Tables turned on Jiang's allies since
power shift By Feng Liang
HONG KONG - After Chinese incumbent president Hu
Jintao replaced his predecessor Jiang Zemin as the
country's new commander-in-chief, political observers
say China's power shift has finally been completed.
Since the Communist Party's decisive meeting last month,
the fourth-generation of leadership - with moderate
reformist Hu as the paramount leader - now takes full
control in the Middle Kingdom. Hu is now party chief,
the nation's president and supreme military chief. The
allies of his rival Jiang may not have been routed, but
they are subdued, and in some cases the tables are being
turned against them.
Seeing that the pro-Hu
faction seems to have gained the upper hand in
Zhongnanhai (Beijing's walled compound of leadership),
some predict changes in the country's political scene.
Since late September, appeals have resounded to address
the malpractices in the education sector and in
HIV/AIDS-stricken Henan province, both of which are
usually considered the dominions of Jiang Zemin, who
also had been head of state and was well known as head
of the Shanghai Clique, comprised of his colleagues and
proteges from the east coast near Shanghai and Shandong
province. After all, now it is the all-new Hu era.
The education sector has long been kept under
the thumb of pro-Jiang State Councilor Chen Zhili and
news of education-related corruption and malfeasance has
been flooding the media for years, especially illegal
fees and bribes. In Madame Chen's and China's drive to
make education pay, basic schooling - which is supposed
to be universal - often comes with a price tag, putting
it beyond the reach of many ordinary Chinese. Big
changes may be afoot.
Another Jiang ally and
member of the powerful standing committee of the party's
politburo, Li Changchun, was the provincial party chief
of Henan province in central China. The impoverished and
densely populated province has been plagued by the
rising number of HIV patients - some call it an epidemic
of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis - due to authorities'
inadequate supervision of unsanitary and unsafe blood
collection practices involving poverty-stricken farmers
who were selling their blood. Finally this was outlawed.
Both political figures, in education and in Henan, are
regarded as confidants of the former president and so
problems and potential scandals involving them were
swept under the carpet in Jiang's era.
He Yong,
deputy secretary of the Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection - the Chinese Communist Party's
(CCP's) chief watchdog agency, told the Ministry of
Education that establishing a system-based
anti-corruption mechanism should have the highest
priority. Political commentators interpret the remark as
a prelude to the watchdog group's crusade against
corruption in the sector.
Even Jiang Zemin found
himself implicated - unfairly say some - in one case. In
2001 he visited the "Oriental University Complex" in
Hebei province and wrote an inscription for it. A
university complex is a multi-campus higher education
base that is comprised of a cluster of universities or
colleges. Jiang's improvised inscription and endorsement
resulted in nation-wide university complex hysteria:
many similar development projects, many large, costly
and unnecessary, mushroomed throughout the country.
According to the latest official figures, more than 50
large-scale university multiplexes either have been
completed or are under construction. In June, the
Chinese National Audit Office audited four of them and
found that all were implicated in illegal land use
approval and appropriation, as well as over-sized
investment loaded with high risks. They would be taboo
today as China tries to cool its economy and reduce
reckless investment in construction and other sectors.
The audit report also singled out Oriental University
Complex, which bears Jiang's inscription, accusing it of
massive illegal renting of needed and tillable land.
Under its development scheme, up to 942 acres of farm
land were illegally allocated for luxury golf courses.
Back in April, a report from the state-run
Chinese Central Television revealed malpractices during
the spring enrollment of the China Conservatory of
Music, one of the country's blue-ribbon arts schools.
Soon, the school's rector Jin Tielin was criticized by
the public. Nonetheless, Jin was not officially punished
because of his political connections: Song Zuying, one
of his female students, is a favorite artist and friend
of the former president, Jiang Zemin. The friendship
between Song-Jiang may be the reason why in July the
website of an influential paper, Guangming Daily,
reprinted an article, more than two years old, detailing
the rise of Song as an artist.
On September 28,
Procuratorial Daily, the official newspaper of the
procuratorate establishment, akin to an attorney
general's office, lashed out at the appalling
performance of Henan officials because of the surge in
the number of HIV-positive patients. The province is
best known for its so-called AIDS Villages, where most
of the adults are HIV-positive or AIDS-infected due to
unsafe blood collection practices. In the province, the
epidemic's spread was never stopped or even slowed down.
According to official figures, 25,036 people in Henan
are HIV-positive and 11,815 have contracted AIDS.
Independent statistics from volunteer groups, however,
are much higher. Some data suggest that at least 65% of
800 villages in Henan province report cases of
HIV-positive or patients who contract AIDS.
Notably, the article in the Procuratorial Daily
stated that the current administration of Henan
government would not be held responsible for the
malfeasance by its previous leadership, which had to
answer for the epidemic raging through the province. It
specified that the previous leaders, even if they had
been promoted or moved out of the province some time
ago, should be held accountable and punished
accordingly.
Unsafe and uncontrolled blood
selling in rural Henan - the root cause to the fast
spread of the deadly disease AIDS - reached its high
during the 1990s, when Li Changchun reigned over the
province as the Communist Party chief between 1992 and
1998. The commentary, published after Jiang relinquished
his last official military title last month, gives rise
to speculation that justice will be meted out to
previous provincial bosses.
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