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Politics and power in China: the endgame

By Brian Hennessy - posted Tuesday, 28 February 2012


There is more to this story however. Internal sources say that if Bo had become a member of the Standing Committee, he would have joined forces with Zhou Yangkong, a relative of Zhang Zemin and a factional colleague who is the head of The Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the Communist Party. This man had supervised the terrible treatment of Falun Gong prisoners in neighbouring Sichuan Province before being rewarded for his diligence by promotion to Beijing.

Zhou Yongkang now oversees all legal enforcement authorities including intelligence, law and order, security, detention, and judicial agencies. A very powerful man indeed.

These two men, Bo and Zhou, are now accused of conspiring to replace Xi Jinping after he has been installed as President. A palace-coup, if you like (this charge cannot be verified however, because the source is the dissident and perhaps unreliable Chinese-language website, Boxun.

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China: crony criminality as well as crony capitalism.

Conclusion

Wang Lijun's flight to safety has opened a big window into the internal machinations of the Chinese Communist Party at its highest level. This is unprecedented. Ideology is dead, and the only thing that holds this leadership group together is a shared lust for power at any price, and the desire of its members to enrich themselves in the process.

What we are witnessing now is how much individuals in this privileged group distrust each other and what lengths they will go to in order to protect themselves from each other. As Arthur Waldron, Lauder professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania observes: "the weapon of choice that CCP officials use against one another is the knowledge they have of one another's crimes".

In my opinion, this is the beginning of a long process which will end in the collapse of totalitarian Communist Party rule in China. Although it may take a generation or two to play out, the process has begun and the result is inevitable.

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Information for this article has been gleaned from local Chongqing people, and overseas Chinese China-watchers. A media ban on this topic remains in place in China.



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About the Author

Brian is an Australian author, educator, and psychologist who lived in China for thirteen years. These days he divides his time between both countries.

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