Jiang Zemin

THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN determines who reigns in China. The Communists won that mandate in 1949, regimenting the empire. Whether they will last, like Han and Ming dynasties, must be doubted. More likely, the Communists will depart leaving permanent works, like the Qin dynasty of the third century B.C., whose military, economic and bureaucratic achievements are on view at "The First Emperor" show at the Walters Art Gallery starting today.China, its great literary and religious age over, was small warring states.

BEIJING -- The Communist Party boss of China's wealthiest city has been charged with corruption and ousted from his job, state media reported yesterday. Chen Liangyu, who served not only as party secretary of Shanghai but also as a member of Beijing's ruling politburo, is the highest ranking official in more than a decade to be targeted in a campaign against corruption. As head of China's showcase city and a protege of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Chen was seen as practically untouchable even when other graft-related scandals swirled around him. The investigation into Chen centered on the misuse of Shanghai's social security funds for illicit investments in real estate and other infrastructure projects, according to the New China News Agency.

BEIJING -- On the seventh day after he took up the title of commander in chief of China's armed forces in November 1989, President Jiang Zemin went to the far western province of Xinjiang to inspect a frigid frontier post. There he demanded to know why the soldiers were sleeping with only one blanket. "Aren't they cold at night?" he said.There in the barracks, like George Washington looking after the men of Valley Forge, he admonished the officers, "Our cadres must care for each and every soldier and be concerned with their livelihood."

BEIJING - Jiang Zemin may have relinquished the top position in the ruling Communist Party yesterday, but his reappointment as head of the Central Military Commission immediately raised questions about the real extent of the power of Hu Jintao, Jiang's successor as chief of the Communist Party. As a weeklong meeting of the Chinese Communist Party leadership wound to a conclusion, the talk here was more about Jiang's apparent victory in nominal retirement than about Hu's ascension. The Standing Committee of the Politburo, the top council that was expanded yesterday to nine members from seven, was clearly packed with Jiang loyalists who could prevent any major departures in policy.

Call them the Baltimore Crabs, in honor of sideways-slithering Montgomery legislators.Maybe Dole can't beat Clinton in November, but Jiang Zemin sure can.St. Agnes Hospital offers new moms a second day to rest and the health biz police want to drum it out of the cartel.;/ Cheer up. Yeltsin is seeking a second term.

THE WORLD watches the deathbed -- if such it is -- of a 92-year-old man who has held no office since 1990 and not been seen in public for three years. China's President Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng rushed back to Beijing. Word went out unofficially -- officially denied -- that Deng Xiaoping, the Great Architect, was failing. A Hong Kong newspaper said he had a massive stroke.Perhaps he did. Stocks dipped on the Hong Kong stock exchange and plummeted on two little stock exchanges inside China.

BEIJING -- The Communist Party boss of China's wealthiest city has been charged with corruption and ousted from his job, state media reported yesterday. Chen Liangyu, who served not only as party secretary of Shanghai but also as a member of Beijing's ruling politburo, is the highest ranking official in more than a decade to be targeted in a campaign against corruption. As head of China's showcase city and a protege of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Chen was seen as practically untouchable even when other graft-related scandals swirled around him. The investigation into Chen centered on the misuse of Shanghai's social security funds for illicit investments in real estate and other infrastructure projects, according to the New China News Agency.

THE RECKLESS series of missile firings with dummy warheads into the sea lanes off Taiwan's busiest commercial ports is China's effort to intimidate the Taiwan Chinese out of their first democratic election for president.On March 23, the people of Taiwan are almost certainly going to elect President Lee Teng-hui to another term. He is a native Taiwanese who leads the party that ruled China before 1949. He adheres to the legality that Taiwan is part of China. But in practical terms he is carving out international recognition which Taiwan's commercial success merits by incremental steps that frighten Beijing.

DEMANDING CONTRADICTIONS, the 15th Communist Party Congress of China is enshrining Deng Xiaoping Theory along with Mao Zedong Thought. Economic ownership must represent diverse interests; political control and expression must be monolithic. As though the two had nothing to do with each other.Party boss Jiang Zemin, the late Deng Xiaoping's last protege, decreed a breathtaking clean-out of China's creaking state industries, which drag down growth and production while keeping the populace ostensibly employed.

NEW YORK -- Like many Americans of my generation, I grew up putting change into envelopes for Christian missions in China and praying for the souls of people in that far land. It was God's work, saving souls whether they wanted to be saved or not. Now, all these years later, I think we might consider a 27-word China policy based on a prayer I remember this way:''God, grant me the courage to change what needs to be changed; the serenity to accept what cannot be changed; and the wisdom to know the difference.

BEIJING - The Communist Party revved up its vast propaganda machine yesterday to convince the Chinese people that it had won major concessions from the U.S. government in exchange for Wednesday's release of 24 American spy plane crew members. In a mass-media assault designed to shore up support and deflect criticism, China's state-run newspapers ran identical stories lauding the agreement and portraying Beijing as the victor in the 11-day showdown with the world's lone superpower. "Our government and people have carried out a strong struggle against American hegemonism and forced the American government to change the original hard line and savage attitude and express their sorrow to the Chinese people," said a front-page editorial in People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper.

BEIJING - Taking a cue from last week's successful summit between rivals North and South Korea, Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian invited Chinese President Jiang Zemin yesterday to join him for their own summit. "I sincerely invite the leader of China, Mr. Jiang Zemin, to join hands and work to create a moment like the handshake between North and South Korea," said Chen, referring to the warm meeting last week between the leaders of the divided peninsula. "If North and South Korea can, why can't the two sides of the [Taiwan]

BEIJING -- President Clinton ended his nine-day tour of China today, leaving behind a major question.Will the door that opened for him to engage in an extraordinary public discourse about issues most sensitive to the nation's repressive regime remain open? Or will it slam shut behind him?In two unprecedented nationally televised events -- a news conference with China's President Jiang Zemin and an address to students at Beijing University -- Clinton spoke out on such forbidden topics as Tibet, human rights and the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

NEW YORK -- Like many Americans of my generation, I grew up putting change into envelopes for Christian missions in China and praying for the souls of people in that far land. It was God's work, saving souls whether they wanted to be saved or not. Now, all these years later, I think we might consider a 27-word China policy based on a prayer I remember this way:''God, grant me the courage to change what needs to be changed; the serenity to accept what cannot be changed; and the wisdom to know the difference.

BEIJING -- Politicians are often accused of saying one thing and doing another, but the leaders of China's Communist Party must have set records in this field last week.In the 15th Party Congress, a meeting held every five years to decide policy and select leaders, General Secretary Jiang Zemin had the unenviable task of justifying continued capitalist-style reforms in the words of Karl Marx.As if playing a rhetorical game of Twister, he stretched and bent the language of socialism to fit the country's continued push toward a market economy.

DEMANDING CONTRADICTIONS, the 15th Communist Party Congress of China is enshrining Deng Xiaoping Theory along with Mao Zedong Thought. Economic ownership must represent diverse interests; political control and expression must be monolithic. As though the two had nothing to do with each other.Party boss Jiang Zemin, the late Deng Xiaoping's last protege, decreed a breathtaking clean-out of China's creaking state industries, which drag down growth and production while keeping the populace ostensibly employed.

BEIJING - Taking a cue from last week's successful summit between rivals North and South Korea, Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian invited Chinese President Jiang Zemin yesterday to join him for their own summit. "I sincerely invite the leader of China, Mr. Jiang Zemin, to join hands and work to create a moment like the handshake between North and South Korea," said Chen, referring to the warm meeting last week between the leaders of the divided peninsula. "If North and South Korea can, why can't the two sides of the [Taiwan]

BEIJING -- With the world's last major Communist Party opening its most important meeting in years here today, its top leader -- General Secretary Jiang Zemin -- is expected to preach capitalism.He won't use the forbidden word. It will be cloaked in the same Communist jargon that appears on banners festooning the city.But analysts say his message should be clear: China must speed up the privatization of its failing state-owned enterprises, which threaten to derail the country's drive toward a market economy.

BEIJING -- With the world's last major Communist Party opening its most important meeting in years here today, its top leader -- General Secretary Jiang Zemin -- is expected to preach capitalism.He won't use the forbidden word. It will be cloaked in the same Communist jargon that appears on banners festooning the city.But analysts say his message should be clear: China must speed up the privatization of its failing state-owned enterprises, which threaten to derail the country's drive toward a market economy.

THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN determines who reigns in China. The Communists won that mandate in 1949, regimenting the empire. Whether they will last, like Han and Ming dynasties, must be doubted. More likely, the Communists will depart leaving permanent works, like the Qin dynasty of the third century B.C., whose military, economic and bureaucratic achievements are on view at "The First Emperor" show at the Walters Art Gallery starting today.China, its great literary and religious age over, was small warring states.