The final showdown begins
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is locked in a life or death power struggle
With former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin
And it’s all coming to a head
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
A major turning point for Chinese leader Xi Jinping is almost at hand.
Next year, there will be a major meeting of top Communist Party officials.
Xi will be trying to secure his third term as leader, unprecedented since...well, this guy .
Ok, to be fair, Mao had one long term as leader. A life-long term.
I’ve said before that Xi Jinping is not quite a president. Not quite a dictator.
What I call, a presitator.
But no presitator rules alone in China.
Xi needs enough support from the rest of the Party to gain a third term in power.
That’s not easy, because Xi has many enemies. And they’re doing everything in their power to stop
him. You know what that means? We may be headed into the final season of everyone’s favorite
Communist soap opera—General Hostility. Previously on General Hostility—
Xi Jinping came to power in the midst of a tumultuous power struggle. A clique
tied to former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin tried to assassinate Xi and install their
own guy . Jiang had control of the military and China’s even larger internal security apparatus.
But Xi began a massive purge of his enemies, disguised as what he called an anti-corruption
campaign. And now, what could be the final battle for control begins.
Yes, the political death match between Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin
may be reaching its climax. A word I never want to hear used next to a picture of these two again.
You might be thinking, Chris, you said the meeting is next year! What’s the big deal now?
Now is actually the most dangerous time for Xi. He has to spend the next
year cementing his hold on power ahead of the meeting, or he’ll be defeated.
If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that Xi Jinping hasn’t left the country
in a long time. Almost as if he’s afraid to leave. In case something happens when his back is turned.
You see, in China, there are two paths to power. Controlling the police
and controlling the military. One of the first things Xi did was put himself in charge of the
military and purge it of anyone who was loyal to his rival Jiang Zemin.
But Jiang’s real source of power was the police.
And I don’t just mean police the way we think of them in the West.
I mean the entire internal security apparatus—police, secret police, black jails,
you name it. China spends more on policing Chinese people than it does the entire military.
Jiang built the internal security system up in the early 2000’s as a way of securing
his power. This is how the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice began.
Jiang needed an enemy to get the Communist Party to agree to give him the power he wanted.
At the time, there were more people
practicing Falun Gong than there were members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Even though the practice was apolitical, Jiang convinced other Party members it
was a threat. They let him launch a nationwide crackdown, including the
creation of an gestapo-like organization called the 610 office, just to monitor
and round up Falun Gong. Through the years the 610 Office grew bigger and more powerful.
Giving Jiang a grip on power that lasts to this day.
Jiang is 95 years old now. And still kicking.
And guess what? There are rumors of a recent police plot against Xi.
The story, now deleted, came from Chinese internet sites NetEase and Sohu.com .
According to Willy Wo-Lap Lam , an expert on Chinese internal politics,
the story, “seems very credible because the two media outlets – NetEase and
Sohu.com – are not party mouthpieces, but I would describe them as semi-official. They
are widely read and have been tolerated by the Propaganda Department for at least 20 years.”
Details are spotty.
“The reports didn’t mention whether [the police] planned to
swoop and arrest [Xi] or to do something more grievous.”
But according to the reports, “A ‘conspiratorial clique’
allegedly was involved in ‘planning something illegal and improper’ against the [Xi] during
an expected visit to the city of Nanjing, in Jiangsu province.”
“Several high-level police figures from Jiangsu were named in the plot,
supposedly financed by a billionaire who’d been executed for bribery in January.”
Now remember, the Jiang faction has tried to stage a coup before.
That was almost a decade ago, when Xi was first taking over from then Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
Hu Jintao spent his entire 10-year rule squashed under the power of Jiang Zemin.
Now that he’s retired, he seems pretty happy to stand back and let his hair go gray.
Ok, happy is a strong word. But the point is, Hu was never able to overpower Jiang.
But Xi isn’t sitting idly by. Since he gained leadership in 2012, he’s been going after
Jiang’s people, including former heads of the 610 Office , Jiang’s personal Gestapo.
More after the break.
Welcome back.
Xi Jinping has been desperately trying to purge the political faction tied to former Chinese
leader Jiang Zemin. But as the Wall Street Journal says, though “Many of Mr. Jiang’s allies have been
purged in Mr. Xi’s anti corruption campaign, though he remains a force behind the scenes.”
Take the 610 Office. The 610 Office was former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin’s personal Gestapo,
tasked with wiping out Falun Gong.
Earlier this year, the US State Department sanctioned a former director,
for “gross violations of human rights,
namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs.”
And Xi Jinping has recently taken out two top figures
in the 610 office for posing a threat to him.
Their names are Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua.
“Both climbed the ranks of the political and legal affairs apparatus
during Jiang’s era of dominance from 1997 to 2012. Both were also trusted enough by
the Jiang faction to be allowed to helm its anti-Falun Gong campaign.
In 2015, Fu was head of the supra-authority ‘610 Office’ and Sun was his deputy.”
Part of the charges against them are corruption, as well as
engaging in cliques and factions in the Party. Oh yeah, I think I can read between the lines.
According to SinoInsider , “Both the Xi camp and the Jiang faction
have been targeting each other’s political legacies since Xi Jinping took office.”
“For the Jiang faction, that means calling attention to the Xinjiang persecution campaign
and escalating tensions in Hong Kong.”
“For Xi Jinping, attacking the Jiang faction’s political legacy involves cracking
down on corruption and threatening intra-Party accountability over the Falun Gong persecution
while sidelining the organization overseeing the campaign.”
Yes, General Hostility has come down to two factions trying to use all the
horrible human rights violations each one has committed to bring the other one down.
It’s the Communist Party. Not committing human rights violations isn’t an option.
Fu Zhenghua is just one of at least 10 former top 610 Office officials that Xi has purged this year.
But that’s just part of the final showdown between Jiang and Xi.
Remember the crackdowns this summer on China’s tech, finance, and entertainment industries?
Turns out those are strongholds of Jiang’s faction.
Chinese state-run media have published “frequent calls to eliminate the ‘lingering
poisonous influence’ of Jiang faction members Zhou Yongkang, Meng Hongwei, Sun Lijun,
and others in the political and legal affairs apparatus”
Those were people who ran Jiang’s internal security apparatus.
An article appeared in top Party publication Qiushi,
warning of “cliquishness” and talking about how the military must be loyal to Xi.
And next month, Xi Jinping will be rewriting the Communist Party’s history.
That’s something only Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping have done before.
And it’s another sign that Xi Jinping’s plan to rule for life is coming together.
But as the rumors of a police plot against Xi show, it’s not over yet.
Next time on General Hostility
Will Xi Jinping be able to stay in power during the upcoming Party Congress?
For Xi to achieve ultimate victory, it will require Jiang’s ultimate defeat.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a fan who supports
China Uncensored on Patreon or Locals.
This question comes from...
Jonathan Robertson on Patreon. “The thing that I don't really get (and PLEASE, Chris, educate me,
I'm a financial supporter)... why would China risk the hellish result which are most wars
just to ‘reclaim’ what it feels was theirs to begin with.
I know the strategic importance of Taiwan, but invading and taking over a country like Taiwan
would mean very little unless it was just one step of many, many steps to be taken in the future.”
Well this is an excellent question.
First of all, you have to understand that the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t shy away from
conflict. A fundamental premise of Communism is that struggle is what drives society forward.
Since the Communist Party began, it has always been creating conflict because
that is what Communists believe in. Soldiers dying is not a problem. It's useful, because
it gets the people riled up about the cause. Taiwan is just one more part of that ideology.
Because of the Party’s narrative of “national rejuvenation,” they
basically have to take over Taiwan.
Xi Jinping has said this himself. National rejuvenation, which is only possible under
the leadership of the Communist Party, will not be complete until they take Taiwan.
The best outcome for the Party is to take over Taiwan without a fight. Which is why
they’re waging psychological warfare to convince Taiwan to just give up.
But if that doesn’t work, they will invade.
And gaining Taiwan would be an important symbolic and strategic victory for the
Party. As you mention, Taiwan’s location gives it huge strategic value. The Chinese military
could dominate major global shipping lanes. Or project power outward into the Pacific.
Plus, it would totally change the balance of power in the region.
The US would lose its position as a global superpower because every
single country on Earth would know the US cannot protect other countries from China.
So this is something the Chinese Communist Party would gladly risk other people’s lives on.
Thanks for your questions Jonathan.
And thank you to everyone else who supports China Uncensored through the subscription
platform Locals, and the crowdfunding platform Patreon. The links to both of those are below.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, thanks for watching China Uncensored.