Beginning in March 2012, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party began cutting down to size the power of the regime’s massive domestic security apparatus, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), with hundreds of officials being arrested.

An open letter by a retired Chinese Communist Party official alleging extensive corruption in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province has deepened the difficulties faced by a famous billionaire businessman. The revelations may also spell trouble for that businessman’s patron, the former domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang.

Hu Jintao also mentioned government reform in his report during the 18th National Party Congress in November. It was expected back then that new government reforms would surface in 2013.

The main reason for Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Guangdong was not merely to send an economic signal, but more importantly to visit with military leaders.

Zeng Qinghong, a formerly powerful apparatchik in the Chinese Communist Party, had a smooth political career in his early years.

Zeng Qinghong has been a longtime enabler and ally of former regime leader Jiang Zemin and ousted Party official Bo Xilai.