Cool, casual and environmentally friendly

President Hu's tieless look was widely reported by China's media

When Chinese President Hu Jintao gave a keynote speech this week, he ditched his usual suit and tie and wore a simple shirt, open at the collar. Read original article

A few days later, politicians attending a regular parliamentary meeting did the same thing - formal attire was replaced by shirt sleeves for the first time.

This move to casual wear is not accidental.

It is aimed at encouraging Chinese to wear fewer clothes so they can turn down air conditioning and save energy.

An official told China's state-controlled Xinhua News Agency that it is usually more appropriate to wear a suit and tie at parliamentary meetings.

"However, after discussion, we agreed that [we] should act as a model to save China's limited energy resources," he explained.

Style leader

Of course, politicians across the world choose their clothes to fit the occasion, but in China it is perhaps more important as there are very few unauthorised images of the country's leaders.

It is hard to imagine the Chinese media publishing a photograph of, say, Hu Jintao during his university days, as happened with Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Chinese leaders have become much more skilful at using the media, and clothes send important signals Joseph Cheng Hong Kong's City University

China's previous president, Jiang Zemin, was apparently furious when a photograph of him changing his glasses during a speech appeared in a national newspaper.

He complained that readers could have interpreted the picture as meaning China was changing its political direction.

President Hu has been just as keen to keep up appearances.

When meeting foreign dignitaries or travelling abroad, he usually dons a sharp suit, crisp white shirt and well-knotted tie.

At meetings with the country's military leaders, however, Hu chooses the green military uniform of the People's Liberation Army, albeit without insignia.

And at less formal occasions, the Chinese president is shown in casual clothes.

President Hu wears his uniform in meetings with military chiefs

Other leaders follow suit.

Premier Wen Jiabao often visits rural areas, and when he does he usually wears short-sleeved shirts and casual trousers, presumably to appear less daunting to the farmers he meets.

"Chinese leaders have become much more skilful at using the media, and clothes send important signals," Joseph Cheng, a politics professor at Hong Kong's City University, says.

He believes military leaders really do appreciate it when Hu, who is head of China's armed forces, appears before them in uniform.

And officials at all levels across China take their sartorial cues from senior leaders in Beijing.

However, there is one style of clothing that you will not see President Hu or any other leader wearing too often these days - the Mao suit.

That symbol of communist egalitarianism does not really seem suitable now that China has ditched most of Mao's policies.