Several groups are fighting for power in China

The power in the PRC only from the outside seems to be a monolith, analogous to the political bureau of the time of Brezhnev. In fact, at the highest levels of the Middle Kingdom reigns fierce competition, coupled with intrigue and the struggle for a place in the sun. Taking into account the fact that Moscow and Beijing now have “special relations”, it is useful to understand the internal elite of the PRC and the degrees of influence of each of the groupings.

The modern system of government in China is complex and confusing due to the fact that it combines an extensive system of party, state and parliamentary institutions, while in the field, each of the branches of government is duplicated by representatives of the center. However, there are a number of informal influential groups formed within the party and the government according to territorial, kinship or guild principles, which have a huge influence on decision-making. There are at least six such groups.

"Taijidan". Crown Princes

This is not so much a grouping (unlike the Shanghai or Tuanpay, there are no single core, goals and tasks for the princes), but a term for the younger generation of relatives of the old party elite. The term itself originated in the early twentieth century in relation to the heirs of President Yuan Shikai, who declared himself 1915 the emperor. In 1920-1930-ies the relatives of the Kuomintang leaders Chiang Kai-shek, Song Meiling, Chen Lifu and Kun Xiangxi were called “heir princes” (the latter, being the richest man in pre-revolutionary China and a direct descendant of Confucius in the 75 generation, was married to sister of the wives of Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen). At the present time, the “hereditary princes” are in a narrow sense relatives of the “Eight Immortals”, so named by analogy with Taoist deities, that is, old communists who survived all the purges of Mao times and accumulated considerable political weight by the 1980 – 1990 years. The first among the "immortals" is Deng Xiaoping. Also in the list always include the chairman of the PRC in 1983 – 1988. (then this position was technical - the chairman was not the de facto head of state) Li Xiannian, and sometimes Bo Ybo - the disgraced father of Bo Xilai. Sometimes the father of the current leader of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping - Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee in 1988 – 1993 Xi Junjun appears instead.

Thus, the most famous now "princes" - this is Xi Jinping and Bo Xilai. Other well-known "heirs" include Deng Nan, son of Deng Xiaoping, chairman of the board of the All-China Association of Persons with Disabilities, paralyzed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, PLA Lieutenant-General Li Ping (son of Li Xiannyan), President of the PRC State Bank Chen Yuan (son of Chen Yuan), Major General of the PLA Mao Xinyu (grandson of Mao Zedong), as well as the children of the Chinese President of the People's Republic of China, the leader of the Shanghai group Jiang Zemin, founder of the Grace Semiconductor Manifacturing Corporation odnikam current employer and the fourth son of George HW Bush Neil Bush and Jiang Mianheng PLA Major General Jiang Myankan.


Son of a well-known Chinese revolutionary, Chairman of the PRC in 1959 – 1968, Liu Shaoqi, Lieutenant-General of the Military Police Liu Yuan and son Wen Jiabao, former Premier of the State Council of the PRC in the government of Hu Jintao ". In total, 229 people belong to this group, and only one thing unites them - they are all descendants of the older generation of Chinese leaders.

Most of the “princes” achieved their current position in Chinese politics by using not so much loud names as their parents, whose colleagues wanted to transfer their business to reliable hands. This may explain the fact that a significant part of the children of party leaders made a career in the army - and vice versa. Some "heirs" are criticized for excessive increase of family capital. So, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, 12 people from the list are registered offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. "Princes" was much easier to move up the career ladder than their colleagues who did not have a powerful family behind them. But in 1997, a pretty strong blow was struck on their positions when Xi Jinping and Dan Pufang barely went through as candidate members of the CPC Central Committee, and Bo Xilai could not get this status at all. After 10 years, Xi and Bo were named key party leaders of the fifth generation, while in all the cities of the central subordination of the PRC, one of the “princes” occupied the post of mayor. It is not excluded that Jiang Zemin contributed to the rise of the “heirs”, who was forced to retire according to age, but wanted to maintain his influence on the political processes in the country.

Speaking of age. The word "prince" is usually associated with young majors, but in China the young major is the one who is about 50 years old, but simply the major is usually between the ages of 65 and 70.

"Shanghai clique"

“Shanghai” means those who made their party career in Shanghai party committees under Jiang Zemin’s rule. In addition to Jiang himself, the most prominent representatives of this group are the Vice Chairman of the PRC in the administration of Hu Jintao, a former member of the PC of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Zeng Qinhong, the former Chairman of the People’s Political Advisory Council of China Jia Qingling, who died in his post as First Deputy Prime Minister State Council Huang Ju and deprived of membership in the party in 2007 year due to the misuse of funds from the Shanghai Social Insurance Fund, the former secretary of the Shanghai Committee of the CPC, Chen Liangyu. The latter is currently serving a 2006 year sentence.

Chinese policymakers believe that the Shanghai Clique was formed in 2004, by Jiang Zemin, who needed his own people in the new leadership in order to prevent a sharp change of course on the part of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, if such happens. In particular, the reshuffle in the Politburo at the fifth plenary meeting of the 16 CPC Congress was blocked by the efforts of this group. Also, the "Shanghai" slowed down the reforms of the Wen Jiabao government, aimed at reducing the growth of infrastructure and overheating of the Chinese real estate market. Subsequently, starting from the 2007 year, a number of “Shanghaiists” ran into the “Tsinghua clique”. And with the coming to power of Xi Jinping, the influence of this group fell almost to zero.

"The Tsinghua clique"

It was named this way by analogy with the “Tsinghua clique” that existed during the years of the Chinese Civil War and consisted of Chinese nationalists who subsequently fled to Taiwan. Formed from graduates of Peking University Tsinghua, known for the smallest percentage of representatives of the party elite who studied there. The leader of this group is considered the former Chairman of the PRC Hu Jintao. During his reign, there were four Tsinghua graduates among the nine members of the PC of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, five among the 24 members of the Politburo, and among other party and state leaders - 10 people. Most of the representatives of this group belong to the fourth generation of Chinese leaders, are prone to democratic reforms, and some after graduating from Tsinghua generally studied in the United States.

This group has replaced the "Shanghai" and enjoyed the greatest influence in the period from 2008 to 2012 year. Hu Jintao’s closest associate in this group and the main lobbyist of his interests in the current generation of the Chinese leadership are considered the Vice-Premier of the State Council and one of two women in the current political bureau, Li Yandong, who may also be a member of Tuanpai. The group also includes the chairman of one of the parliamentary opposition parties of the Democratic League of Self-Government of Taiwan, Lin Weny. Some analysts refer to the "Tsinghua clique" and the former chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, Wu Bangguo, while others refer him to the "Shanghai".

The majority of senior Tsinghua graduates who have noted in Chinese politics and influenced the representatives of the fourth generation of the Chinese elite have already either died or retired.

"Tuanpay." Young Communists League Faction

At the moment, it represents a powerful opposition to the “Crown Princes”, and consists of former functionaries of the Chinese Komsomol. The term “tuanpai” itself originated in 1980-s and was already used to criticize the CPC general secretary Hu Yaobang, who was overly surrounded by Komsomol members. The current Tuanpay has nothing to do with the 80's group, which has lost all influence after the death of its leader and the events that followed in Tiananmen Square. After Hu Jintao (who ironically made a party career in the Komsomol under Hu Yaobane, although he was not a protege), came to power, many began to get accustomed to his fellow members of the Komsomol. "Tuanpay" consists mainly of people from the people who have no influential relatives or connections, and therefore is the center of a populist-minded wing as opposed to the "elitists" of the "Shanghai" or "Crown Princes".

Some political observers consider Hu Jintao’s faction leader, others consider the current Premier of the PRC State Council Li Keqiang. The alleged members of this group include Vice President Li Yuanchao, Second Vice Premier Liu Yandong, Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Hu Chunhua (who is also one of the most well-known leaders of the next, sixth generation of the Chinese elite) and Chairman of the PRC Supreme Court Zhou Qiang

"New Zhijiang Army"

The name for this group was coined by Hong Kong journalist Ma Haolian to designate Chinese politicians who made a career in Zhejiang province when Xi Jinping was the party secretary. The term “Zhijiang” itself is the poetic name for the Qiangtan River, which flows into the provinces, which Xi used in his philosophical collection “Zhijiang thoughts”. The members of this group are the closest associates of Xi Jinping and will play a very important role in Chinese politics in the coming years, especially after 2017. The most influential of them are the former secretary of the party committee of Taizhou city, the former mayor of Hangzhou and, according to rumors, Cai Qi, deputy head of the CPC Propaganda Department, Huang Kunming, general director of the Chinese giant steel industry - Baostil corporation Chen Dejun and secretary of the CPC Committee of Jilin Bayangolu Province. Apparently, the group is also the most ardent guide to Xi Jinping's program to combat luxury and a good counterweight to “Tuanpai” in its populist rhetoric.

"Sishanskoe meeting"

A group of politicians and businessmen from Shanxi Province, organized according to the principle of traditional Chinese society. It is believed to have included members and candidates for membership in the CPC Central Committee, as well as major businessmen. All of them met every three months in the mountains to the west of Beijing. At the same time, the existence of this group with absolute certainty has not yet been confirmed, because no record was made at the meetings. The leader of the "Sishansky meeting" was not there either.
The greatest activity of this group occurred in the period from 2007 to 2014 the year when it attracted attention in connection with the arrest of the director of the State Energy Administration Li Tenan, who has now been sentenced to life imprisonment. In addition to Liu Tenan, multi-billionaire Ding Shumiao, recently sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and serving as treasurer, former second chairman of the CPPCC CP, Lin Jihua, who is under investigation, his elder brother Lin Zhengze, also under investigation, and former Shanxi Province Vice Governor Chen Chuanping. The group consisted of one of the small but very influential political cells within the party and fell under the rink of the anti-corruption campaign announced by Xi Jinping after his son Liu Tenan died in an accident at Ferrari, which also had two half-naked girls.

Which of the above groups will collect nine gates, and which - thirteen orphans (using the terminology of mahjong), that is, will have the most significant impact on the politics and economy of modern China, we will know with certainty only after 2017 year, when the results of the first five years will be summed up generations of the Chinese elite.

Comments

[yuriy55]

The article brings the idea:
You (Russians) are friends with China - look what kind of villains they are ???

All internal affairs of other states are their problems, the solution of which lies not in the competence of the authors of essays. And, as for China, it is an ancient state with its own history, lifestyle and traditions. And, as you know:
"Don't poke your nose into someone else's monastery with your Charter !!!"

[hrych]

This article deserves first place among all essays on the PRC published on VO. Finally, an analysis of the elite of this incomprehensible entity is given. Let's say why do you need to know? The USSR lived only 70 years of unhappy life, but its history from its inception to its death was determined by the composition of the elite (as well as all state formations since ancient times). If we take the groups of the elite of the USSR from 17 to 91, we see how the Trotskyists who staged a bloody bacchanalia on the territory of Ingushetia, driven under the plinth and orderly destroyed by Stalin, literally after his death, quickly came to power in the person of Khrushch. If the trouble of 1941 is exclusively the cause and effect of the Trotskyists. Their return again put the new empire on the brink of existence (the Caribbean crisis, the PRC from our satellite became a fierce enemy before the clashes, the Stalinist statesmen were subjected to massive repression (which is hushed up by the liberoids), the people were again driven into poverty, the Chechens who returned to the Caucasus killed Russians with impunity, in Novierkassk, , according to tradition, they shot at the descendants of the Cossacks, etc.) Here, until the very end of this state, ethnic Ukrainians ruled (as usual with the wives of lawyers, as a rule) and the current problems are their merit: Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Chernenko, Gorbachev, but again the Trotskyists briefly Andropov's face got through, but he was banged. Then the Trotskyist Gorbachev, according to tradition, destroyed the state, without a fight surrendered to the enemies the country that was conquering in the Cold War, again interethnic, interfaith massacres, etc. Conclusion - the elite's fuss should be known. And these "immortals" will also destroy the PRC from the inside ...

[rotmistr60]

this incomprehensible formation.

If you think China is an incomprehensible entity, then I'm sorry, but there’s nothing to talk about with you. Moreover, you jumped from the topic of China to interethnic relations in the USSR.

[hrych]

Quote: rotmistr60

I'm sorry, but there’s nothing to talk about with you

So you can not talk. And it’s incomprehensible, due to the economy of capitalism with billionaires, the leading role of the Communist Party as a state religion, the lack of social programs for the main population of the country in the People’s Republic, etc. But if you go deeper into the essence of the matter, then the truth will simply be revealed that the most ordinary system is slave-owning, and party members are patricians, and billionaires, millionaires and hundreds of thousands will correspond to their head of the clan, depending on the situation in the party. In principle, too, what the Trotskyist-Leninists have prepared for our people and only Brezhnev (Stalin conducted industrialization, won the most terrible war in history, made the USSR a nuclear missile power and laid the foundation for the creation of a social state) built real (not in words) socialism.

[Eugene-Eugene]

As regards the post-Stalinist "Trotskyists", you have gone too far. The period of Khrushchev's rule was the time of the onset of a balance between the United States and the USSR, when it became clear that Soviet expansion had limits that did not allow the Union to count on political dominance throughout the world. Hence the Cuban missile crisis and the loss of control over the PRC.

And the article is not bad, but very superficial. It was necessary to analyze the patronage ties between the PRC officials (patron - client), then the author would have found not 6, but 106 groups: in many regions and departments, their own bureaucratic informal "families" were formed. The most important of these "families" also control the center. This is nothing unique: patronage relations are characteristic of any government.

[hrych]

Question: What happened to Vasily Stalin? Where did Molotov go?

[Eugene-Eugene]

Zionists kidnapped?

[hrych]

The first is tortured to the dungeons, the second is expelled from the party ...

[Andrey Yuryevich]

Quote: hrych

If the misfortune of 1941 is exclusively a cause and effect merit of the Trotskyists. Their return again put the new empire on the brink of existence (Caribbean crisis,

good for "cold" bend! don't "make" history however you like! if yesterday was Friday, this is not a reason to carry nonsense in the morning ...

[hrych]

Quote: Andrey Yurievich

this is no reason in the morning to carry nonsense ...

“In the winter from 1935 to 1936, as I already mentioned, I had a conversation with Pyatakov, in which the latter informed me of Trotsky’s installation to ensure the unconditional defeat of the Soviet Union in the war with Hitler and Japan and about the possible rejection of Ukraine and Primorye from the USSR. These instructions indicated that it was necessary to establish contact with the Germans in order to determine where they were going to move their armies and where the defeat of the Soviet troops was to be prepared, ” said during interrogation in 1937 the head of the OGPU-NKVD Herschel Yagoda.
Later, this was perfectly accomplished by the Trotskyist General Pavlov - just before Hitler’s troops attacked the USSR in summer camps, he took border divisions, officers were sent on leave, and the staff’s instructions to disguise military facilities and equipment, deliberate accumulation of aircraft in huge numbers on open localities etc. And the directive of June 18, 1941 on bringing troops into full combat readiness has not yet been implemented ...

[Kyrgyz]

Quote: yuriy55

The article brings the idea:
. And, as for China, it is an ancient state with its own history, lifestyle and traditions. And, as you know:
"Don't poke your nose into someone else's monastery with your Charter !!!"

That 'ancient' China that people like to mention does not exist since the time of the Opium Wars, what is there now correlates with what was there centuries ago, as well as what is in Russia with what was during the reign of Rurik. And the name is different and the language and culture, this is a different country with basically different people and it is not true to call its development the succession of generations

[rotmistr60]

Dear Kyrgyz, China already wrote on paper when the Kyrgyz had not yet mounted his horse.

[Kyrgyz]

Quote: rotmistr60

Dear Kyrgyz, China already wrote on paper when the Kyrgyz had not yet mounted his horse.

Yes, in the territory of modern China, horseback riding was probably mastered earlier, but it was a different state.

[Colonellee]

Here I would argue with you, dear If you mean the Kyrgyz as a member of a certain ethnic-national community, then here you are right. As a nation and state formation, Kyrgyzstan took place only in the 20s of the 20th century by the efforts of the Soviet government from a synthetic union of several nationalities and even nationalities (not nations!) For the springboard of the future offensive (spread) of Soviet power in Central Asia (not without reason during the Soviet era, the capital Kyrgyzstan was called Frunze, then the name of the famous and talented Soviet commander of the Red Army in Turkestan. Unfortunately, it was difficult for the simple Kyrgyz to pronounce this name Purunze, Poronzo ...) Of course, the Kirghiz then also had no alphabet. However, if you mean a resident of this area (modern Kyrgyzstan) then you can still argue about the seniority of culture. Because at different periods of history in this region different peoples lived, including culturally much older than the Chinese (the antiquity of whose culture still requires great evidence, it’s not me, it’s a modern historical science thinks so) such as Arias (along the way of their resettlement to India). So it all depends on the points of view. I myself lived in Asia for a long time (including in Kyrgyzstan), an interesting fact. It is believed that at the time of the arrival of the Mongols, blond-haired and blue-eyed people lived in Kyrgyzstan (descendants of the Aryans, Ainu, who knows). There were several tens of thousands. And then half a million Mongols came (I certainly exaggerate, but everyone knows the Mongolian ability to genocide) And ... the Kirghiz have become modern Kirghiz. Although now it’s fun after several centuries to meet on the street a green-eyed and red-haired Kyrgyz with a slanting squint

[Andrey Yuryevich]

Several groups are fighting for power in China

"Lyubertsy" are involved?

[Dembel77]

Quote: Andrey Yurievich

Andrey Yurievich (2) Today, 07: 25 ↑ New
Several Lyubertsy groups are fighting for power in China?

And for what purpose are you interested, dear Andrey Yuryevich?

[Andrey Yuryevich]

Quote: Dembel 77

Quote: Andrey Yurievich

Andrey Yurievich (2) Today, 07: 25 ↑ New
Several Lyubertsy groups are fighting for power in China?

And for what purpose are you interested, dear Andrey Yuryevich?

and cho for the questions here ???

[afdjhbn67]

Normal article, interference in internal affairs does not depend on it in any way, but we know little about the underground movements of China only recently, that we started to print

[yuriy55]

Power in China only from the side seems to be a monolith,

Such spitting does not create positive ...

And as for the general content, yes! It is informative, as if the gangs of Russia of the 90s or the influence of the oligarchic clans on power at the present time began to dismantle ...

[midashko]

It would be interesting to read about the oligarchic clans of Russia. But, the reliability of this would be low, it is very possible that it would be misinformation. And about the strength of the clans, their influence, their goals to learn at all is not possible. It is unlikely that the clans themselves represent their position in full. Otherwise, all sorts of Khodarkov-Berezovsky, Salin governors and others would not fly to tartarara.
So-so article, for sure, does not reflect the political spectrum of China.

[Grim Reaper]

Similar can be written about any country. And the monolith of the times of Brezhnev (according to the author) was no less an adder among the country's leadership. What did not prevent the USSR from being a great power. The people didn’t even know, and few people suspected that not everything was alright at the top of the government. They shared posts and material goods there .... yes, but the country also developed. And very good. Now it would be so.

[Andryukha G]

After the collapse of the USSR, an institute was created in China to study this problem, and as you can see, China, with the red banner of communism, breaks itself into the honored leaders of the globe, crowding the imaginary and political giants of the world.

[shadow]

Interesting - informative. The author tells how things are in China. He does not say: to be friends or not to be friends. He simply describes the situation itself and nothing more. And you imagined both the monastery and the aligarchs. There is no rating for good or bad. It feels like you don’t understand what you are reading.

[Deniska999]

Thank you for the interesting information.

[Name]

Greetings to all! I'd like to know - Otkel Taka infa ... Apparently a top secret.

[Amurets]

Named. You are the Far East. But here in the local gossip, joint broadcasts on TV, something flashes. It’s just necessary to analyze. And the article, yes an informative one, in general, I like to read V. Ovchinikov. He has very interesting journalism. Moreover, he has lived in China and Japan for a very long time.

[Turk]

And which and how many groups are fighting for power in Russia?

[Mountain shooter]

But who knows for sure what goals and objectives are set for one or another group. One thing is clear - they exist, and strive for power and economic power. As in any country in the world. Such is human nature. The main thing is that these groups in their quest to gain the upper hand do not forget about the country in which they live.

[akudr48]

Several groups are fighting for power in China

It is encouraging that a few.

It is hard to imagine that one group was fighting for power, fighting with itself.

But in China, a tough algorithm for changing the highest power has been established, after 5 years, which gives rise to a change in elites and, as a whole, revitalizes the state body, freeing it from the effects of stagnation. Which explains, in particular, the fantastic rise of China.

You can’t say about Russia, where rulers at all levels climb into the state trough with all their hooves and row, row, row, paying no attention to the timing or conscience.

The country is all in managerial blood clots, the country was struck by stagnation, which could soon be hit in the form of a heart attack or stroke. It is possible in a lethal form, as it was in 1991. Or in 1917. Or worse.

Only a people can be a doctor, but he must be treated. The situation is complicated ...

[Samy]

The change of power in China is not after 5 years, but after 10. The article is certainly interesting and it is unfortunate that there was no serious analysis of the Chinese situation in the Russian top.

[hrych]

Quote: Samy

that there was no serious analysis of the Chinese situation in the Russian top.

Unreasonable statement.

[Vladimir 1964]

A good article, the author is well done, the material is conscientiously selected and analyzed. But the supply of material is somewhat overweight.
Thank you, Vladimir, I liked it. It would be interesting to continue to get acquainted with your materials on China.

[Russian_German]

Quote: rotmistr60

Dear Kyrgyz, China already wrote on paper when the Kyrgyz had not yet mounted his horse.

Did the Chinese tell you this? Believe more. I’ll say, for thousands of years, the Chinese, as they say, launched fireworks, and only the mind of the Russian genius Tsiolkovsky developed the concept of flying into space on these very rockets. What the Russians did. If there were no Russians, then the Chinese would have used fireworks for another thousand years, but they would not have gone into space! And you say paper. Somewhere I read, as a child, that paper is not a Chinese development. One of the Europeans made the paper upon seeing and taking as a basis the nests of wasps. The Chinese exaggerate a lot that they are 6000 thousand years old, that they do not have genetic similarities with other nations, that they are special, etc. But genetic analysis showed that they are the same people as we are and have genetic similarities with other nations. And finds in China itself indicate that thousands of years ago Caucasoid nations lived on its territory, as did the Altai princess, for example. Everything is not as straightforward as the Chinese write and believe.

[Karlovar]

If there were no paper and a printing press, respectively, there would be no Tsiolkovsky’s books (cheap and accessible to the masses), the social elevator would not have worked due to the high cost and rarity of parchment manuscripts, the fragility of birch bark letters, and papyrus does not grow in Russia .. ..Causal relationships are called ...

[lexx2038]

A good article for the development of horizons and education, only I was very tired while I read to the end, as if written in obscene Chinese.

[Butt]

The article is informative but no more. And where can you see reading analytical material about modern China from Sinologists, and even with convincing arguments?

[michajlo]

Welcome all!

The author of the article from me is a big "+".

In my opinion, it is not worth covering the article itself, they say superficial, or vice versa, that everything is "super" in it.
The author submitted known information to him, grouped it and presented it to readers for review.
Those. material for reflection in any case is, and in my opinion is very relevant, especially since I personally read on this topic. similar analysis for the first time. Although I am not an orientalist and not a connoisseur of China and East Asia.

THANKS to the author definitely!
Michael, Smolensk.