of the all China Youth League (CYL).

While Hu, who heads the 'fourth generation' of Chinese leaders, has been China's Vice-President since March 1998 and was being groomed to succeed President Jiang, none of the top Indian leaders have met him during their visits to the country.

Trained as a hydropower engineer from Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, he rose through the CYL and served as the first Communist Party chief in Tibet with a civilian background.

Hu played a key role in quelling the pro-independence demonstrations in Lhasa staged by the supporters of the exiled Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama, in March 1989.

His ability to protect the interests of the Chinese Central government and Communist Party in Tibet was said to be a key factor behind the surprise decision by late patriarch Deng Xiaoping to elevate Hu to the politburo standing committee, the most powerful political body, in 1992.

During his rapid rise to the top of the Communist Party, Hu has set records for being the youngest leader in nearly every post he has held.

People, who had the fortune to meet Hu often describe him as "bland, competent and enigmatic". He is supposed to have a photographic memory and speaks eloquently without notes.

Yet those qualities have helped him to survive in China's unique and opaque political system, where standing out can lead to getting cut down to size, observes said.

They say that since Deng anointed Hu as Jiang's successor in 1992, he has tried to avoid controversy by keeping silent on any divergent views from that of his mentors.

For example, when Hu travelled to Germany, Britain, France and Russia in 2001 and to the United States in early 2002, he stuck closely to the party line, which prompted some Western diplomats to comment that they got the sense that he is reading from prepared text, even though he was not doing so.

Analysts say though Hu has been parroting the outgoing President Jiang Zemin's ideas till now, he has ideas of his own. However, he is unlikely to display them publicly, as long as he has not established his power base within the party and the powerful Chinese military.

"Hu is an enigmatic and indistinct man so far, who needs to establish his profile," respected China watcher David Shambaugh said.

Hu also knows that Jiang favours Zeng Qinghong, a close aide and hatchet man and a member of the all-powerful politburo standing committee of the CPC, who has helped the 76-year-old leader to remain in power for 13 years.

Other analysts say that in the course of consolidating his power, Hu will have to make compromises or clash with Jiang, who still wields power in Chinese politics as the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which controls the 2.5 million-strong People's Liberation Army.

PTI