The new lineup of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee signals an end to the hope of saving the Party through reform. It also puts outgoing Party leader Hu Jintao and outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao in the crosshairs for a possibly resurgent Jiang Zemin faction seeking scapegoats for the accumulating problems facing the Party.
Hundreds of current and former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials were taken into custody in the southern province of Guangdong and will be put through an opaque Soviet-era communist investigative process over allegations of corruption and misuse of power, according to recent reports. The action is part of a disciplinary initiative by the province’s Party chief Wang Yang.
Wang Yang, one of the most prominent figures in the reformist faction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), will continue his political endeavors in Guangdong Province after being re-appointed as Party Secretary there recently, and amidst reports that he will likely be given a seat on the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the most powerful political organ in China.
In the bustling southern province of Guangdong, Party Secretary Wang Yang is making a name for himself as an apparent reformer open to new ways of doing things.