Bo was expelled from the party, and is being on trial. What else do you expect?
I expect nothing.
I was going by what the free media is speculating.
COMMUNIST PARTY ELITE IN CHINA
Elite party members welcoming
the new Standing Committee in 2007 The Communist Party elite is made up of high-level officials, graduates of the party school, princelings (See Below), and friends and employees of the party powerful. According to the Economist, "Communist Party officials function as China's ruling class. They are a self-selected group accountable to nobody. They oversee government and industry, courts and parliaments...elections are allowed for 'people's congresses'—so long as the party does not object to the contestants...A party committee keeps watch within every institution of government at every level. The system was copied from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but expanded in translation."
Senior cadres remain overwhelmingly male, but there is now a compulsory retirement age and even (very low) quotas for women.
In the 1990s and many senior members of the Communist party were in their seventies and eighties and often had to be nudged by their bodyguards to stay awake during meetings. Many were trained in the Soviet Union. Over time, hard liners and old timers have become a smaller and smaller minority. These days the Communist Party seems to be run by colorless bureaucrats of which Hu Jintao is the best example.
Most the highest ranking officials in the Communist Party live in Zhongnanhai, a compound built between the 10th and 13th centuries as an imperial playground and now acts as sort of modern Forbidden City. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping all lived here and the main offices for the Central Committee and the Politburo are all here too. See Cities, Places.
China's Central Party School
Central Party School trains all mid-ranking and senior officials and develops theory. Students say the school day begins at 6:00 am with physical exercise and included seminars and classes before evening lectures on subjects ranging from international economics to Taoism and calligraphy. [Source: Tania Branigan, The Guardian, June 30, 2010]
Journalists were shown simple bedrooms with computers, televisions and a small selection of books including the collected works of Mao Zedong. Despite the heavy stress on communist theory, students also study how other governments handle issues. The Eurozone crisis was added to the curriculum.
Officials rejected claims that cadres use the school to "meet people, make acquaintances, have a good meal and have a good rest". Li Jingtian, one of the institute's vice-presidents, told The Guardian that while the school was not immune from unhealthy social trends, 'we want to serve as a purifier to cleanse our students' minds and souls.'
Beidaihe
During the summer, the party elite have traditionally headed to the seaside resort of Beidaihe, on China's Gold Coast on the Gulf of Bohai,. Beidaihe used to be where Communist Party officials engage in intense infighting and maneuvering while hidden in secluded villas. It was here that many important party conclaves were held and some fateful decisions to 'stay or go' for political supremos in Chinese communist hierarchy were made before announcing them to the public from the formal party halls in Beijing. [Source: Antoaneta Bezlova, Asia Times, September 15, 2009]
Beidaihe is no longer the summer capital of China's political intrigue. The once heavily guarded beaches are occupied by Russian tourists and the media no longer pays much attention to what is going there. Its status as a top leadership retreat has been downgraded by party chief Hu Jintao, who has promoted a more egalitarian approach and wants to nurture the party's populist image.
In August, when state leaders still visit, if not for secret party meetings then for some relaxation, the streets are lined with police who occasionally stop cars and demand identification. "The security reminds me of the old days in the USSR, Russian tourist Yuri Gregoriev told the Asian Times while relaxing on a chaise-lounge on the beach. 'But Idon't mind it at all. We all come from different parts of Russia's far east, and to get to any other beach with similarly good weather and warm sea, we would have to travel a long time."
Beidaihe, See Places
Communist Party Politics
Economic policy for the coming year is often decided at the planing meeting of top Communist Party and Cabinet officials held in December. The agenda for the meeting is often worked out by the Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission.
Party membership has traditionally been very selective. These day many urban people see few advantages with joining but in rural areas party members are often still regaled as the elite and membership can protect individual interests or provide opportunities that otherwise would be impossible.
On deciding health care policy, Gordon G. Liu, of Beijing University's Guanghua School of Management told the Washington Post: "It's very interesting to see politics in China. Sometimes they are very old-fashion and sometimes so liberal, even more than in the U.S. Thus it said 'since you guys are debating, lets do an experiment and see which way works better.' I tell my colleagues that what you're doing is very consistent with your 'scientific development philosophy' rather than being like a dictator telling us what to do like in the past."
Jonathan Watts wrote in The Guardian, Internal party debates are carried out behind closed doors, but there has long been a divide between those like Jiang on the "right" who favour more deregulation, opening and market reform and those on the "new left" who favour a more interventionist, egalitarian and authoritarian approach. Hu was seen as being closer to the former when he took power in 2002, but he has spent much of his time as state president and party secretary straddling the two camps. [Source: Jonathan Watts, The Guardian July 1, 2011]
Princelings in China
"Princelings" (taiza) are children or other relatives of Chinese leaders and high-ranking officials who have prospered through their connections. Depending on how you define a high ranking official, there are anywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 princelings in China and they range in age from recent Peking University graduates to former Prime Minister Li Peng, the son of revolutionary leader who was adopted by Mao.
Children of Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongli and Li Peng all became princelings. Jiang's son, Jiang Mianheng, was vice president of the Academy of Sciences and an important player in Shanghai's telecom and semiconductor industries. Zhu's son, Levon Zhu Yunlai, was the head of China International Capital Corp, a company n which Morgan Stanley had a stake. Li Peng's son Li Xiaoping was the head of Huaneng Power International Inc. and now is vice governor of Shanxi, one of China's major coal-producing provinces. Li Peng's daughter, Li Xiaolin, was vice president of China Power Investment Corp. and now runs a major subsidy of China Power.
Describing an evening with a princeling in Quingdao in the mid 1990s, one writer in the Lonely Planet Guide to China wrote: "he shuffled me round to a few dreary tour spots, offered me a place to stay for the night and took me to dinner with his girlfriend. He was, I guess trying to impress her with his broken English—he certainly impressed her with the price of the meal. I stayed the night in his spacious apartment, finding out how cadre's sons live—high! They have enough money, or access to it, to create a generation gap between themselves and their parents."
Perhaps the greatest princeling of them all is Larry Yung, son of Chinese Vice President Rong Yiren. As general manager of Hong Kong-based conglomerate he has amassed a $2 billion fortune that included thoroughbred race horses, a Hong Kong penthouse, a mansion in Vancouver and an 800-acre estate in Britain. Life has not always been easy for Yung, however. During the Cultural Revolution he spent eight years doing hard labor in a remote area in southwest China.
Red Princesses
"Red princesses" is a term used to describe the offspring of Communist leaders who are now members of high society. They include Jasmain Li, the granddaughter of Communist Party No.2 Jia Qinglin, who made debute at a debutante ball in Paris attended Princess Diana's niece and the daughter of casino tycoon Stanley Ho; and Chen, Xiaodan, the granddaughter of Chen Yun, a founding father of Communist China, who came out at ball attended by princesses from Italy and Belgium.
Among those who have made a splash in the fashion world are Ye Mingzi, granddaughter of Red Army general, Ye Jiangying, a designer in Paris who attended St. Martins in London and worked with Issey Miyake in Japan; and Wan Baibai, granddaughter of former legislature chairman Wan Li, who is regular at fashion parties and has her own line of jewelry.
Among those that are well known in China are "China Power Queen" Li Xiaolin, the only daughter of former Chinese Premier Li Peng; and the "Charity Princess" Deng Zuoyue, the Wellesley-educated granddaughter of Deng Xiaoping, who has hosted balls to raise money for Sichuan earthquake victims and deaf-mute children among other causes.
Princeling Power in China
"Generally...modern China belongs to the children of the revolution. All three officers appointed last year to the rank of full general in the People's Liberation Army were children of senior party leaders, "John Garnaut wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. " Xi Jinping, who many expect to be the next president, is the son of a revolutionary hero. Eight or nine of the 25-member Politburo are princelings (defined as having a parent or parent in-law who held the rank of vice-minister or above), according to Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese elite politics at the Brookings Institutution. In the previous Politburo there were only three. [Source: John Garnaut, Sydney Morning Herald, February 13, 2010]
"The strategic heights of China's economy are also in princeling hands. The family of former president Jiang Zemin - whose adopted father was a revolutionary martyr - pulls strings in the telecommunications, railways and postal systems. The family of former premier Li Peng - who was adopted by former premier Zhou Enlai - has outsized influence over electricity production, transmission and hydro-electric dam building. His daughter Li Xiaolin, who became famous in Australia this week for her disagreement with Clive Palmer over a $60 billion deal, is at the helm of a major power generating company. Her brother headed another large electricity company before being transferred to help run the coal-powered province of Shanxi. Family friend Liu Zhenya controls the electricity grid. " [Ibid]
"Distinctions between state and personal enterprise are not always clear in China. Some of the most eminent princeling families discreetly control large companies that are listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, sometimes in concert with Hong Kong's mega-billionaire families, and often through loyal personal secretaries or close relatives who have changed their names." [Ibid]
"Further in the background, Chinese political analysts say the descendants of Marshall Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Wang Zhen, Peng Zhen and Bo Yibo are China's real political and financial king makers." [Ibid]
China's Princeling System
"The Communist Party has enjoyed enormous success in turning China into a powerful nation and lifting its citizens out of poverty, "John Garnaut wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. "But the party is also a club that allocates political, financial and social privilege to its members. It has its own internal system of hierarchy and quasi-royalty, where revolutionary leaders bequeath their status to their children and children's children. Those descendants are called 'princelings' in China. [Source: John Garnaut, Sydney Morning Herald, February 13, 2010]
"Mostly, China's princelings get on with expanding the national cake and carving it up. Maoist leader Bo Yibo is said to have helped institutionalize the princeling nexus of power and wealth in the 1990s by supporting a proposal that each powerful family can have only one princeling in politics, leaving other siblings to cash their political inheritances for financial ones. " [Ibid]
"Things are not always between princelings and their battles are sometimes cloaked in complicated webs and layers that are difficult for outsiders to make sense of. . Bo Xilai and Fu Yang, the sons of Bo Yibo and Peng Zhen, two Mao era heavyweights that were members of the Eight Immortals, for example, have battled one another through proxy lawyers in Chongqing in a complicated case there involving organized crime. " [Ibid]
" Privately, close political observers in China say that whatever you think of Bo Xilai or his personal motivations, he has thrown a bomb inside Party Central. His public dissection of Chongqing's power and protection rackets invites Chinese people to worry and talk more openly about whether their country is evolving towards some kind of mafia state." [Ibid]
"Some liberal thinkers hope Bo is a catalyst for those in the system who are not beholden to 'princelings' - perhaps the Vice-Premier, Li Keqiang - to rise and challenge the party's privileges. But the party's princeling bonds will be hard to break. To the extent that they stick together they will loosen their grip on power only when necessary to preserve it." [Ibid]
Privileged Youths Above the Law
Peh Shing Huei, Strait Times, the Chinese public is increasingly becoming angry with a "clan of young Chinese are rich, arrogant and seemingly above the law because their parents are powerful and wealthy local officials." In late 2010 public anger reached the boiling point towards this privileged group over several brutal incidents, mostly callous car accidents, that received widespread attention on the Internet. "These privileged young people have come to embody the qualities that ordinary Chinese hate about the authorities - corrupt, violent and lawless." [Source: Peh Shing Huei, Strait Times, December 9, 2010]
Experts believe that if the trend is left unchecked, it may lead to large-scale social unrest. "With more and more of these guan er dai abusing their power, the people would have less faith in the ruling party, seeing it as a feudal organization,"' anti-graft analyst Lin Zhe from the Central Party School told the Strait Times. "It would be a threat to social stability... Such things build up bit by bit, before exploding. Once the people revolt, it will be too late." [Ibid]
"Unhappiness with abuse of power by these "guan er dai" has boiled over in the past. Corruption by so-called 'princelings', children of top Chinese Communist Party leaders, was a key factor which led to the Tiananmen protests in 1989. 'The officials today are even greedier than the old cadres of the 1980s,' said Professor Lin. 'They want money, sex, government positions, academic titles, you name it. And not only do they plunder for themselves, they do it for their sons and daughters too.'" [Ibid]
" Indeed, guan er dai are also believed to get plum government jobs because of their parents' connections," Peh Shing Huei wrote. "In Pingnan county, southern Fujian province, for example, the employment requirements for a finance department position were so specific and detailed that only one applicant fulfilled them last month. She was the county party secretary's daughter. And in north-west Ningxia region, the son of two officials edged out 487 applicants for a civil service job despite allegedly not having completed his examination papers during the entrance exam." [Ibid]
Law professor Zhang Min from Renmin University told the Strait Times that if most people believe officialdom is beyond their reach and is reserved for only the children of officials, the people's hatred of officials would intensify. 'Such hatred would coalesce into a frightening force,' he wrote on the People's Daily website. 'And history tells us that once such a force has been formed, there is little chance of peace in the world.' [Ibid]
My Dad is Li Gang
The most infamous involved the son of a senior police official in northern Hebei province who, when caught fleeing a fatal car accident in October, shouted: 'My dad is Li Gang!' His words went viral on the Internet and have become the country's newest catchphrase, used in jokes, poems and even art installations. [Source: Peh Shing Huei, Strait Times, December 9, 2010]
China Hush reported: "In the evening on October 16, 2010, due to drunk driving and speeding, a black Volkswagen Magotan hit two female student pedestrians wearing roller shoes in front of a supermarket at Hebei University. The incident caused one death and one injured. After the incident, like nothing had happened, the driver continued to drive his girlfriend to school. He was then later stopped by number of students and school security guards on his way back. Surprisingly, the young man showed little remorse and fear, he shouted, "Go ahead, sue me if you dare, my dad is Li Gang". The report of this incident immediately caused uproar in China's online community." [Source: China Hush, October 12, 2010]
"The incident caused widespread concerns of the netizens. Internet users expressed their anger towards the perpetrator on web. Posts condemning the perpetrator were seen everywhere. Netizens unmasked the perpetrator as Li Yifan. One pasting read: "name used in the past: Li Qiming, currently attending Hebei Institute of Media class of 2008, majoring in radio host." The human flesh search report also listed all the schools he had attended since 1988) Home phone number: 13730287 ***. Netizens also confirmed that Li Gang is Bei District, Baoding City Public Security Bureau deputy director of criminal investigation." [Ibid]
"Many netizens flooded his QQ space where you can find the angriest comments towards him and the unjust and irrational situation. People also posted his childhood photos: Authority is now scrambling with the investigation; according to GZdaily now there are almost no witness stepping forward for the investigation, where are they?; Questions are also raised about why emphasizing victims wearing roller shoes, as if they are trying to blame part of the fault for these shoes? And netizen also pointed out on one of the released photos where you can see the victim's shoe was just a normal shoe"¦Let's see how this incident unfolds."" [Ibid]
Changchun Incident
Peh Shing Huei, Strait Times, "A young man bumped his red Mazda 6 into an elderly woman, got out to scold her and then decided to inflict more pain by beating her up as well. 'I can even kill you. I have money. I would rather kill you and compensate you for it,' he shouted at the hapless woman. [Source: Peh Shing Huei, Strait Times, December 9, 2010]
Thousands of onlookers in north-eastern Changchun city quickly surrounded Mr Jiang Xiaozhu, according to local media, and ransacked his car before he was rescued by the police. An online background search for Mr Jiang, nicknamed 'police uniform man' because of what he was wearing, was quickly launched by netizens, whom the Chinese refer to as 'human flesh search engine'.
It revealed the 27-year-old to be a son of a local government official. His father is believed to be a county official and his father-in-law belongs to the same county's security forces. Mr Jiang, an employee in a state tobacco firm, is what the Chinese refer derogatorily to as guan er dai, or the offspring of officials.
According to China Hush, "Essentially, what happened is that a police officer driving his own car got angry with an old woman who wouldn't get out of his way. He eventually got out of the car, argued with the old woman, and then started to beat her, grabbing her by the hair and punching her in the face, according to an interview she gave that's excerpted at the end of the video. The old woman's daughter came over and he hit her, too. That was when passers-by started to gather, and they were not amused. [Source: C. Custer, ChinaGeeks, April 16, 2011]
On a video of the released on the web picks up the action at this point. At the 1:00 mark, the narrator says "Rationally, everyone [jumped in] to prevent the [police]man's crude behavior." Then the video cuts abruptly to a shot of a mob going absolutely apeshit on the police officer's car (which he, by that point, was wisely hiding inside). Even after police arrived, they kept smashing the car, and began chanting "Apologize, apologize!" Several scuffles with police occurred. Hours later, after police unsuccessfully tried to get the mob to disperse, the police finally got the man out of his car and into a waiting police van (2:19, note the people in the background still fighting to break through the police lines and attack him)." [Ibid]
C. Custer wrote on ChinaGeeks: "Of course, there's more to this than privileged versus commoner (he was also beating an elderly woman, which wouldn't win him many friends regardless of the prevailing mood of the time in any society). But the old woman he beat puts it in terms of haves and have-nots, and apparently so did the policeman. She also said he looked down on thelaobaixing, the common people. What's most telling about this video is not the comments, which call for the offending officer's head on a platter, and many of which also condemn police officers and public servants in general for their increasing lack of concern for the common people. No, what's most interesting about this video is that it's from early December 2010, but it's still being passed around on Chinese social networks today."
" This is, of course, an isolated incident. But this kind of thing happens a lot, and moreover, it obviously speaks to deeper issues. Unsurprisingly, it spread quickly across the internet, and has been reposted many times already. This posting on 56.com These stories keep getting passed around beyond their news shelf life, I suspect, because they are tapping into an increasingly common feeling of anger and exploitation among those who really are laobaixing. The story may be from December, but the feeling is as widespread today as it was then, probably more so. Are people about to take to the streets and launch a second Communist revolution to overthrow the new bourgeoisie? Absolutely not. But instead of harassing innocent dissidents and their lawyers, China's leadership would do well to pay more attention to these issues.
"Friend" of Senior Leaders Gets 15 Years for Fraud
Huang Jingjing wrote in the Global Times, "Shi Dongbing, the author of a number of books about Chinese politics and who claimed to have close connections with the country's senior leaders, was sentenced Sunday by a court of first instance to 15 years' imprisonment for fraud. According to the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, Shi fabricated stories of having personal relations with top Chinese leaders and some local officials, and claimed that through those "connections," he could help others gain promotion, approval for projects and even discount prices on cars." [Source: Huang Jingjing, Global Times, April 26, 2011]
"Shi defrauded eight victims of 3.44 million yuan ($528,750) between 2004 and 2006, the verdict said. The victims included Zhou Wuxuan, former deputy director of the North China Regional Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Li Dequan, former party secretary of the land development center with the Shenzhen Land and Resources Commission, and Liu Jianmin, former deputy head of the Bank of Beijing, according to a report in Caijing magazine." [Ibid]
"Shi has faced criticism from the children of nine former Chinese leaders, who denied having close relations with Shi and accused him of fabricating interviews with leaders in his books. The leaders include Hua Guofeng, a former chairman of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Hu Yaobang, a former general secretary of the CPC, and Ye Jianying, a former vice-chairman of the CPC, all now deceased. According to Shi's autobiography, which had been quoted in various media reports, he saved the wife of a Chinese leader during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and the woman later introduced him to many high-ranking officials. Shi claimed that he joined the Literary Association of Houma, Shanxi Province, in the 1980s and began to write books about China's top leaders. Due to their sensitive nature, many of his books were published in Hong Kong and pirated versions were circulated in the mainland." [Ibid]
According to the Southern Weekend newspaper, despite the difficulties inherent in verifying the contents of Shi's books, many officials and businessmen treated him as an honored guest. "We thought Shi had deep connections with the leadership. On the first day I met him, he said that he could help me get a promotion. But he never delivered on his promises," the paper quoted Zhou Wuxuan, who gave Shi an 850,000 yuan villa, as saying. [Ibid]
According to the court, Shi made about 2 million yuan by touting his connections with Xu Zongheng, a former mayor of Shenzhen, who was detained in 2009 for "serious disciplinary violations." According to media reports, Shi claimed that in response to Xu's request, he wrote recommendation letters to senior government officials to help Xu become mayor. After Xu's election, the two became "good friends." But Shi said they broke up after he discovered Xu's corrupt actions, and he spent five months in prison on fraud charges in 2006 under an arrest ordered by Xu. [Ibid]
Zhu Lijia, a professor of public administration at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times that Shi's case exposed hidden rules in China's political circles. "The reason why so many officials were easily fooled by Shi is because they knew that connections to higher authorities are shortcuts to success and wealth," Zhu said. "Such fraud cases will never end until these hidden rules are eliminated and the system for electing officials becomes more transparent." [Ibid]
Shi was not the first one to prey on gullible officials in recent years. In 2005, Zhang Chen, a farmer from Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to life imprisonment for defrauding over 8 million yuan from several officials by pretending to be a relative of a leader in the central government. Zhou Bihua, deputy head of the Writers' Association of the city of Changde, Hunan Province, wrote in his blog that the so-called victims of Shi's actions should also be brought to justice. "These people saw Shi's 'connections' as shortcuts to success. They gave Shi many rewards, but how could they afford them by relying only on their salaries? It is ironic that they were treated as victims in this case," Zhou said. [Ibid]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Yomiuri Shimbun, The Guardian, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.