Hu Jintao was the paramount leader of China between 2002 and 2012. He held the offices of General Secretary of the Communist Party, President of the People's Republic and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. He was a member of the 14th to 17th CPC Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body. Hu has participated in the Communist party bureaucracy for most of his career, notably as Party secretary for Guizhou province and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and then later First secretary of the Central Secretariat and Vice-President under former leader Jiang Zemin. Hu is the first leader of the Communist Party without any significant revolutionary credentials. As such, his rise to the leadership represented China's transition of leadership from establishment communists to younger, more pragmatic technocrats. During his term in office, Hu reintroduced state control in some sectors of the economy that were relaxed by the previous administration, and has been conservative with political reforms. 

December 21st, 1942 in Taizhou (Age 81)