This is from Forbes by Gordon G. Chang:
What’s wrong in China? Xi Jinping, Communist Party general secretary since November 2012, has launched a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that has terrorized most everyone holding a position of responsibility in government. The newish leader famously promised to take down both “tigers”—those of high rank—and “flies,” and he has made a bold start.
So far, he has stripped Bo Xilai, once China’s most charismatic politician, of all assets and sent him to prison for life for corruption and abuse of power.
...
Xi is now going after the underlings in the patronage network of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, and there is evidence to suggest he is also gunning for Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin. The moves, therefore, look like attempts to bring down both Jiang, the leader of the Shanghai Gang faction, and Hu, head of the Communist Youth League faction. Xi, it seems, is in the midst of destroying all other power centers in the country’s ruling organization, firmly rejecting the live-and-let-live mentality that has kept peace in Beijing since the sentencing of the Gang of Four in early 1981.
As a part of this ambitious effort, Xi is also targeting senior military officers, most notably Xu Caihou, a Jiang ally. The gravely ill Xu—stricken by cancer—was stripped of Party membership at the end of last month and, despite his retirement, will be court martialed for taking bribes and selling promotions to junior officers. The former general is the most senior officer ensnared in an investigation of this sort since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. The PLA Daily, the military’s most authoritative publication, has carried numerous reports this year of generals and admirals condemning Xu and taking what are tantamount to public loyalty oaths to Xi.
...
Xi, to be sure, is incarcerating corrupt figures, but he is not doing so for their corruption. He is purging political opponents using corruption as an excuse. Tellingly, none of the individuals Xi has put away is either one of his family members or a supporter. And if China’s leader was really determined to rid his country of corruption, he would not be relentlessly jailing anti-corruption activists.
...
Xi’s campaign is now so ferocious that some Chinese think they could be on the eve of another Cultural Revolution.
...
“How many times have you heard the Chinese described as pragmatists?” Arthur Waldron, the University of Pennsylvania’s famed historian, asked me the beginning of this month. “They’re not.”
What’s wrong in China? Xi Jinping, Communist Party general secretary since November 2012, has launched a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that has terrorized most everyone holding a position of responsibility in government. The newish leader famously promised to take down both “tigers”—those of high rank—and “flies,” and he has made a bold start.
So far, he has stripped Bo Xilai, once China’s most charismatic politician, of all assets and sent him to prison for life for corruption and abuse of power.
...
Xi is now going after the underlings in the patronage network of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, and there is evidence to suggest he is also gunning for Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin. The moves, therefore, look like attempts to bring down both Jiang, the leader of the Shanghai Gang faction, and Hu, head of the Communist Youth League faction. Xi, it seems, is in the midst of destroying all other power centers in the country’s ruling organization, firmly rejecting the live-and-let-live mentality that has kept peace in Beijing since the sentencing of the Gang of Four in early 1981.
As a part of this ambitious effort, Xi is also targeting senior military officers, most notably Xu Caihou, a Jiang ally. The gravely ill Xu—stricken by cancer—was stripped of Party membership at the end of last month and, despite his retirement, will be court martialed for taking bribes and selling promotions to junior officers. The former general is the most senior officer ensnared in an investigation of this sort since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. The PLA Daily, the military’s most authoritative publication, has carried numerous reports this year of generals and admirals condemning Xu and taking what are tantamount to public loyalty oaths to Xi.
...
Xi, to be sure, is incarcerating corrupt figures, but he is not doing so for their corruption. He is purging political opponents using corruption as an excuse. Tellingly, none of the individuals Xi has put away is either one of his family members or a supporter. And if China’s leader was really determined to rid his country of corruption, he would not be relentlessly jailing anti-corruption activists.
...
Xi’s campaign is now so ferocious that some Chinese think they could be on the eve of another Cultural Revolution.
...
“How many times have you heard the Chinese described as pragmatists?” Arthur Waldron, the University of Pennsylvania’s famed historian, asked me the beginning of this month. “They’re not.”
