China's Hu says he is not a mystery man

PENANG, Malaysia -- The man most widely tipped to be China's next leader has said during an Asian tour it was unfair for the media to label him as mysterious.

Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao was speaking in Malaysia as part of his highest-profile trip overseas yet, a journey that will take him to his first official visit to the United States.

"That description is not fair to me," the 58-year-old Hu said on Thursday to reporters, after touring a dam in Malaysia's northern resort island of Penang.

Looking relaxed in an open-neck shirt, the heir-apparent to Chinese President Jiang Zhemin even posed with a group of Chinese reporters at an impromptu photo session at the Telok Bahang dam, catching security officials by surprise.

The dam was built by a Chinese contractor, China International Water and Electric Corp.

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Little is known about Jiang's likely successor, except that he likes dancing and table tennis and is said to have a photographic memory. Hu's policies are also a bit of a mystery, with analysts eyeing this trip closely.

The jaunt to Malaysia, Singapore and then the United States is the most significant move yet to boost his credentials at home and overseas and cement his position as the next leader of the world's most populous nation.

While the succession is not assured, he is the favorite to succeed Jiang as head of the Communist Party this year and as China's president in 2003.

1911 revolution

Earlier, Hu visited the house in Penang once used by Sun Yat-sen to plot the 1911 revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty.

Hu flew to the island on the third day of his visit to Malaysia, arriving amid tight security and under a hot sun at 120 Armenian Street in downtown Penang.

A cheering crowd of onlookers greeted Hu, who acknowledged their welcome before stepping inside the 19th-century double-story terrace house.

He stayed about 15 minutes in the Georgetown district house, which is a stop on the heritage trail in Penang, Malaysia's only Chinese majority state and a vibrant technology hub.

Canton uprising

The traditional Straits Chinese house served as the base of Sun's revolutionary party, the Tung Meng Hooi (Mutual Alliance), from 1909 to 1911.

Sun and his overseas Chinese supporters met in the house in 1910 to plan the Canton uprising in the spring of 1911. The meeting went down in Chinese history as the "Penang Conference."

"We get a lot of visitors, but Mr Hu is the highest ranking Chinese official ever to visit this house," Khoo Salma Nasution, secretary of the Penang Heritage Trust, told Reuters.

The house is in the Muslim area of Georgetown, and is surrounded by two historical mosques built by Muslims from India and Indonesia's Aceh.

Hu also visited a butterfly park, which has attracted many visiting Chinese leaders, including Jiang, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and parliament chief Li Peng.

The 16-year-old park, the first in the tropical world, has 4,000-5,000 butterflies of at least 120 species.

On Friday, Hu will fly from Penang to Singapore, and will then visit the United States from April 27 to May 3, where he is expected to meet President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.