On Nov. 8, courts in Xiamen and five other cities of Fujian province announced verdicts in the first batch of 25 cases related to the Yuan Hua group (
This smuggling case of the century involves RMB 80 billion and approximately 500 officials, who range as high as a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau. Since the case opened on April 20, it has undergone numerous reversals and delays, including an interlude for a high-level power struggle, before finally arriving at this verdict.
Since the Communist Party of China (CPC) rules by personal influence and example, we can judge the current state of affairs in China's political world from the announcement of the verdict.
Although this verdict is a public announcement in name, in fact it is still secret because all those present as observers were designated by the authorities and the only media allowed into the courtroom were four official media organizations also designated by the authorities. Of course the reason for this was worry that in the courtroom, before a wide audience, the defendants might reveal secrets that the authorities wanted to guard -- for instance, the names of politicians the authorities wish to protect.
Among this first group of criminals upon whom judgment was pronounced, 14 people were condemned to death, 12 were given life sentences, and another 58 were given prison sentences of varying lengths. The vast majority of these people were originally officials in the CPC. Apart from the period of the Cultural Revolution when the "dictatorship of the masses" sentenced people to death in droves, this should be the first time under normal conditions since the communist government was established that such a large number of criminals has been sentenced to death simultaneously for involvement in the same case. This highlights mainland China's current state of normal abnormality. "Troubled times call for severe measures." The communist authorities are well aware that they are now on the brink of troubled times and that the reality isn't the "stability" with which they try to deceive themselves and others.
As society becomes more civilized and human rights are given greater emphasis, some countries have abolished the death penalty. Even those that retain the death penalty are extremely careful about applying it. Generally, cases that don't involve a human life won't result in a death sentence. In ancient China, when Liu Pang (
First, it is intended to silence witnesses. Because this case involves former Political Bureau Standing Committee member, Liu Huaqing (
Second, apart from demonstrating his resolve to oppose graft, Jiang Zemin also wants to show that he himself is an honest and upright official by executing large numbers of corrupt officials. In fact, this group being executed are mice and not tigers. Furthermore, they are mice who lack powerful backers. For Jia Qinglin and his wife, Lin Youfang (
Third, the seemingly indiscriminate killing is intended to threaten dissidents both within and outside of the party. As everyone knows, society is currently very unstable in mainland China. Apart from political dissidents, there are also minority nationalities with different beliefs, religious people, Falun Gong (法輪功), and so on.
The dissatisfaction of farmers and workers laid off from state-owned enterprises is also growing daily. One can foresee that the privileged groups in the CPC will take advantage of the policy to develop western China and entry into the WTO as yet more great opportunities to extort the flesh and blood of the people.
And within the party, the power struggle that some members of the 16th Central Committee of the CPC are preparing to bring about will also take advantage of contradictions in society to challenge Jiang's authority. For this reason Jiang is using the indiscriminate killing of corrupt officials to demonstrate his iron-fisted tactics and give a warning to those "hostile forces."
Jiang's son, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Jiang Mianheng (
The trouble is that Jiang Zemin's opponents within the party can also make good use of this to "oppose corruption."
Thus the word that spread recently about documents relating to the partnership of Winston Wang and Jiang Mianheng having been stolen could be referring to evidence that will be submitted to the court in a future indictment of Jiang Zemin and his son.
Paul Lin (
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