Despite identical surnames Hu Yaobang and China's current supreme leader Hu Jintao are not related. They do however share one uncomfortable fact: both were appointed to lead by an individual, Deng Xiaoping, rather than elected.

Analysts believe the meaning of the Hu Yaobang memorial served short and long term strategies for the collective leadership in Beijing.

The immediate goal of the gathering was an effort to diffuse lingering stigma from the pro-democracy protests sparked by Hu Yaobang's death in April 1989 ending with the Tiananmen massacre that year.

The event Friday on the eve of President George W. Bush's visit to China, along with a White Paper on Democracy issued in Oct. 2005 enables the Chinese leadership to say they are working on political reform.

Such rhetorical riposte firepower is important in the aftermath of Bush's challenge for the mainland to embrace greater freedoms, as is the concept of democracy on the mainland. Unlike the People's Republic, Taiwan has enjoyed free elections, even if the island's politics and democratic institutions are somewhat immature.

China claims Taiwan is a breakaway province. The manner in which Taiwanese residents define themselves is one of the greatest dangers to stability and peace in the Asia Pacific region.

There is no definitive consensus among American, Chinese and Taiwanese leaders regarding the political status of the entity calling itself the Republic of China. It's a diplomatic uncertainty which academics call "strategic ambiguity."

However two things are certain: one is China enshrined its willingness to fight over sovereignty over Taiwan by amending its constitution to that effect in 2004; the other is the Bush administration's commitment to defending a peaceful resolution of the reunification issue, bound by the Taiwan Relations Act of Congress in 1979.

According to most political and military analysts, China isn't (and won't be) ready for a showdown of such magnitude unless there is a Taiwanese declaration of independence. In the meantime, the words of PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Liu Jianchao Thursday are an accurate reflection of the mainland's bottom line.

When asked if China could learn from Taiwanese democracy and would increase the pace of its internal democratic reform, Liu's response was pure PRC boilerplate: "Taiwan is not a sovereign state; it is an inalienable part of Chinese territory."

Liu added: "The situations on Taiwan and China are different; we hope that the United States can have a correct understanding of that," stating the obvious.

The second objective in commemorating the 90th birthday of Hu Yaobang, dead now for more than 16 years, is in line with the long-term gradualist approach Chinese leaders favor inching towards political freedom.

Hu was a political prot�g� of patriarch Deng Xiaoping serving as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party for almost seven years from Feb. 1980 onset of the economic reform movement until Jan. 1987 when he was ousted by his patron for tolerating student protests seeking political reform.

China watchers recall Hu's long stint as titular party chief following the institutionalized chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). His tenure goes down as a period helping foster pioneering steps of innovation, personal integrity and honesty plus a much-needed modicum of stability in government for a people and country exhausted by a decade of perennially vicious and frequently violent communist ideological upheaval.

During his career Hu was characterized as a liberal by Western optimists for traveling to Tibet where he apologized for the brutality and ignorance of policies ordered by Beijing plus quirky notions like suggesting Chinese abandon chopsticks in favor of cutlery.

However those who followed Hu Yaobang closely remember his remarks in Lhasa for promising reform, not liberation. Moreover Hu was a firm believer in the Communist Party's absolute control over the press.

Speculation of rifts involving Hu Jintao, handpicked by Deng during his dying days as a "fourth generation leader" are premature. This Hu is now in Busan South Korea for the APEC meeting. He is China's triple crown holder of political power -- president, party general secretary and military chairman.

It is important to remember that Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao and Zeng Qinghon are new party animals rising to the top at the start of the next generation's attempt at organization building. Factions fracturing facade of solidarity are not evident at this juncture.

China must come to realize that its people must have a say in who leads them. An intelligent America has nothing to fear when real democracy finally reaches China.

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