President Jiang Zemin met the press yesterday at the end of the Chinese Communist Party Congress. This was a rare event, televised live. Reporters were corralled hours in advance in a heavily-carpeted room in the Great Hall of the People.
Mr Jiang emerged from behind a screen, followed by newly-elected members of the Politburo Standing Committee. He spoke briefly from a microphone (behind a hedgerow of poinsettias and palm fronds) about how successful the congress had been. Hong Kong journalists shouted questions but he replied only - in English - "Thank you for coming" and they all walked off.
That was it. But we had got what we came for. The message was in the deed, not the words. The positioning of the seven men in dark suits, white shirts and silk ties was a carefully-calibrated demonstration of the new power ranking in China after a leadership shuffle at the congress - in a communist ritual as anachronistic as the Marxist language used this week to promote capitalist reforms.
So here, in order of appearance (which means in order of importance) are the people who will rule the most populous country in the world for the next five years:
Jiang Zemin (71), party secretary, president, and chairman of the central military commission has been China's top official since 1989.
Ponderous and uncharismatic, with a taste for karaoke, he has been strengthened by the congress but has yet to attain the stature of his mentor, Deng Xiaoping. Dismissed at first as a powerless transitional figure whose rule would end with Deng's death, he has secured his position by promoting allies and dominating the middle ground.
Li Peng (69), the adopted son of China's beloved former prime minister, Zhou Enlai, stays at number two. As prime minister he presided over one of the greatest economic booms in history. Li played a leading role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, but has reinvented his image by touring with his wife, pressing the flesh, meeting foreign leaders and smiling a lot.
Zhu Rongji (69), up two places from number five, gained prestige as Deng's economic strategist. Distinguished by soaring eyebrows and a reluctance to smile, he is expected to take over as prime minister next March. Mr Zhu is a tough talker, once threatening to chop off the heads of unruly bankers while enforcing a credit squeeze.
Li Ruihuan (63), keeps his fourth place. A former construction worker and mayor of Tianjin, the bluff, popular Li once told foreign reporters he did not want the top job. "People are afraid to be famous, just as the pig is afraid to be strong and fat, because that is when it will be slaughtered," he said.
Hu Jintao (54) is the youngest and the one to watch as a possible successor to Mr Jiang. He runs the Communist Party. Mr Hu built his reputation as party leader in Tibet.
Wei Jianxing (61), a pudgy newcomer, may have got the post as a trade-off for the forced retirement of his mentor, the parliament chairman, Mr Qiao Shi. As China's top anti-corruption official, he ousted the Beijing party boss in a big scandal two years ago.
Li Lanqing (65), sophisticated, fluent in English and Russian, is a familiar figure to foreign leaders and a strong supporter of both Jiang and economic reform.
To many in Beijing the big surprise was the absence for the first time of a military strongman. Gen Liu Huaqing (80), a rival of Mr Jiang, was obliged to retire. Like President Clinton, Mr Jiang has no experience of war or the military, but he has courted army support through judicious appointments and is effectively commander-in-chief.
Two of his allies, Gen Chi Haotian and Gen Zhang Wan nian, are on the new 22-member Politburo and have become the most senior serving officers on the all-powerful military commission.
The most glaring omission was of course Mr Qiao Shi (72), Mr Jiang's great rival, who was obliged to retire from his party post after five years as number three. Featured in the official media every day for years, yesterday it was as if he didn't exist. Some analysts saw him as a political reformer, a view not shared by the Beijing man-in-the-street.
Veteran observers recalled that at the second last party congress in 1987, party leaders under the reformer, Mr Zhao Ziyang, mingled with surprised reporters, but that at the 14th congress in 1992, in the hostile aftermath of Tiananmen, contact with the media was avoided. This year they still feel unable to let down their guard.
"Faced with unprecedented challenges and objectives at the threshold of a new century, we are full of confidence to realise the grand objectives set for the next century," Mr Jiang said as his comrades stood in a line to his left, arms by their side.
"Holding high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping's theory has been the . . . most important outcome of this congress," he added, before the seven filed off behind another screen at the far end of the room.