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Chinese military blasts confusion at the top
By Xu Yufang
BEIJING -
Military deputies attending the ongoing annual meeting
of China's supreme legislature, the National People's
Congress (NPC), have launched a broadside at the state
of confusion at the top hierarchy of the country.
"Multi-center means no center, which will lead
to no achievement," uttered deputies Gu Huisheng and Ai
Husheng after listening to a speech given by Jiang
Zemin, the incumbent chairman of China's Central
Military Commission (CMC), as reported by Tuesday's
People's Liberation Army Daily.
To make their
point more figuratively, the two generals cracked
Chinese characters. "One zhong and one xin
together make one loyalty, but piecing two zhongs
together to one xin gives one huan, a
problem." Zhong meains "middle" and
xin means "heart".
Zhongxin as a phrase means "the
center".
On paper, China's top political boss is
Hu Jintao, the general secretary of the ruling Chinese
Communist Party (CCP). The official order of precedence,
however, puts Jiang above him as the CMC chairman. The
question therefore hangs: who is superior, CCP or CMC?
China's official media have shied away from
discussing who is now the core or how many cores there
are now since the closure of the 16th Party Congress,
where Jiang handed over the party reins to Hu but
retained the military title for himself. Now with two
promising young generals making their questions in the
open, the ringing of bells should be loud and clear
enough.
Major-General Gu is the vice chief of
the political department of Nanjing Military Region,
while Ai is now with the Information Technology Warfare
Unit, but is far better remembered as the colonel who
led the first regiment to occupy Tiananmen Square on
June 4, 1989, and got rid of demonstrating students with
bloodshed.
Two more generals, Wang Shouzhi and Pang
Weiyi, added further fuel to the fire: "People have to
stay away from on-paper talks, armchair talks, playing
with words or creating fancy novelties." All four items
on this list have been identified with Jiang by China's
intelligentsia in the past couple of years.
Zhang Shixian and Xing Shucheng joined the
chorus with their demands to leaders: "They should
discipline themselves well, be broad-minded to others
and take the leading step as models."
That so
many top soldiers have openly voiced their
not-so-friendly feelings against Jiang serves only one
purpose - to tell the world they are not behind the
drive to enthrone the civilian Jiang as their nominal
chief.
In fact, such noises have been heard
often ever since the congress curtain dropped. General
Zhu Qi, commander of Beijing Military Region, praised
all senior cadres who stepped down during the 16th
Congress as people of high virtue. That was an indirect
criticism to Jiang, the lone person who did not join his
peers in retirement. And in appealing to the whole armed
force to obey Jiang as the military chief, Zhu tacitly
made the point that the arrangement was a matter of
politics.
According to the North America-based
Chinesenewsnet.com, which accurately predicted the new
standing committee of the CCP Politburo well in advance,
Jiang's clinging to the military seat was approved by
Hu, who was more preferred by the military as a choice
of logic.
In late 2001, a dozen top generals
visited Hu at his home, to celebrate his 60th birthday
(according to Chinese agrarian arithmetic, Hu was in
fact then 59). Jiang later learned of the incident and
harshly criticized the soldiers, in particular General
Liang Guanglie, then commander of Nanjing Military
Region, who led the throng.
Jiang's animosity
could not prevent Liang from being elevated in the 2002
congress to be the PLA chief of staff and a member of
the CMC. In turn, Liang has made no reference to Jiang's
"Three Represents" in public since.
It remains
to be answered why Hu should support Jiang to remain
above himself. Maybe Hu was not confident enough in
himself and had to give in to Jiang's demand. Maybe he
just wanted the whole world to see that Jiang is the
origin of problems Hu cannot solve in the future.
Whatever the real reasons are, the fact as
pointed out by generals Gu and Ai is undeniable: two
centers make one problem.
(©2003 Asia Times
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