the third group of officials is made up of party members who have been close to jiang zemin from the time he was party chief of shanghai. we know a lot about the forces at play in china's leadership shuffle. but journalists, diplomats, and experts are all in the dark to some extent when it comes to the negotiating, the deal making and predicting the final outcome. >> another question is how much influence the president will continue to have over the xi jinping administration. what is hu expected to do regarding his post as the head of the central military commission? >> well, it is still unclear whether he will stay in the post or step down and cede power to xi. the head of the central commission controls china's armed forces. so the post is essentially regarded as a supreme leader of the country. even though the party has a general secretary. and there is no retirement age for this post. history suggests hu jintao might stay. he held onto the position for two years after he stepped down as general secretary to make way for hu jintao. president hu may follow jiang's examples to maint

that's what jiang zemin did in 2002 before retiring two years later. but it appears hu is leaving politics entirely. and so xi jinping will control both the party and the military. he's set to take over as president next year. china's political machine has many moving parts. it's sometimes hard to figure out how everything fits together. so we turn to an expert for help from the japan institute of international affairs who gave us some insight on the party's transition of power. >> he capitalized his role as coordinator rather than the leader. and he was inciting on how he carried on with the tasks established by his predecessor and how he sensed a need of the people in the locality and he formed consensus. so i don't think he's bent on taking a very strong leadership. so i think he will try very hard to forge consensus rather than leading. five new members are all over 64. and it's a current rule that anybody under 60 -- over 68 would not qualify to be on the committee is going to be applied next time. they will all have to go. so this is not the kind

the second group is the jiang zemin group and jiang was the president before hu who left in 2002. viewed that on his death bed he's made a resurgence and this convention is basically the jiang zemin crowd known as the shanghai gang in china taking over the china. the children of the original revolutionary leaders and xi is one of these, but this is a jiang group and it's an intensely business-oriented group. i think you will see some political reforms continue, and some economic reforms and basically the job of this group is how do we keep the people stable so we can hang on to power for various reasons? >> it sounds like what you're telling me is if it ends up that way it's an investment status quo, that we should continue to do the same things we've been doing in the way we view china and the way we invest related to it. >> i think so. the slowdown in growth is real and the shift from investment to consumption is real. there are many problems and pollution in china that have to be dealt with, but basically, this is an issue of the mining stocks and the mental stocks worrying abo

that was removed by jiang zemin and we've seen them come into the fore. of the reasons why they're favord is they're seen as defending the party. being from the people who founded the party, they will defend it most strongly. >> brown: one of the questions going in here had been whether the new leader would be health of both the party and the military. that seems to have been settled. if is that significant? >> it's very significant. it's very helpful for xi jinping. it allows him to be fully empowered coming into power. for hu jintao, the previous president, they had an aborted transition where the previous president jiang zemin stayed in the military chair. this created confusion in the system as to what who was in charge. this way xi jinping will be fully'm power today start moving ahead with his own policy direction. >> brown: that's the next question. what is that? especially vis-a-vis the u.s. what kinds of things would be on the table that might impact the long-term relationship? >> i they will be going on is a struggle between his own inclinations

the place on the platform went to 86-year-old former president jiang zemin. old guard still pull the strings. as hu spoke for 93 minutes about his decade in power, the man expected to succeed him, x jinping, took notes. he'll inria pay whh kn it is people are angry about the growing gap between rich and poor and corruption amongst the elite. >> ( translated ): opposing corruption and building an honest and clean government is a clear stance the party has been adhering to and is an important political issue people have been paying attention to. if we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party and even cause its collapse and the fall of the states. >> reporter: strong words, but they've been said before and the families of some current politburo members are suspiciously wealthy. the delegates, who come from all over china, poured out into the sunshine. they know their lines. >> ( translated ): i'm proud of the communist party. it created miracles in history. it's found a path that leads to the rise of the chinese nation. >> reporter: in t

japanese prime minister and the south korean head of state, and all the chinese communist leaders -- jiang zemin and li peng. c-span: who of all those people impressed you the most -- personally, not their political beliefs? >> guest: boris yeltsin, simply because i'm fascinated by russian politics and russian history, and he's just such a formidable presence. even walking into the room, he's just quite a force in his own right. and i admired him very much for having such a tremendous influence in bringing the end of communism to his state. c-span: when does your second book come out? >> guest: next fall. it will be published by random house. i haven't titled it yet, but it will deal with nixon's foreign policy views and it will deal with nixon's views on scandal more extensively: whitewater, watergate, the clarence thomas hearings, the kennedys. it will deal with the legacy of vietnam and what nixon saw the legacy of vietnam as for the united states, and the destruction of that entire era on american pop culture. and it will deal with nixon on nixon, his views on philosophy, on religion, on his