On Jan. 11, Reuters news agency reported from Beijing that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary-General and Chinese President Hu Jintao (
The agency quoted sources as saying that this would help Hu further consolidate his grip on the CCP.
That view, however, is highly debatable.
In 1959, Mao Zedong (
At the time, it was said he was stepping down in order to have more time to concentrate on his study of Marxist-Leninist theory. After the death of millions of people as a result of the Three Red Flags movement, Mao was forced to reflect on his wrongdoings.
To regain his hold on power, he unleashed the bloody Cultural Revolution.
When Lin Biao (林彪), Mao's second-in-command, wanted to take over leadership and the presidency in the early 1970s, he was pushed aside by Mao and is said to have died in an airplane crash in the Mongolian desert while trying to flee the country. China had no presidential post during the decade of the Cultural Revolution.
A few years after Mao's death, in 1982 the Chinese constitution was changed to reinstate the position. To avoid internal power struggles, however, the post was no longer occupied by any of the top officials in the Political Bureau of the CCP's Central Committee.
Not until well ito the 1990s, when Jiang Zemin (江澤民) combined the CCP secretary-general and the presidency, did the presidency begin to have substantial administrative powers. Jiang was the chairman of China's Central Military Commission and also chaired the CCP's military commission.
If, after becoming president, Zeng wanted to place the military under civilian command, Hu would have no choice but to give up his hold on the military, which would put the military in opposition to the party.
The battle for the presidency reveals the vagaries of the CCP's internal power struggles. Last June, Hu was only able to dissolve the Shanghai Clique thanks to Zeng's cooperation. This was followed by the dismissal of Shanghai mayor Chen Liangyu (
The investigations were not allowed to continue because had they reached the allegedly corrupt Vice Premier Huang Ju (黃菊) and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin (賈慶林) -- both of whom are also members of the Standing Committee of the CCP's Political Bureau -- the CCP and the Chinese state would have been shaken at their foundations.
Hu and Wen skirted this challenge because they knew that their own families were not clean either.
So the question remains: How should Hu repay Zeng for his help in eliminating Chen? The answer seems to be that Zeng wants to be president of China.
To secure his position, Hu had Yu Keping (俞可平), deputy director of the Central Translation Bureau and member of Hu's think tank, publish an essay titled Democracy Is A Good Thing (民主是個好東西) to promote democracy and garner public support. The essay has been widely discussed.
Also, the cover story of the year's first issue of the Beijing-based Caijing magazine dealt with the Luneng Group (
Key to the Luneng Group's transformation was Zeng Wei (
Two other key figures were Yu Zhengsheng (
The other was Wang Lequan (
The power struggle in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is even more frightening. The anti-corruption campaign and personnel changes among high-ranking officials have caused the military to plunge into turmoil.
Last year, the PLA Air Force had five plane crashes and there already have been two this year. After being led by Jiang for a dozen years, the military is on the brink of becoming a major battleground in China's power struggle.
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in Taipei.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
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