The news conference at the last day of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing went slowly when Premier Wen Jiabao answered questions raised by the reporters. Two hours passed, and Wen ignored former Minister of Foreign Affairs Li Zhaoxin’s reminder of the time and extended the conference.
He still had something to say. Finally, when the reporter from Reuters raised the question about Wang Lijun, the former police chief of Chongqing who attempted to defect at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, Wen, as well as the audience watching the TV broadcast, seemed relieved. He was waiting for that question.
About the Wang Lijun case, Wen said, “We will give the people an answer to the results of the investigation and the handling [of the case], so that it can withstand the test of law and history,” according to Reuters.
UPDATE: Zhou Yongkang Lost Power Struggle, Say Chinese Netizens
(Mar. 22)
This is the first time that one of the top leaders directly addressed the issue since Wang entered the consulate on Feb. 6. Wen also referred to Bo Xilai, saying, “The present Chongqing municipal Party committee and the municipal government must reflect seriously and learn a lesson from the Wang Lijun incident.”
At this point, most people realized that Wang Lijun was no longer the issue. Declaring the result of the investigation and the formal conclusion, both from the Party and from the government, is only a matter of time. Now, Wen was as much as saying that the issue before the Party concerns Bo Xilai’s fate. People just didn’t expect that the result would come so quickly.
The next day, March 15, Xinhua News Agency, the official mouthpiece, announced the “Central” decision that “Comrade Bo Xilai no longer holds the concurrent post of secretary of CCP Chongqing Committee.” Usually, “Central” refers to the CCP Central Committee (CCPCC) or its Politburo, not the government.
The announcement didn’t give a reason why Bo was removed, but a recording has surfaced that purports to give an explanation. A circular from the Office of the CCPCC that explained Bo’s firing was said to have been read in a meeting of the Chongqing Party and government officials.
The circular said, “Wang Lijun himself takes the responsibility directly for the incident. As the secretary of the CCP Chongqing Committee, Comrade Bo Xilai takes the main leader’s responsibility.”
Some have doubted the authenticity of the circular, but after listening to the whole recording, I believe that the recording is authentic. It had to be recorded at the real meeting. The circular states that Bo demoted Wang Lijun because Bo tried to cover up an investigation that touched on Bo’s family. Wang told Bo that one of his investigators submitted his resignation due to pressure.
For those who are familiar with Chinese politics, this reason doesn’t make sense as an explanation for why Wang Lijun, a veteran police chief, couldn’t handle accusations of corruption against his boss’s family. This should be the basic requirement for a police officer, or any official. But the Central CCP Office used this explanation because it wanted to cover up the real reason, which might cause more trouble in a situation that was already bad enough.
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.
Two Lines
The situation is far from the end. Both Wen’s answer at the NPC press conference and the circular only name Bo Xilai as responsible for the Wang Lijun incident. But the leader’s responsibility is not a strong enough reason for removing a provincial-level Party secretary.
What Wen Jiabao added after answering the Reuters reporter’s question probably gave some hint. He mentioned the Party’s decision to conclude several historic issues in 1978, and then he said, “We’ve taken the major decision of conducting reform and opening up in China, a decision that’s crucial for China’s future and destiny.”
In the press conference, Wen also spoke of how “the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution and feudalism have not been completely eliminated.” It is hard not to connect Wen’s speech with Bo Xilai’s “singing red songs” campaign. Bo’s campaign in Chongqing to organize the mass singing of Maoist-era communist songs was most controversial for the way in which it suggested a return to the days of the Cultural Revolution.
Wen’s remarks changed the entire meaning of the Wang Lijun affair. In bringing up the Party’s decision to commit to reform and opening up in the context of Wang Lijun, while criticizing the Cultural Revolution, Wen made the basis of the competition with Bo not merely one of a competition for power.
In criticizing Bo as Maoist, Wen reintroduced into the Party what had not been seen since Mao’s time—a struggle between two ideological lines.
Wen’s invocation of the 1978 decision is not that simple. That decision never fully negated any of Mao’s political campaigns, nor Mao himself. The Cultural Revolution was partially negated only because it damaged the Party itself and many Party officials.
The Party’s political line is one of self-contradiction made up of different theories promulgated by each successive paramount leader, including Mao’s class struggle, Deng’s “white cat, black cat, any cat that catches mice is a good cat,” Jiang Zemin’s theory of “three represents,” and Hu’s scientific-development concept.
As long as the Party has this mixture of contradictory theories in the Party Charter, which is referred to as the Party’s constitution, anyone can claim that he is following the Party line.
Continued on the next page: Conspiracy
Conspiracy
Now there are new rumors circulating that Bo has been involved in a conspiracy to challenge Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, and the presumptive next head of the CCP, Xi Jinping. As the Wang-Bo incident has unfolded over the past six weeks, rumors that spread one day mostly turn out to be true several days later. It is obvious that someone at the top has been leaking information.
Many rumors of conspiracy have pointed at Zhou Yongkong, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the head of the Political and Law Committee (PLC), which has authority over all of the nation’s police, law courts, procuratorate, and the like.
Bill Gertz reported in the Washington Free Beacon that Bo, teamed with Zhou Yongkong, was “playing out against China’s plans for a smooth leadership transition” from Hu to Xi in the upcoming Party Conference this fall.
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.
That Zhou Yongkang supports Bo Xilai is not news in China. Long before the Chongqing incident, it was said that Zhou would like Bo to be his successor as head of the PLC. The PLC was established in the early 1980s to replace the Party Committee’s direct role in the legal system. It didn’t gain much power at first.
However, when Jiang Zemin started his campaign in July 1999 to persecute Falun Gong, a spiritual practice, the existing PLC became Jiang’s major tool. Luo Gan, then the head of the PLC, gained power rapidly during the persecution and became one of the most powerful Standing Committee members. Zhou replaced Luo Gan as the head of the PLC after Luo’s retirement.
As Bo mentioned last week during the Chongqing media day at the National People’s Congress, the “Hit the Black” campaign in Chongqing was the joint effort of the Public Security, the Court, the Procuratorate, the State Security, the Armed Police, and the Discipline Inspection Commission, under the coordination of the PLC.
Over the past 10 years or so, “wei wen,” or “maintaining stability,” has become the major task of the Party, and the PLC has become the most powerful and most notorious instrument of the Party. That made Zhou Yongkong the real threat to Hu, Wen, and probably Xi.
The power struggle inside the Party has always been a matter of life and death. With the deepening of the investigation and the public awareness of the conspiracy, the current leaders can’t just stop at Bo and pretend nothing happened. Any sign of weakness is dangerous.
No matter what will happen to Bo and Zhou, there is one thing for sure, the Communist Party will not change. Bo has never been at the center of the decision making. Zhou is only one of nine Standing Committee members. Bo and Zhou can’t be made fully accountable for the deterioration of human rights in China.
The revised criminal procedure law that just passed during the People’s Congress allows the state to detain someone without any legal basis and without notifying the detained person’s family. In the eyes of many Chinese, it is a large step toward a police state.
For the past two years, Wen Jiabao has talked a dozen times about reform of the political system, but has never done anything. It’s probably not only Wen who has talked this kind of talk without taking action.
Any so-called reform of the political system requires freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religious belief. Any of these could mean the end of the Communist Party’s power and rule. Under the rule of the CCP, there won’t be any political reform.
The Epoch Times predicted Bo Xilai’s fall back on Feb. 18. You might be interested in:
Why Zhou Yongkang is Doomed to Follow Bo Xilai
Expect Zhou to be fired from his posts as the struggle inside the CCP continues. Although a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Zhou is facing trouble and is likely to suffer the same fate as Bo Xilai, columnist Zhang Tianliang argues.
