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VOA: Does the Fall of Guo Boxiong Foretell a Rising Storm?

In his interview with Voice of America, Xin Ziling, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) historian, said that taking down Guo Boxiong marked a victory for Xi Jinping, who handled the case both resolutely and steadily. The public announcement at this moment, right before the Beidaihe meetings this summer, is significant. It implies that the anti-corruption drive within the PLA has achieved an overwhelming victory. Xin observed that Guo was even more senior than Xu Caihou, the other vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, who died pending prosecution.
Xin cited Guo’s son, a PLA general, who boasted prior to his arrest earlier this year, "Confront our Guo family? My dad has promoted all military officials above the corps level."
Xin said that it was Jiang Zemin, the core of the third generation of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, who put Guo and Xu in charge of the military in order to restrain Hu Jintao.
Expecting Jiang Zemin himself to be held responsible, Xin commented, "Xi Jinping said, time and again, that there is no [upper] limit, no iron hat prince, who is free from investigation. It should be so. This naturally leads to Jiang Zemin, the top former leader. Jiang’s issue has to be dealt with, but it needs to be handled more steadily, more discreetly than [the case of] Guo Boxiong. One has to be resolute, yet take steady steps. It has to be done with absolute control so as to avoid any shockwaves across the country. Taking down Guo Boxiong has shown that within the military, things will not go wrong. Xi Jinping has had a firm grip on military power. This is a prerequisite for the continuation of the anti-corruption campaign."
Source: Voice of America, August 2, 2015
http://www.voachinese.com/content/former-pla-top-leader-procecuted-for-birbery-20150731/2887997.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Caixin.com Was First to Mention Jiang Zemin’s Name in Its Report on “Guo Boxiong’s Ups and Downs”

On July 30, 2015, the same day that Xinhua reported the expulsion of Guo Boxiong from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Caixin.com, a media group that is close to current top CCP leader Xi Jinping, published a biography of Guo titled, “Guo Boxiong’s Ups and Downs.” In this report, Caixin hinted at the close relationship between Guo Boxiong and Jiang Zemin, the CCP’s former top leader.

In 1990 when Guo was an army commander, he told a group of army officials that he would build an army that met Jiang Zemin’s five-sentence requirement for a qualified army. Of all of China’s official news reports, Caixin.com was the first media that directly mentioned Jiang Zemin’s name in such an anti-corruption report.

Source: Caixin.com, July 30, 2015
http://china.caixin.com/2015-07-30/100834676_all.html#page2

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua: Former Top Military General Guo Boxiong Expelled from the Chinese Communist Party

According to Xinhua News Agency on July 30, 2015, The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s Political Bureau expelled Guo Boxiong, former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) from 2002 to 2012, from the Chinese Communist Party over corruption accusations. “The political bureau also decided to transfer his case and relevant evidence to military prosecutors for handling in accordance with the law.”

The punishment of Guo Boxiong demonstrates "the firm determination of the CCP Central Committee, led by current CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, to govern the Party and armed forces strictly in line with the law." The CCP Central Committee’s Political Bureau stated in its statement of July 30, 2015, “No matter what power one holds or how high one’s position is, if a person violates Party rules and the law, he or she should be hunted down without compromise and without mercy.” 

[Note: In the military, Guo Boxiong was regarded as a proxy for former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.]

Source: Xinhua News Agency, July 30, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2015-07/30/c_1116096002.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Anti-corruption Campaign Has Recovered 38.7 Billion Yuan

On July 29, 2015, the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced that from November 2012 to June 2015, it had recovered 38.7 billion yuan (US$16.1 billion) from corrupt officials. 

As part of its investigation of corruption, CCDI determines the amount of funds the corrupt official has obtained in violation of the Party’s discipline. CCDI then collects and returns such funds to the State coffers through confiscation, recovery, and restitution. CCDI has been confiscating gifts, rebates, and remunerations; it has recovered public property and gifts to the State that had been misappropriated; it has also ordered the restitution of spendthrift State-owned assets and unauthorized fines and fees. 
Of the 38.7 billion yuan collected from corrupt officials, CCDI returned 20.7 billion yuan (US$3.26 billion) to the State coffers and the remainder to the courts for judicial proceedings. 
Source: Xinhua, July 29, 2015 http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-07/29/c_1116075349.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xi Jinping’s Brother: My Father Never Made a Leftist Mistake

With the recent round up of rights lawyers, critics have voiced their concerns over whether leftist hardliners have been gaining the upper hand in Beijing’s decision making circles. Xi Yuanping, the younger brother of China’s top leader Xi Jinping, gave a speech last week in which he stated that, throughout his life, their father had never made a leftist mistake. 

On July 27, 2015, The Study Times, a newspaper that the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) publishes, carried the full transcript of Xi Yuanping’s speech. In addition, China’s major Internet portals have publicized it widely. 
Xi pointed out that, even during the "fanatic Great Leap Forward movement," the Xi brothers’ father Xi Zhongxun remained cool-minded and voiced opposing views. 
Citing a participant who attended the meeting with Deng Xiaoping and Xi Zhongxun, Xi Yuanping gave a detailed description of how the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was formed. Deng told Xi Zhongxun, when Xi proposed the establishment of a special economic zone in the coastal province of Guangdong, that the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area which Xi was in charge of before 1949 was itself a special zone. In a subsequent meeting with the then leader of the State Council, Deng again reiterated his affirmation by using the term "special economic zone." 

Source: The Study Times, July 27, 2015
http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20150727/13357.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China News: Director of the Bureau of Corruption Prevention Arrested for Corruption

China News recently reported that Zhong Shijian, Director of the Bureau of Corruption Prevention of Guangdong Province, was arrested for corruption. Zhong was also the former Deputy Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Communist Party Committee of Guangdong Province and was the former Director of the Supervision Bureau of Guangdong Province. He has been removed from his government positions and Party positions. Zhong was accused of severely violating investigation rules and discipline, leaking secrets to suspects, accepting monetary bribes, as well as other illegal activities. He was also voted to be removed from his seat as the Provincial Member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Source: China News, July 21, 2015
http://www.chinanews.com/m/sh/2015/07-21/7418308.shtml
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

People’s Daily Had Full Page Coverage of The Difficult Position that Democracy Faces in the U.S.

Xinhua reported that, on July 26, the print edition of People’s Daily used a full page to cover the issue of democracy in the U.S. The title was, “The Difficult Position Democracy Faces in the U.S.” In the editor’s note, the article questioned what happened to democracy in the U.S. It said that democracy in US has turned into a mere show off piece, which is a problem in itself. It is evident in the U.S. economy, in the model for the operation of democracy, and in U.S. foreign policy. The full page consisted of the translation of four articles. These were, “Money dictates Politics; ‘American Democracy’ is not a true Democracy,” written by John Ross, the former director of London’s economic and business policy [Editor’s note: John Ross was economic advisor to Ken Livingstone when he was mayor of London]; “A Double Standard is Used; Inequality is Increasing,” written by Boris Guseletov, the Advisor to the State Duma (Russian Parliament); “The Small Group holding Power Has Control of the General Population; the Oligarchy Damages Democratic Values,” written by Paulo Duate, Researcher at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; and “American Democracy Does Not Fit Other Countries; Being a Copy Cat will not Work," written by Yuksel Gormez, the Central Bank of Turkey’s Beijing Economic Counselor.

Source: Xinhua, July 26, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2015-07/26/c_128059281.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

The Party Has Not Won a Landslide Victory over Corruption in the Military

In a Qiushi article, Du Jincai, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, stated that corruption in the Chinese military is "grave and complex." He stated that the Party has not yet won "a landslide victory" over corruption.  

“To be honest, the situation of the government’s anti-corruption campaign remains severe and complicated. [We] have not won a landslide victory to ensure that people dare not, cannot, and will not become corrupt. Some problems are long-standing and so deeply rooted that we urgently need a major massive investigation and ideological clean up.” 
Du warned that without such a major effort to remedy the situation, corruption “will spread like an epidemic” and “will seriously undermine the Party’s absolute leadership over the military.” 
Du further explained that the external environment cannot be ignored. “The so-called Western democracy, freedom, human rights, and other erroneous ideas” have greatly influenced military personnel. 
Source: Qiushi reprinted by Huanqiu, July 22, 2015 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2015-07/7065368.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics