A report on Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping and Paramount leader

Deng Xiaoping at age 16, studying in France (1921)

Graduation photo of Jiang, taken in 1947.

Deng's name is spelled Teng Hi Hien on this employment card from the Hutchinson shoe factory in Châlette-sur-Loing, France, where he worked on two occasions as seen from the dates, eight months in 1922 and again in 1923 when he was fired after one month, with the bottom annotation reading "refused to work, do not take him back"

Hu Jintao with Leaders of the BRICS countries, from left, Singh, Medvedev, Rousseff and Zuma in April 2011

Jiang Zemin with U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Hu with George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush in Beijing, 10 August 2008

Jiang Zemin with his wife and George W. Bush with his wife in Crawford, Texas, 25 October 2002.

Deng Xiaoping with He Long (middle) and Zhu De (right) (1949)

Hu talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the 2009 Pittsburgh G-20 Summit

Jiang Zemin's inscription engraved on a stone in his hometown, Yangzhou

Deng Xiaoping (left) met with the 14th Dalai Lama (right) in 1954

Deng Xiaoping (left) with future president Li Xiannian (center) and Premier Zhou Enlai in 1963

Deng Xiaoping (centre) with U.S. president Gerald Ford (left), 1975

Deng Xiaoping (left) and his wife Zhuo Lin (right) are briefed by Johnson Space Center director Christopher C. Kraft (extreme right)

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Lizhi Park, Shenzhen, one of China's first special economic zones and is regarded as China's Silicon Valley

A model reconstruction of Deng Xiaoping's 1984 meeting with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Shenzhen

A patrol boat in use during Deng Xiaoping's southern tour of 1992

Deng Xiaoping's ashes lie in state in Beijing whose banner reads "Memorial Service of Comrade Deng Xiaoping", February 1997

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Shenzhen, Guangdong

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Qingdao, Shandong

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Dujiangyan, Sichuan

Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997), also known by his courtesy name Xixian (希贤), was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to 1992.

- Deng Xiaoping

Hu was the paramount leader of China from 2004 to 2012.

- Hu Jintao

As the involvement of the "Eight Elders" in Chinese politics steadily declined, Jiang consolidated his hold on power to become the "paramount leader" in the country during the 1990s.

- Jiang Zemin

The term gained prominence during the era of Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989), when he was able to wield political power without necessarily holding any official or formally significant party or government positions at any given time (head of state, head of government or CCP General Secretary).

- Paramount leader

He moved up to First Secretary of the CCP Central Secretariat and Vice-president under Jiang Zemin.

- Hu Jintao

The term has been used less frequently to describe Deng's successors, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, who have all formally held the offices of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (party leader), President of the People's Republic of China (head of state) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (commander-in-chief).

- Paramount leader

Influential sponsors from the older generation promoted his rapid rise, including Song Ping, Hu Yaobang, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin.

- Hu Jintao

At the age of 95 years, 350 days, Jiang is the longest-living paramount leader in the history of the PRC, surpassing Deng Xiaoping on 14 February 2019.

- Jiang Zemin

In November 2002, Jiang stepped down from the powerful Politburo Standing Committee and as General Secretary at the age of 76 to make way for a "fourth generation" of leadership headed by Hu Jintao, beginning a transition of power that would last several years.

- Jiang Zemin

Officially, Deng decided to retire from top positions when he stepped down as Chairman of the Central Military Commission in November 1989 and his successor Jiang Zemin became the new Chairman of Central Military Commission.

- Deng Xiaoping

He continued to be widely regarded as the "paramount leader" of the country, believed to have backroom control despite no official position apart from being chairman of the Chinese Contract Bridge Association, and appointed Hu Jintao as Jiang's successor on 14th Party Congress in 1992.

- Deng Xiaoping