Though Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping's successor as China's head of state, was named general secretary of the Communist Party, state president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission (ie, commander-in-chief of the armed forces) between 1989 and 1993, he remained overshadowed by Deng, who exercised power informally well after he had given up his last position in 1990.

Indeed, when Deng relaunched China's economic reforms in 1992 and sent growth rates rocketing, he had only one official title: Honorary chairman of the Chinese Bridge Association.

[A similar relationship was expected to hold between Jiang and hiss successor, Hu Jintao. Hu once served as president of the party school in Beijing. (Note to would be slacker-freshmen: the mandate of the 'party school' is to train senior cadres for high office. Remarkably, the school has, at Mr Hu's behest, encouraged research into such areas as the development of social democratic parties in Europe).]