Major Players in the Chinese Regime in Crisis

Hu Jintao. (Elizabeth Dalziel/AFP/Getty Images)

Hu Jintao. (Elizabeth Dalziel/AFP/Getty Images) Hu Jintao Current paramount leader of Chinese Communist Party. Promoted for persecution in Tibet. To be replaced by Xi Jinping. Allied with Premier Wen Jiabao.

Wen Jiabao. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) Wen Jiabao — Click here for more Premier Argued against Bo Xilai’s promotion to vice premier during 17th Congress. Wants to reform CCP.

Xi Jinping. (LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images) Xi Jinping — Click here for more Next Chairman, current VP, vice chair Central Military Commission. Originally unaligned and tolerated by both factions, but according to rumor has since aligned with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao after being targeted for overthrow by Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang.

Wang Lijun. (Feng Li/Getty Images) Wang Lijun Former Head of Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau. The police chief of the megacity of Chongqing. Attempted to defect while at the U.S. Consulate Feb. 6. Rumored to have betrayed Bo Xilai to Hu-Wen faction, possibly leading to Bo’s arrest.

Jiang Zemin. (Minoru Iwasaki-Pool/Getty Images) Jiang Zemin Former leader of Communist Party. Said to be the real No. 2 of the Standing Committee. Helped further Bo Xilai’s political career. Began the persecution of Falun Gong.

Zhou Yangkang. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images) Zhou Yongkang — Click here for more Secretary of the powerful Political and Legislative Affairs Committee. Believed by some analysts to be the next in line to be purged. Hard-liner and ally of Jiang; rose through persecuting Falun Gong.

Bo Xilai. (Feng Li/Getty Images) Bo Xilai — Click here for more Former Chongqing party secretary Ally of Zhou and Jiang, once a possibility for Standing Committee, recently purged and arrested. Rose through persecuting Falun Gong.

Gu Kailai. (New Epoch Weekly Photo Archive) Gu Kailai Wife of Bo Xilai; lawyer Gu was given a suspended death sentence for the murder of Briton Neil Heywood on Aug. 9, 2012, but evidence and sources indicate that she was involved in far grislier crimes: including the harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, and the sale of bodies to plastination factories in the northeastern city of Dalian. Heywood was involved in these activities and had begun talking about them, and so was killed.

Editor’s Note: When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands-the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution-is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.

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Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.

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