Table of Contents

Introduction: Toward a Power Balancing Perspective on Elite Politics in China; Political Transition and Power Balance: Power Transfer from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao at the Sixteenth Party Congress; China's Political Elites in the Twenty-First Century: Technocrats in Command?; Balance of Formal Power; Balance of Factional Power; Dynamics of Factional Politics: Politics of SARS; Ideological Institutionalization and Politics of Development; Jiang Zemin's Complete Retirement; Hu Jintao's Power Consolidation; Conclusion: Institutionalization and Political Transition.