Xi Jinping’s Emphasis on the Party’s ‘Gang Rules’ Underscores CCP Escalated Infighting: Expert

Chinese Communist Party’s head Xi Jinping, bottom center, arrives for the closing meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) on March 15, 2019 in Beijing, China. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

China’s ruling party head Xi Jinping recently stressed the importance of “internal Party regulations” to maintain the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) absolute control over the country. Analysts believe that this indicates that the internal struggle in the CCP has intensified after the 19th plenary session of the 6th Central Committee.

Use “internal Party regulations” to safeguard the centralized and unified leadership of the CCP’s central committee in order to guarantee the Party’s long-term rulership, Ding Xuexiang, a member of the political bureau of the central committee conveyed Xi’s words when presiding over a national party conference on Party regulations on Dec. 20.

Lu Tianming, a political commentator based outside of China, told The Epoch Times that these words are Xi Jinping’s attempt to sound the alarm to his political opponents.

“These gang rules will be imposed to punish opponents,” said Lu, adding that the Party’s internal struggle has become more intense after the sixth plenum, the CCP is seriously divided, and the regime is in chaos.

According to Lu, many public comments call the internal Party regulations “gang rule” since the CCP is regarded as “a gangster” since it always deems itself as being greater than the country and it places its internal discipline ahead of state law.

CCTV, the CCP’s mouthpiece, stated that party organizations, members, and cadres should “respect the authority” of the Party’s internal regulations on Dec. 21, the same day an organ newspaper of CCP’s school also called for Party unity, saying the CCP’s primary political task is to safeguard its centralized and unified leadership.

“This official rhetoric does not directly mention ‘Xi core’ and ‘Xi central’ as before because it might meet too much resistance from political rivals … the CCP’s internal struggle has escalated to some level so that Xi can only pressure the rules over the party to establish his authority,” Lu added.

“In reality, Xi has changed his approach but still means the same thing, because he is still the top leader of the Communist Party.”

Xi’s words will be a threat to political opponents, Lu further explained the CCP’s punishment procedure for its infighting: whoever violates the rules within the gang of the CCP will be dealt with by the rules of the gang, and the Central Discipline Inspection Commission—which is not a law enforcement agency, but a CCP’s internal regulations enforcement arm, so it has greater power—will act first as the gang’s enforcer. The disciplinary committee will first announce its findings and determine the charges, and then refer those under investigation to the public prosecution system for action.

According to state-run People on Dec. 21, the highest-ranking attendee was Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and secretary of the central secretariat, along with Yang Xiaodu, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; Chen Xi, organization minister of the Central Committee; Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Committee for Political and Legal Affairs; and Huang Kunming, minister of the propaganda department.