Hu Jintao, who assumed the presidency from Jiang in March, was shown constantly on state television wishing good luck to astronaut Yang Liwei before his Shenzhou V craft blasted off from a remote launch pad in northern China.

But Jiang, the politician who revived the manned space program from 20 years of slumber a decade ago, was nowhere to be seen amid the massive, repetitive coverage provided by state-run media.

"It would have been logical if he'd been present," said a western diplomat in Beijing. "He's the head of the army, which has been in charge of the space program."

Jiang was expected to have joined Hu at the Jiuquan Missile Center ahead of the historic launch that put China into an exclusive club which so far has counted only the United States and Russia among its members.

But the 77-year-old retiree, who gradually handed over power to a new generation in the course of last year and this, appears not to have been among the audience when the Shenzhou V rose into a deep blue sky at 9:00 am.

He was not listed among leaders attending the launch in Jiuquan by the Xinhua news agency, nor among those viewing the event at the mission control center in Beijing.

The only nod to the former leader was in the form of a passing reference in a statement by Hu.

"We'd all been speculating that Jiang would gradually become less important," said David Zweig, a China expert at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "But I'm surprised, it's too early."

Politicians usually do not go missing from official Chinese media without a reason.

In Jiang's case, it could reflect anything from an illness to a fundamental change in the distribution of power in Beijing, according to observers.

It could also suggest that China, which has repeatedly stressed its support for the peaceful use of space, wants to dissociate Shenzhou V -- in essence a military project -- from its real masters in the army, which is headed by Jiang.

"They want to show this is (associated with) the civilian leadership, with the Communist Party," said Zweig.

When Jiang completed the transfer of power to the new generation in March, he was generally seen as filling important decision-making bodies with his own people, to counter-balance Hu, who was not a protege.

However, Hu and newly-picked Premier Wen Jiabao have since then proved themselves extremely adept at promoting themselves, if not yet their policies, in the public.

The outbreak of the SARS epidemic offered the best chance yet for the two to show themselves as caring men of the people, whereas Jiang and officials associated with him showed little public concern over the virus.

But the end of the annual Communist Party meeting Tuesday, and the apparent lack of any momentous decisions emerging from it, could suggest Hu is not yet strong enough to push his own agenda.

"It's either because Hu Jintao is not as bold as we thought, or because his initiatives are being constrained by Jiang Zemin's faction," said Gilles Guiheux, director of the Hong Kong-based French Center for Research on Contemporary China.

SPACE.WIRE