Hu Jintao: A Confident, Self-Assured Leader

In 2010 you had him around to your place while you were prime minister for private drinks. In those conversations, and I spent a lot of time with the guy, it was all in Chinese. It was remarkable how he saw his role in bringing China to the next stage of its economic modernisation. And certainly I could detect a confident, self-assured turn about where he wanted to take China in the future. He would never have committed the mistake which I committed, which is to focus on an important visitor rather than to watch what Julie was up to at the same time.