Three Chinese in Time 100
laozhedezhe  Updated: 2004-04-26 09:15

Well, it is more and more difficult to read the time since it also requires subscribe to read the new released TIME 100, 3 Chinese are included(If the blah blah Lama is not counted). You will understand the meaning that dollar is everything.

Wu Yi: Goddess of Transparency

It's a Chinese maxim: Women bring disaster. But one of China's most beloved politicians today is its female Vice Premier and Health Minister. In a nation ruled by men who often seem disconnected from their 1.3 billion subjects, Wu has made it her job to care about people. Some peasants believe she is a reincarnation of the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Kwanyin.

The Politburo's only goddess in residence worked in the oil industry for years before serving as China's chief trade negotiator. She was appointed Health Minister during the SARS crisis last year, replacing Zhang Wenkang, who for weeks had steadfastly denied that there was an epidemic. Wu was committed to transparency. "She told me things she didn't have to because she values openness," says Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization's China representative. Wu has turned her attention to a far deadlier plague. The Health Ministry reckons that China has 840,000 HIV-positive citizens, but the nation only recently admitted it had an epidemic. Last December, Wu descended from China's cloistered leadership compound and met one on one with the country's top AIDS activist, a retired country doctor named Gao Yaojie. "Wu Yi said to me, 'Now that everyone else is gone, you can tell me the truth,'" recalls Gao. Rather than bringing disaster, Wu is cleaning one up. -By Hannah Beech

Hu Jin Tao: The Common Touch

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, China's most important holiday, the country's President took time out from running the world's next superpower, drove several hours outside Beijing and knocked unannounced at the two-room village home of peasant Lu Zhanlin. As Lu gaped in astonishment, Hu helped the family stuff dumplings and chatted for an hour about corn prices. Then he handed Lu a red envelope with $120 to buy fertilizer and left. "Hu says he'll help us grow richer, and he follows through on his promises," says Lu, who was impressed-even though "my dumplings looked nicer."

The social call punctuated Hu's banner year after taking over China's presidency from Jiang Zemin. Ordinary Chinese welcome Hu's pledge to raise stagnant peasant incomes, his firing of officials for covering up last year's SARS epidemic and his ban on ostentatious airport send-offs for traveling dignitaries.

At the same time, he has hobnobbed with leaders of capitalist nations at G-8 meetings and pressured North Korea to surrender its nuclear-weapons program.

To leave his mark on China's long history, though, Hu will have to encourage something: political reform. Many see him as a pragmatist who will continue the party's slow withdrawal from a complex society. "Hu isn't changing China. China is changing Hu," says Li Fan, director of the private Beijing-based World and China Institute, which promotes local elections. The unanswered question: Can Hu change fast enough? - By Matthew Forney

Yao Ming: Giant on the Court

When the Chinese basketball star arrived in America in October 2002, Houston Rockets owner Les Alexander said, "This is the biggest individual sports story of all time. Mark my words: in two or three years, he'll be bigger than Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan." Everybody laughed. But no more. Not only has the Rockets' 2.26-m-tall center changed the landscape of the National Basketball Association with his size and shooting touch, but his team-first attitude and self-deprecating humor have blown through the league like a gust of fresh air, reinvigorating a sport grown weary of spoiled, misbehaving superstars. All-American companies such as Visa, Apple, Pepsi and Reebok have flocked to seek his endorsements, making the Shanghai native, 23, the most recognizable Chinese icon since Chairman Mao.

The Chinese are intensely proud of Yao, who has done the Confucian thing by living with his parents and sending polite holiday cards to his teammates and opponents-L.A. Lakers' rival Shaquille O'Neal included. But few people outside the Middle Kingdom ever imagined how deeply a product of China's socialist sports system would capture American hearts. Earlier this year, Yao signed a deal with McDonald's, which had dropped its previous spokesman, the Lakers' Kobe Bryant. Kobe was supposed to be the next Jordan. Turns out the new Michael is a man named Ming. -By Brook Larmer, author of a forthcoming book on China's great leap to the NBA.

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