HU JINTAO

AGE: 65
OCCUPATION: President of China
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 3

PRO: Recently reelected to a second five-year term (landslide! nailed it again!), Hu recently got a gift, in the form of a more mainland-friendly regime in Taiwan. He's also the frontman for Awesome China Expo '08 (a.k.a. the Olympics)...

CON: ...and the two big liabilities it brings with it: increased scrutiny of China's human-rights record in Tibet and its support of the Sudanese government's repressive policies in Darfur. There's also the collapse of the American consumer economy to worry about.