Ha sido siempre China, un misterio para quienes quisieron entenderla. Desde hace días circula el rumor de un posible golpe de estado. Sin certezas se sabe de la exisencia de un duro enfrentamiento entre los reformistas que desean mayor libertad económica con la vieja guardia maoista que quiere dejar todo como está.
China coup rumors may be wild, but tension is real
The fates of prominent Communist Party officials Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang point up the clash between economic reformers and Maoist traditionalists. |
| Bo Xilai, Secretario del PC de la provincia de Changqing. |
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times - 5:13 PM PDT, March 22, 2012 - Reporting from Beijing
The aftershocksfrom the sacking last week of a powerful Communist Party
secretary are still rattling China, injecting an element of turmoil into a
transition the government had hoped would showcase the stability of its
political system.
State media reported this week that 3,300 party cadres from the security apparatus would be sent to Beijing for ideological retraining. The order was unusual enough, but even more so was the fact that the report omitted mention of internal security czar Zhou Yongkang, who heads the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee that is recalling the cadres.
Zhou, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and until now one of the most powerful men in China, had been the committee's strongest backer of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing who was removed from his post last week. Some overseas Chinese-language Internet sites carried wild (and unsubstantiated) rumors that Zhou and Bo, a popular figure among Maoist traditionalists, had tried to stage a coup.
A level of edginess was apparent this week in the unusually large security presence in central Beijing, complete with armed SWAT teams in some subway stations.
Jin Zhong, a veteran political analyst based in Hong Kong, dismissed the more fantastic rumors, while acknowledging the underlying tension between economic reformers and Maoist traditionalists.
"It hasn't reached the point where you are going to hear gunshots. It is not like when China arrested the Gang of Four in 1976, but there is a very strong conflict going on," Jin said.
Zhou had been a strong supporter of Bo's law-and-order campaigns in Chongqing, where thousands were swept up in a gang-busting dragnet and retirees had been gathering in a public park for now-banned patriotic singing and dancing. According to Jin, Zhou made several visits to the Chongqing delegation at the recently concluded National People's Congress, fighting for Bo's political future until the very end.
Like most of China's senior leaders, the 70-year-old Zhou is due to retire at the 18th party congress in October. Until recently, Bo was thought to be a likely replacement. Jin said he doubted that Zhou would be removed from the Standing Committee because he is already set to leave.
"They won't touch anybody on the Standing Committee before the congress. It is too risky. They've put in a big effort trying to present a picture of stability," Jin said.
Given the opaque nature of the Chinese Communist Party, only whispers and hints of turmoil are being reported in the Chinese press. But the topic is feeding a furious rumor mill on blogs. Numerous reports have appeared in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as on Chinese-language news sites run out of the United States.
The Mingjing News, a U.S.-based news portal, reported that Bo had been scheming with Zhou to prevent vice president and heir apparent Xi Jinping from being confirmed as President Hu Jintao's successor. It also reported that Bo purchased 5,000 rifles and 50,000 rounds of ammunition through the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, causing nervousness in Beijing.
Bo, 62, a charismatic populist, was fired as party secretary for Chongqing on Friday while he was in Beijing attending the National People's Congress, the annual legislative session.
"They wanted to do it when he was in Beijing to avoid trouble. Historically, this is the way they'd handle warlords who'd gotten their own militias," said Zhang Ming, a political scientist at People's University in the capital.
Chinese censors have been hurriedly trying to remove political gossip from the Internet, leading people to come up with creative nicknames for their leaders. Zhou has been nicknamed for a popular brand of instant noodles, giving rise to numerous reports that "the noodles have been taken off the shelf."
"We are in a black box. Everything is happening behind the curtain, so people come up with their own stories," Zhang said.
barbara.demick@latimes.com - Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
State media reported this week that 3,300 party cadres from the security apparatus would be sent to Beijing for ideological retraining. The order was unusual enough, but even more so was the fact that the report omitted mention of internal security czar Zhou Yongkang, who heads the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee that is recalling the cadres.
Zhou, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and until now one of the most powerful men in China, had been the committee's strongest backer of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing who was removed from his post last week. Some overseas Chinese-language Internet sites carried wild (and unsubstantiated) rumors that Zhou and Bo, a popular figure among Maoist traditionalists, had tried to stage a coup.
A level of edginess was apparent this week in the unusually large security presence in central Beijing, complete with armed SWAT teams in some subway stations.
Jin Zhong, a veteran political analyst based in Hong Kong, dismissed the more fantastic rumors, while acknowledging the underlying tension between economic reformers and Maoist traditionalists.
"It hasn't reached the point where you are going to hear gunshots. It is not like when China arrested the Gang of Four in 1976, but there is a very strong conflict going on," Jin said.
Zhou had been a strong supporter of Bo's law-and-order campaigns in Chongqing, where thousands were swept up in a gang-busting dragnet and retirees had been gathering in a public park for now-banned patriotic singing and dancing. According to Jin, Zhou made several visits to the Chongqing delegation at the recently concluded National People's Congress, fighting for Bo's political future until the very end.
Like most of China's senior leaders, the 70-year-old Zhou is due to retire at the 18th party congress in October. Until recently, Bo was thought to be a likely replacement. Jin said he doubted that Zhou would be removed from the Standing Committee because he is already set to leave.
"They won't touch anybody on the Standing Committee before the congress. It is too risky. They've put in a big effort trying to present a picture of stability," Jin said.
Given the opaque nature of the Chinese Communist Party, only whispers and hints of turmoil are being reported in the Chinese press. But the topic is feeding a furious rumor mill on blogs. Numerous reports have appeared in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as on Chinese-language news sites run out of the United States.
The Mingjing News, a U.S.-based news portal, reported that Bo had been scheming with Zhou to prevent vice president and heir apparent Xi Jinping from being confirmed as President Hu Jintao's successor. It also reported that Bo purchased 5,000 rifles and 50,000 rounds of ammunition through the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, causing nervousness in Beijing.
Bo, 62, a charismatic populist, was fired as party secretary for Chongqing on Friday while he was in Beijing attending the National People's Congress, the annual legislative session.
"They wanted to do it when he was in Beijing to avoid trouble. Historically, this is the way they'd handle warlords who'd gotten their own militias," said Zhang Ming, a political scientist at People's University in the capital.
Chinese censors have been hurriedly trying to remove political gossip from the Internet, leading people to come up with creative nicknames for their leaders. Zhou has been nicknamed for a popular brand of instant noodles, giving rise to numerous reports that "the noodles have been taken off the shelf."
"We are in a black box. Everything is happening behind the curtain, so people come up with their own stories," Zhang said.
barbara.demick@latimes.com - Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
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China tells military to ignore rumours, obey party
Yesterday at 07:06 | Reuters China's top military newspaper told troops on Friday, Apr. 6, to ignore rumours on the Internet and steel themselves for "ideological struggle" as the ruling Communist Party faces a leadership transition, in a sign of jitters in Beijing.
The Liberation Army Daily did not mention outlandish rumours of a foiled coup in Beijing that spread on the Internet in past weeks, after the ousting of Bo Xilai, an ambitious contender for a spot in the new central leadership to be settled later this year.
The newspaper, however, in a front-page commentary, left no doubt the party leadership wants to inoculate People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops against rumours that could erode the authority of President Hu Jintao, who also serves as head of the party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, which commands the PLA.
The paper admonished soldiers to "resolutely resist the incursion of all kinds of erroneous ideas, not be disturbed by noise, not be affected by rumours, and not be drawn by undercurrents, and ensure that at all times and under all circumstances the military absolutely obeys the command of the Party central leadership, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Hu."
The commentary directed at the military follows other comments aimed at reinforcing the party's grip on opinion after an unsettling two months of political upheaval and rumours, at a time the leadership prizes stability.
In late March, authorities shut 16 Chinese websites and detained six people accused of spreading rumours about unusual military movements and security in the capital, feeding talk of an attempted coup or schism in the leadership.
The rumours fed on speculation about the ousting of Bo Xilai, who in mid-March was removed as party boss of Chongqing city in southwest China, over a month after his vice mayor, Wang Lijun, fled to a U.S. consulate, triggering a scandal exposing accusations of infighting and abuses of power.
Charismatic Bo had wrapped himself in populist rhetoric and egalitarian vows, and his removal has stirred open opposition from leftist supporters who see him as the victim of a plot.
The Liberation Army Daily mentioned none of this.
But it said the military must maintain a tight grip on troops' access to the Internet in the middle of what it called an "ideological struggle" before the 18th Communist Party congress late this year, when Hu and his cohort will retire.
"Historical experience shows that whenever the party and country faces major issues, and whenever reform and development reach a crucial juncture, struggle in the ideological arena becomes even more intense and complex," said the newspaper.
"We must pay close attention to the impact of the Internet, mobile phones and other new media on the thinking of officers and troops," it said.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/world/detail/125580/#ixzz1rLttO9QP
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