Chinese President Hu Jintao is the most powerful man in the world on this year’s specialized list by Forbes magazine, where last year the top spot was held by American President Barack Obama.
‘Hu is the political leader of far the largest number of people in the world, having almost dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, or one-fifth of the world’s population,’ explains Forbes. ‘Unlike his colleagues in the West, Hu can redirect rivers, build cities, imprison dissidents, and censor the internet without the interference of pesky bureaucrats and courts,’ the magazine adds.
Obama has slipped to second place largely due to the heavy defeat of his Democrats in the Congressional elections on Tuesday. In a surprising third place is Saudi King Abdullah, described as ‘the absolute ruler of the desert kingdom that contains the largest reserves of crude oil in the world and the two holiest sites in Islam.’
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is fourth, and who, according to Forbes, actually pulls the strings in that country is shown by the placement of President Dmitry Medvedev at only 12th place. Pope Benedict XVI is in fifth place, ahead of his compatriot, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Seventh is British Prime Minister David Cameron, and eighth is the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke.
