Posts tagged ‘Zhou Yongkang’

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23/05/2014

Businessman linked to China’s ex-security tsar sentenced to death | Reuters

A former mining magnate with suspected ties to the family of China’s retired security tsar Zhou Yongkang was sentenced to death on Friday on charges of leading a gang on a crime spree spanning two decades.

Liu Han, former chairman of Hanlong Mining, smokes a cigarette during a conference in Mianyang, Sichuan province, in this file photo taken March 21, 2008.REUTERS/Stringer/Files

The sentencing of Liu Han, handed down by a court in the central province of Hubei, was the culmination of one of the highest-profile cases against a private businessman since President Xi Jinping took office last year and began a campaign against pervasive graft.

Liu’s younger brother Liu Yong, also known as Liu Wei, was also sentenced to death. Microblog statements from state media outlets China Central Television and the Xinhua news agency said the brothers, along with their 36-member “mafia-style” gang, committed intentional homicide.

Xi’s crackdown has zeroed in on Sichuan province, where Liu’s company – privately held Hanlong Mining – is based. Sichuan was a power base for Zhou, the retired chief of China’s vast domestic security apparatus, who stands at the centre of the biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, sources have told Reuters.

Sources have told Reuters that Liu was once a business associate of Zhou Bin, Zhou Yongkang’s eldest son.

State media have not explicitly linked Liu’s case to Zhou Yongkang, but have said Liu’s rise coincided with Zhou’s time as Sichuan’s Communist Party boss.

Liu’s lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

Willy Lam, a scholar of Chinese history and politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said there would be extra attention paid to the case because of Liu’s links to the Zhou family.

“I think what’s happening is that Xi Jinping and (Party anti-corruption tsar) Wang Qishan want to establish a harsh precedent because this is one of the biggest corruption cases since Xi took over,” Lam said. “They want to set a precedent to make people afraid, in a sense, to have a deterrence impact on corrupt officials.”

via Businessman linked to China’s ex-security tsar sentenced to death | Reuters.

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13/05/2014

The Communist Party: The gatekeepers | The Economist

IN RECENT days government office-workers around China have been called into meetings to study an article written nearly a quarter of a century ago by an obscure local leader on how to be a good secretary. Its advice—act modestly and don’t abuse your position for profit—would be banal were it not for the job the author now holds. The article was written by the current president, Xi Jinping. Those attending know full well that the purpose of the meetings is not to share tips on how to keep bosses happy, but to focus minds on a bigger issue: that personal assistants to leaders are often hugely powerful and sometimes just as hugely corrupt. And Mr Xi wants to rein them in.

A string of detentions has shed new light on the power of mishu, as these assistants are known. Between June and February, news emerged of investigations into four former mishu of Zhou Yongkang, a retired member of the Communist Party’s supreme body, the Politburo standing committee. Although the party does not say so, it is an open secret that Mr Zhou is the main target of China’s biggest anti-corruption campaign in years. He is the first person of standing-committee rank to face a corruption inquiry since the party came to power in 1949. Mr Xi appears not to want state-controlled media to mention Mr Zhou or his sins until a case against him is fully prepared. But the mishu, along with several other associates of Mr Zhou who have been detained in recent months, have become fairer game.

The alleged offences of the “mishu gang”, as the four have been dubbed in the Chinese press, appear to relate at least partly to activities after they left Mr Zhou’s service. In China a personal assistant to a high-ranking leader is often chosen by the leader himself—sometimes plucked from obscurity—and retains high rank even after his boss has moved to a different job (if he is not taken along to the new post).

There is plenty of scope for corruption as a mishu, because of the control the job gives over access to the leader. There is also great opportunity for acquiring independent power. Mr Zhou’s four former secretaries went on to take up high-ranking positions in government and state-owned business. Knowing the dark secrets of their former bosses gives ex-mishu a useful bargaining chip in acquiring plum jobs. The former bosses can benefit from placing their one-time confidants in positions they wish to influence.

via The Communist Party: The gatekeepers | The Economist.

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11/04/2014

In China, Xi’s Anticorruption Drive Nabs Elite, Low Ranks Alike – Businessweek

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign has lasted longer, gone deeper, and struck higher than many analysts and academics had expected. Xi has been so zealous that since late last year retired Communist Party leaders including ex-President Jiang Zemin have cautioned him to take a more measured pace and not be too harsh, say Ding Xueliang, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, and Willy Lam, an expert on elite politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Berlin on March 28

Xi is cracking down on the army and the police at the same time, something no leader has done before, says Ding. Gu Junshan, a lieutenant general in charge of logistics for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has been charged with bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on March 31. He will be tried in military court.

China’s former top cop and security czar Zhou Yongkang is under investigation for corruption, say Ding and Lam. When asked at a March 2 press conference whether Zhou was under suspicion, a government spokesman avoided a direct answer, saying, “Anyone who violates the party’s discipline and the state law will be seriously investigated and punished, no matter who he is or how high ranking he is.” He added what seems to be a veiled confirmation: “I can only say so much so far. You know what I’m saying.”

More than 180,000 party officials were punished for corruption and abuse of power last year, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s watchdog. While most were low-level officials—or “flies,” as Xi has put it—they also included senior party members—“tigers,” in Xi’s words. Thirty-one senior officials were investigated by the commission last year: Eight had their graft cases handed over to prosecutors. The remaining 23 are still being investigated.

via In China, Xi’s Anticorruption Drive Nabs Elite, Low Ranks Alike – Businessweek.

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30/03/2014

Exclusive: China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief – sources | Reuters

Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the centre of China’s biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said.

China's Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang reacts as he attends the Hebei delegation discussion sessions at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing in this October 16, 2007 file photo. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Files

More than 300 of Zhou’s relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have also been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, the sources, who have been briefed on the investigation, told Reuters.

The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigations into the people around Zhou – both unreported until now – make the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels.

But it may also be driven partly by political payback after Zhou angered leaders such as Xi by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power.

Zhou, 71, has been under virtual house arrest since authorities began formally investigating him late last year. He is the most senior Chinese politician to be ensnared in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.

“It’s the ugliest in the history of the New China,” said one of the sources, who has ties to the leadership, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to the foreign media about elite politics.

The government has yet to make any official statement about Zhou or the case against him and it has not been possible to contact Zhou, his family, associates or staff for comment. It is not clear if any of them have lawyers.

via Exclusive: China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief – sources | Reuters.

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04/02/2014

* China’s Rising Anti-Corruption Campaign: Who Is Next? | Frank Vogl

An unprecedented attack on corruption at the top of the Chinese Communist Party is now underway. Suddenly, following a spate of trials, arrests and investigations, it seems as if even the most senior leaders in the Communist Party are vulnerable.

Moreover, U.S. and other foreign firms doing business in China are on their guard as investigations of their relationships to top officials also appear to be moving into high gear. Most recently, for example, Chinese police announced that they are investigating British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline for alleged bribery and tax violations.

Corruption is rampant in the Chinese Communist Party. The new leadership has vowed to attack this plague and in January of this year the then new Chinese Central Committee General-Secretary, Xi Jinping, who in the spring added the key title of President, declared: \”We must have the resolution to fight every corrupt phenomenon, punish every corrupt official and constantly eradicate the soil which breeds corruption, so as to earn people\’s trust with actual results.\”

Many investigations and arrests of senior officials have been seen this year, but none have been as prominent as three situations that combine to underscore just how exceptionally important this anti-graft campaign is:

First, charges of corruption were prominent in the recent trial of former top political leader Bo Xilai, the former governor and Communist Party chief of Chongqing province, who had been in line for appointment to the national Standing Committee.

Second, on September 3, Xinhua — the official Chinese news agency — reported that Jiang Jiemin, head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council and deputy secretary of the SASAC committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), \”has been removed from office because of suspected serious disciplinary violations.\” Jiang wielded far-reaching power over a vast array of government enterprises.

Third — and most importantly — Chinese government officials have made no effort to curb news reports that Zhou Yongkang is under investigation for corruption. Zhou had been a member of the top Communist Party Standing Committee and the country\’s chief of security and intelligence until his retirement last November. At the time he ranked at the ninth most important member of the Chinese government and the Communist Party.

It is quite possible that President Xi is encouraging the investigations and arrests of high-level officials in order to consolidate his own power and purge the Communist Party of potential rivals. Jiang Jiemen\’s career has long been closely associated with the mounting power that Zhou Yongkang enjoyed, so the news about both of them led, for example, to BBC News analyst Celia Hatton in Beijing to report that \”rumors indicate that Mr Zhou continues to act as a rival to Xi Jinping.

It is not yet clear whether Zhou will be arrested and charged with any crimes. Nor is there any announcement from officials that Jiang will be prosecuted, even though it is likely that a number of officials who have reported to him over the years, including executives at China\’s National Petroleum Corporation, could face the heat.

Many senior officials in China today may well have good reason to be nervous as they see the current investigations into Zhou and Jiang proceed. To be sure, many top officials in China have not depended on their official salaries alone given the lavish lifestyles of the families of many of them and the vast wealth of prominent Chinese businessmen with close ties to senior officials. Many officials, indeed, may now be asking: who\’s next?

via China’s Rising Anti-Corruption Campaign: Who Is Next? | Frank Vogl.

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08/09/2013

A Chinese power struggle: Hunting tigers

The Economist: “A DRIVE against corruption? Or a political purge? Or a bit of both? Outside China, not many people noticed the dismissal of Jiang Jiemin, the minister overseeing China’s powerful state-owned enterprises (SOEs). His charge—“serious violations of discipline”—is party-speak for corruption. Officials at CNPC, a state-run oil giant which Mr Jiang used to run, have also been charged. But in Beijing it fits a pattern. It follows on from the trial of Bo Xilai, the princeling who ran the huge region of Chongqing and was a notable rival of Xi Jinping, China’s president. Mr Xi now seems to be gunning for an even bigger beast: Zhou Yongkang, Mr Jiang’s mentor, an ally of Mr Bo’s, and until last year the head of internal security whom Mr Bo once hoped to replace.

Mr Xi vows to fight corrupt officials large and small—“tigers” and “flies” as he puts it. He has certainly made as much or more noise about graft as his predecessors. If Mr Zhou is pursued for corruption, it will break an unwritten rule that the standing committee should not go after its own members, past or present. And there are good reasons for Mr Xi to stamp out corruption. He knows that ill-gotten wealth is, to many ordinary people, the chief mark against the party. It also undermines the state’s economic power.

But this corruption drive is also open to another interpretation. To begin with, the tigers being rounded up are Mr Xi’s enemies. Mr Bo had hoped to use Chongqing as the springboard to the Politburo’s standing committee. The verdict on Mr Bo, expected any day, is a foregone conclusion. His sentence will be decided at the highest levels of the Communist Party, and it can only be harsh. Party politics, as seen by its players, is an all-or-nothing game, and the stakes are even higher when family prestige and fortunes are at stake.

Mr Xi is also open to the charge of being selective about leaving other tigers untouched. His own family’s fortune, piggy-banking off Mr Xi’s career, runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. Even as Mr Xi rails against corruption, he has overseen a crackdown on reformers calling, among other things, for the assets of senior cadres to be disclosed. And although the party makes much of how Mr Bo’s trial is the rule of law at work, many of the moves against Mr Bo, Mr Jiang and Mr Zhou appear to be taking place in a parallel and obscure system of detention for party members known as shuanggui.

Now set out your stall, Mr Xi

So China is entering a crucial period. The optimistic interpretation of all this is that Mr Xi is not just consolidating his own power but also restoring political unity. This will free him to push ahead with the deep but difficult economic reforms that he has promised and that China so badly needs if growth is not to stumble; it would also allow him to drive harder against corruption. The SOEs are bound to be part of both campaigns.

The test will come at a party plenum in November. There, Mr Xi should make it clear that even his friends are not above the law. A register of official interests would be laudable, and a few trials of people from Mr Xi’s own camp would send a message. He should also tie his campaign against graft to economic liberalisation: break up the various boondoggles and monopolies, and there will be far fewer chances for theft. It is still not clear whether Mr Xi’s “Chinese Dream” is a commitment to reform or maintaining the status quo. For China’s sake, it had better be reform.

via A Chinese power struggle: Hunting tigers | The Economist.

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14/07/2012

* China top leaders vow to better handle people’s petitions

Xinhua: “China’s top leaders on Friday met representatives for a nationwide conference on the work of handling the people’s petitions, vowing to safeguard the people’s rights and interests and strengthen ties between the authorities and the people.

President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li Keqiang met the representatives before the conference, extending their greetings to all the government staff handling the people’s letters and calls.

Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and secretary of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, also met representatives and delivered a speech at the conference.

The petitioning, also known as letters and calls, is the administrative system for hearing complaints and grievances from Chinese citizens.

The bureaus of letters and calls at all levels are commissioned to receive letters, calls, and visits from individuals or groups, and then channel the issues to respective departments, and monitor the progress of settlement.”

via China top leaders vow to better handle people’s petitions – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

Petitioning has been a historic means for members of the public, however lowly to put forward their grievances to someone high enough to deal with it. Sometimes, a petition would go all the way to the Emperor or, at least, to his chief minister.

The Chinese government is merely reaffirming this historic practice.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petitioning_(China)

Posted in China alert, History, Human rights, Petitions, Politics | 3 Comments »

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31/05/2012

* Senior leader says to promote Xinjiang’s leapfrog development

Xinhua: “Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called for more support to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to achieve leapfrog development and long-term stability in this westernmost region of China. Li made the remarks at the 3rd National Work Conference on “pairing assistance” projects to support Xinjiang’s development.

Maps of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of Ch...

Maps of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China Español: Región autónoma de Xinjiang (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

President Hu Jintao met the delegates to the annual conference and thanked them for their efforts made in accelerating Xinjiang’s development. Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Xi Jinping, both members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China CPC Central Committee, were present at the meeting.  Zhou Yongkang, also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also met with the delegates and attended the conference.

Huge achievements have been made in the past two years under a large number of pairing assistance projects for Xinjiang, especially projects concerning Xinjiang people’s well-being, said Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Vast land, abundant resources and huge development potential make Xinjiang a major area to implement China’s strategy to expand domestic demand and the strategy to develop the country’s western regions, Li said, adding Xinjiang is also a key area to accommodate transfer of domestic industries. Xinjiang is one of the bridgeheads for China’s opening to central Asia and Europe, said Li, calling for speeding up the opening of China’s western border areas while enhancing the openness of its eastern coastal regions.

Li noted that assisting the development of Xinjiang is a long-lasting, arduous and imperative task. More efforts and higher effectiveness are needed to advance the programs concerning the well-being of local people, such as housing, employment, medical care and social insurance, while the infrastructure construction and environmental protection should be further improved, said Li. More support regarding technology, education, talented people and excellent cadres should be provided to Xinjiang, and the exchanges between Xinjiang and inland areas should be enhanced, Li added.”

via Senior leader says to promote Xinjiangs leapfrog development – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

Xinjiang and Tibet are the two areas where ethnic minorities do not see eye to eye with the Han majority. Interestingly, both are strong adherents of religion; Buddhism in the case of Tibet and Islam in the case of Xinjiang. Until and unless the central authorities can convince these minorities that they have some form of self-determination (after all both are called ‘autonomous regions’ of China), unrest will continue.

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