Why He's No. 58

Some pundits are declaring China’s 2008 Summer Olympic Games as the best ever, and Liu Peng was in charge of making it all happen. As the president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Peng was “The Man," supervising thousands of officials and volunteers, balancing a gargantuan budget and organizing dozens of large-scale events, all with the eyes of the world (and the Communist Party) on him. He succeeded beyond even China’s wildest imagination and is now one of that country’s most celebrated individuals.

Back Stage

Liu Peng was born in 1951 in a China that looks nothing like the China we see today. He was a star pupil and excelled all the way through university, later attending graduate school in the Solid Mechanics Department Chongqing Mechanical Engineering University. Like most successful men in China, Liu Peng’s career really took off in 1979 when he joined the Communist Party of China. In the "you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours" world of Chinese corporate politics, membership is essential. He parlayed that membership into posts in the Sichuan province, where he was the deputy secretary of the provincial Communist Party for a number of years. Liu Peng’s shrewd political savvy elevated him to the Party’s Central Committee in 2002. There he held the ominous-sounding title of Deputy Director of Propaganda. The busy bureaucrat was also named the director of the State General Administration of Sport, using the influence he enjoyed there to join the country’s Olympic committee.

Forcaste

In 772, after Li Huaixian's successor Zhu Xicai was assassinated, Liu Peng's cousin Zhu Ci (a son of Liu's mother's brother) became military governor. Contrary to the prior independent stand that Li and Zhu Xicai took as to the imperial government, Zhu Ci was more reconciliatory and submissive to the imperial government, and in 774, he went to the Tang capital Chang'an and thereafter served as an imperial general around the capital, leaving his brother (also Liu's cousin) Zhu Tao in actual control of the circuit.[8] Liu served under Zhu Tao, and through his accomplishments was made the commander of the Xiongwu Army ( based on modern Chengde, Hebei). Later, he was made the prefect of Zhuo Prefecture (in modern Baoding, Hebei).