The Beijing Olympics are four years gone, yet a variety of curious ‘games’ continue to play out in China. Here we explore some of them.
Infighting
Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai are key players on one ’team' in a game has seen a recent surge in popularity as rival factions within the Chinese Communist Party duke it out, possibly going as far as attempting a Beijing coup, according to the social media rumor mill. With Zhou Yongkang, who oversees the police, rumored to be vying with Chinese regime paramount leader Hu Jintao for control, you can expect more than a few black eyes and missing teeth. First out of the ring was Chongqing top cop Wang Lijun, who has since managed to bait his old boss and former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai into a showdown. Bo was ousted recently and speculation is ripe that Zhou Yongkang will be next.
Click this tag to read The Epoch Times’ collection of articles on the Chinese Regime in Crisis. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.
Question Dodging
When you can’t control the media, it’s best just to avoid it. How do you answer questions of whether there was a coup in Beijing when even acknowledging the possibility could be deeply troubling? Easy, you ignore it all together.
Info Wrestling
As evidenced with the recent China coup rumors and speculations about security czar Zhou Yongkang’s marginalization, social media has changed the landscape of public discourse in China. Censors are challenged to keep up with the rapid chatter of netizens who can use their scathing wit to evade slow-witted robots, with masses able to overpower the army of censors.
Look no further than the flood of comments about an attempted coup in Beijing and you can see how central authorities can’t control the blogosphere—at least not initially.
Corrupt Kicking
It’s a new day in China when citizens aren’t afraid to get hands-on in their dissent. That point was highlighted in the town of Wukan in late 2011 when the locals kicked out the ruling party heads after too many people had their homes stolen out from under them by a corrupt alliance of developers and local officials. An unprecedented democratic vote was held in early March.
Economic Fencing
The Chinese regime has staked its survival on continued economic growth. That means doing everything possible to keep GDP roaring upwards. But along the way those policies and corrupt officials have built ghost cities of empty buildings even as housing prices skyrocketed, a trend that appears to be changing. China’s housing bubble is no longer able to outmaneuver market forces that look set to burst a bloated market.
Who are the major players engaged in the current infighting among the upper echelon of the Chinese Communist Party?
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