Xi Jinping delivered a blunt message to the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party: No one is out of reach. In the weeks leading up to this month’s Communist Party congress, in which Xi is expected to secure a third term as leader of the party and head of the armed forces, China’s courts orchestrated a series of trials for corruption of senior state police and of the security apparatus.
The death sentences – which can be commuted to life in prison after two years – were handed down last week against Fu Zhenghua, Xi’s former justice minister, Sun Lijun, a former vice minister of public security, and Wang Like, a former president. -authority in Jiangsu.
Prison sentences of more than ten years were also handed down to at least three other former police and security chiefs. While the sentences were mostly for corruption, officials noted that the cases were all related to a “political gang” disloyal to the Chinese president.
“This was clearly a warning … against overt acts of factionalism and disobedience to Xi Jinping’s dictates in the run-up to the 20th party congress and beyond,” said Victor Shih, a professor of Chinese political economy at the University of California at San Diego.
In the past two months, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s feared internal affairs body, has launched dozens of investigations and publicly confirmed a series of lawsuits against central government officials.
Among them is Liu Yanping, a former anti-corruption chief accused of “participating” in Sun Lijun’s group, according to state media.
Yuen Yuen Ang, an expert on China’s political economy at the University of Michigan, said it was “hard to believe” that the latest cases were “routine” given the sensitivity of the moment. “Sometimes the crackdown on corruption is aimed at reducing corruption, and other times it’s a political instrument,” she said.
Since Xi took over the leadership of the party in 2012, the crackdown on corruption has targeted “tigers and flies”, or high and low government officials. Four million officials, most of them low-ranking officials, were investigated, but hundreds of officials were also purged.
Sun, who was found guilty of illegally carrying weapons as well as bribery and stock market manipulation, was detained in April 2020 amid a purge of security officials. His downfall helped pave the way for Xi to consolidate his power by appointing longtime ally Wang Xiaohong as public security minister in June.
Two of the most striking features of Xi’s decade in power were his success in accumulating supporters in key party and state positions, and the concentration of power in his own hands, wrote Wu Guoguang, who was an adviser to former prime minister Zhao. Ziyang, in a recent essay.
“Because Leninist regimes are ruled by man rather than law, any new leader must rely on a purge of his rivals and the promotion of supporters within the regime to consolidate power and implement his programs,” said Wu, now a professor at the University of Victoria, Canada.
In previous lawsuits, Sun and Fu pleaded guilty to receiving bribes of 646 million yuan (R$471 million) and 117 million yuan (R$85.4 million), respectively. China’s criminal courts have a conviction rate of over 99%.
State media hailed the convictions as a demonstration of the “iron fist” against corruption. But their cases have also highlighted the dangers and contradictions at the heart of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign. Experts said that by toppling top management, anti-corruption officials had little choice but to act illegally.
“It’s a very dirty business,” said Professor Shih. “A lot of money changes hands. Obviously, you have to reward people for doing the things you want.”
Lynette Ong, a China expert at the University of Toronto, said there was an idea within the party that “the whole of society” was at the disposal of anti-corruption authorities.
“CCID can mobilize, by extension, a state-owned company located in a foreign country to track down a hidden fugitive,” she said. “There is a lot of ‘outsourcing’ to state entities at home and abroad, and even private entities can be called in if the targets are important enough.”
By targeting elite politicians, their families and their powerful business interests, officials like Fu and Sun would inevitably position themselves as targets. Fu especially had a reputation as a fanatic. As Beijing’s new chief of police in 2010, he oversaw a raid on Passion nightclub, which was popular with the Chinese establishment.
Shih added, “Their jobs were to collect a lot of confidential information about the Chinese population, but also about the elite. While some of these officials who ended up arrested are no longer a threat, others were just waiting for an opportunity to retaliate.”
With Xi poised to rule without rivals, many critics warn that his authoritarian tendencies will only worsen.
John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, noted that Xi came to power after a period of “deep discontent” across the party under Hu Jintao.
“It was openly criticized as a lost decade. There was a widespread feeling that things had gotten too technocratic, that Hu Jintao was too weak and was contributing to the problem of corruption,” Delury said.
“The party wanted a strong man, it wanted a single leader who was more charismatic and forceful. Xi Jinping gave the party what it wanted.”
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