Interpac Business and Migration Solutions Melbourne Australia

(November 5, 2010)

CHINA'S President Hu Jintao has topped US President Barack Obama on the Forbes list of most powerful people.

Pointing to Mr Hu's sweeping powers and the stinging defeat of Mr Obama's Democrats in legislative polls, the magazine said he “exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of world's population”.

“Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts,” it said.

Mr Hu topped Mr Obama, last year's most powerful person, whose Democratic Party suffered major losses in congressional elections this week.

Forbes said it was “quite a comedown” for Mr Obama, “who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two”.

King Abdullah of oil-rich Saudi Arabia came in third, followed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Pope Benedict XVI.

Forbes magazine last month listed First Lady Michelle Obama as the world's most powerful woman.

The magazine, whose editor Steve Forbes is a former Republican presidential candidate, infuriated the White House in September by running an essay saying Mr Obama was consumed by “anti-colonialism” inherited from his Kenyan father.

(Source:theAustralian)