Two high-level officials in the Chinese Communist Party conspired to disrupt Xi Jinping’s accession to the pinnacle of the Party and to take control of security forces to force Xi to hand over power, according to a prominent dissident website quoting insider sources.
Information about the plot was probably handed to U.S. consular officials in Chengdu by Wang Lijun, the deputy-mayor of Chongqing who caused a storm with a recent defection attempt.
“Wang Lijun is being investigated in Beijing, he would probably have already handed over information about the plot of Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai to disrupt Xi Jinping taking over,” Boxun wrote.
Wang Lijun was the right-hand-man to Bo Xilai, the Party boss of the central-western megalopolis Chongqing. Zhou Yongkang is the head of the Communist Party’s security forces. Xi Jinping is the Vice-Chairman of the PRC, and is currently visiting the United States.
“They have prepared a complete plan to attack Xi,” the Boxun article says, relying on its sources, whom it described as highly placed. “This plan was going to take place after the Chinese New Year. It will release a variety of accusations and criticisms about Xi through overseas media. This is going to weaken the power of Xi, and help Bo to assume the position of Secretary of the Political and Legislative Committee.”
Click this tag to read The Epoch Times’ collection of articles on the Chinese Regime in Crisis. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.
Chinese New Year took place from Jan. 23 to Feb. 6 this year. Wang Lijun arrived at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu on the evening of Feb. 6 in disguise.
Boxun is run by overseas Chinese democracy and human rights activists. Rumors circulate online that Party insiders who are opposed to Bo Xilai may be using it as a channel to leak sensitive information about intra-Party machinations.
The website was the first to publish news of Wang Lijun’s attempted defection and the presence of dozens of police cars around the U.S. consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6 and 7—all of which was later confirmed.
The Political and Legislative Committee is a key Communist Party power organ that is in charge of the courts, procuratorate, and security forces in China, including the police.
“Once Bo takes control of the armed police and public security system, he will force Xi to hand over power when the right time comes,” the Boxun article said.
Boxun quoted its sources saying that Wang Lijun probably handed this evidence to the United States.
The revelations by Boxun concur in part with claims reported by Bill Gertz, a national security writer specialized in China issues. On Washington Free Beacon, a website that he edits, Gertz wrote that according to U.S. officials, Wang provided information about corruption among high level officials, Bo Xilai’s links with organized crime, and details about repression of dissent in China.
Gertz’s narrative about a “heated argument” between a senior Ministry of State Security official and a senior Chongqing official outside the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, about who should have custody of Wang, cited to “a senior U.S. official,” is also in accord with an identical scene reported by Boxun several days ago, sourced to Communist Party insiders.
Gertz writes that, according to his sources, Zhou Yongkang, the Communist Party’s security czar, has taken control of Chongqing from Bo Xilai, and has not allowed further action or investigation against Bo.
Gertz reported that U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke recommended that Wang Lijun be granted asylum, but was overruled by the White House because they did not wish to disrupt U.S.-China relations just before Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States.
Wang is understood to have divulged a lot of information about the inner operations of the Communist Party, which was typed up and cabled back to Washington throughout the night. The Epoch Times today reported Wang’s involvement—dating back to 2006—in the execution and organ harvesting of prisoners, many of whom were probably Falun Gong practitioners detained for their beliefs.
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