Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Crash, death, cover-up: three strikes, he's out

Observers commented on the prominent place that China's former president Jiang Zemin had in the recent Party Congress. They noted that Jiang seemed to be more in charge than a president from a decade ago would usually be.

It turns out the observers were right. The situation illustrates the complexity of Chinese politics among the tiny elite that runs things from Beijing.

How Crash Cover-Up Altered China’s Succession

China’s departing president, Hu Jintao, entered the summer in an apparently strong position after the disgrace of Bo Xilai… But Mr. Hu suffered a debilitating reversal of his own when party elders — led by his predecessor, Jiang Zemin — confronted him with allegations that Ling Jihua, his closest protégé and political fixer, had engineered the cover-up of his son’s death…

Ling Jihua

Before dawn on March 18, a black Ferrari Spider speeding along Fourth Ring Road in Beijing ricocheted off a wall, struck a railing and cracked in two. Mr. Ling's son was killed instantly, and the two young Tibetan women with him were hospitalized with severe injuries. One died months later, and the other is recovering, party insiders said.

[There was] a tangled effort to suppress news of the crash that killed the younger Mr. Ling… Under normal circumstances, party insiders said, suppressing such news to protect the image of the party would be a routine matter. But Ling Jihua went further, they said, maneuvering to hide his son’s death even from the leadership…

[T]he exposure [of the cover-up] helped tip the balance of difficult negotiations, hastening Mr. Hu’s decline; spurring the ascent of China’s new leader, Xi Jinping; and playing into the hands of Mr. Jiang, whose associates dominate the new seven-man leadership at the expense of candidates from Mr. Hu’s clique…

Under Mr. Hu, Mr. Ling had directed the leadership’s administrative center, the General Office, but was relegated to a less influential post last September…

Mr. Hu, who stepped down as party chief, immediately yielded his post as chairman of the military, meaning he will not retain power as Mr. Jiang did…