The political scene in Beijing is interestingly unstable ahead of the Communist Party of China's (CCP) 16th National Congress. There has been a dispute inside the CCP over whether Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
Jiang reached his lowest ebb at the National Day celebration party on the night of Sept. 30, looking extremely serious the whole evening. Perhaps what upset him was the arrest of Zhao An (
Zhao is a favorite of Zeng Qinghuai (曾慶淮), the younger brother of Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅) -- Jiang's closest aid who heads the party's Organization Department. More importantly, Zhao plays a central role in some interesting rumors about Jiang.
Zhao is the general-director of CCTV's annual Spring Festival Party -- China's most popular TV program. He has made a fortune out of the show since he was the one who decided who could perform on the program. The artist most in the limelight is Song Zuying (
However, on Oct. 8, Zhao appeared back on CCTV again with the Xinhua News Agency publishing a commentary article on the same day promoting unity and stability. But on Oct. 12, Zhao was arrested again. Can the first arrest be interpreted as an attempt to dig out Jiang's secret from Zhao's in the name of anti-corruption and the second other people's protection of him? The problem is, who would be able to organize Zhao's release? Were military troops used? Was there some kind of hostage exchange?
According to the latest issue of the Hong Kong-based Open Magazine, the investigation into the corruption case of Wang Huaizhong (
Although the case was finally closed last month, Jiang's sister's part has not yet been investigated. In response, the president immediately transferred Huang Ju (黃菊), the secretary of the CCP's Shanghai Municipal Committee, to Beijing and may appoint him as the new secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to protect the safety of his family.
After that, the president's luck took a turn for the better. Another favored subordinate, Jia Qinglin (
No wonder Jiang said that "everything is okay" during his US trip.
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in New York.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS