Beijing ? Vice President Hu Jintao was appointed today as leader of China’s Communist Party, handing him the country’s most powerful position and making him a certain bet to replace Jiang Zemin as president next year.

His appointment as general secretary positions the little-known Hu at the head of a new generation of leaders who will guide China through sweeping changes and economic reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping and his successor, Jiang. Meanwhile, Jiang was re-elected to head China’s powerful military commission.

“This is a united, triumphant and highly progressive meeting, as well as a meeting which has carried on the past and opened a new chapter for the future,” Hu told reporters inside the hulking Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

He immediately credited Jiang for laying the groundwork for his leadership and the party’s future.

The party posts symbolize the true power of China’s government. Although the president is the head of state in China, his power is derived from his party position. Jiang held both posts since he was named president in 1993.

The eight other newly named members of the inner-sanctum Politburo Standing Committee followed Hu in and stood to his left. Among them: top officials Luo Gan and Wen Jiabao.

Wen, now vice premier, is expected to replace the reform-minded Premier Zhu Rongji, who is also retiring. Luo, the architect of China’s law-enforcement policies, is considered a particularly hard-line leader who is in the midst of a public campaign to tighten controls on the Internet.

Six other younger leaders were also elevated to the Standing Committee and will have key roles in shaping policy during the next decade.

Jiang, who has led the party since 1989, remains in office as president until March. According to practice, Hu will take over that post at the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.