CHINA Chinese police reputation collapses along with Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang – Asia News.
by Peter Mattis
“The purge of the Chongqing Party Secretary and his right arm man Wang Lijun, has opened a chasm that threatens to drag down even Zhou Yongkang, a powerful chief of China’s internal security apparatus. Beijing must choose: either risking changing methods in the field of social stability, or resign themselves to being buried by new scandals.”
China is being urged to reopen an investigation into the death of a British businessman who had close connections to purged Chinese official Bo Xilai. Neil Heywood died last November at a hotel in Chongqing. Police and authorities investigating the case say he died from “excessive alcohol consumption”, but now suspicions have been heightened following Bo Xilai’s dismissal and possible connections with ex-police chief Wang Lijun.
full story at: Newswatch: ‘Suspicious death’ of Briton with links to Bo Xilai.
The Revenge of Wen Jiabao – By John Garnaut | Foreign Policy.
If Premier Wen Jiabao is “China’s best actor,” as his critics allege, he saved his finest performance for last. After three hours of eloquent and emotional answers in his final news conference at the National People’s Congress annual meeting this month, Wen uttered his public political masterstroke, reopening debate on one of the most tumultuous events in the Chinese Communist Party’s history and hammering the final nail in the coffin of his great rival, the now-deposed Chongqing Communist Party boss Bo Xilai. And in striking down Bo, Wen got his revenge on a family that had opposed him and his mentor countless times in the past.
Zhou Yongkang
via Zhou Yongkang’s Absence Arouses Questions Across China — NTDTV.com.
Top Chinese leader Bo Xilai purged, one day after criticism – Telegraph.
One of the crown princes of the Chinese Communist Party has been abruptly purged ahead of China’s once-in-a-decade leadership change this autumn.
On the ides of March, 62-year-old Bo Xilai became the victim of the first major political assassination in China for six years.
A report on the website of the People’s Daily, the official party newspaper, said Mr Bo, a former Commerce minister and a member of the 25-man Politburo, would no longer serve as the party secretary of the sprawling central city of Chongqing.
The Guardian profile: Xi Jinping
Big personality who is expected to take power in China this year encountered privilege and prejudice on his path to the top
via The Guardian profile: Xi Jinping | World news | The Guardian.
His name is becoming more familiar but his face is still unknown to most and his opinions and intentions are an enigma.
Xi Jinping‘s visit to the US this week is unlikely to answer the west’s most important questions.
But this is a getting-to-know-you trip for China‘s heir apparent, who is expected to take the helm of the world’s second largest economy and fastest rising power from late this year.
The Chinese vice-president’s Valentine’s Day meeting with Barack Obama is notable – as are his plans to catch a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game and to return to Muscatine, the tiny Iowa town he visited in 1985 as head of an animal feed delegation.
His activities suggest he is shaping an image very different from that of the current Chinese president, Hu Jintao.
While Hu is determinedly anonymous, Xi is “a big personality”, according to those who have met him.
Standing over 6ft tall, he is confident and affable. He boasts a ready smile and a glamorous second wife – the renowned People’s Liberation Army singer Peng Liyuan. He has expressed his fondness for US war movies and, perhaps more surprisingly, praised the edgy independent film-maker Jia Zhangke.
This is, in part, a generational and social shift. Xi is 58 and, like the other rising stars in Chinese politics, grew up in the era of reform and opening.
Wen Jiabao Profile | People’s Republic of China | World Leaders.
Wen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, serving as China’s head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China’s economic policy. He also holds membership in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the country’s de facto top power organ, where he is ranked third out of nine members.
Wen Jiabao talks of democracy and freedom in CNN interview
Experts say Chinese premier’s remarks on political ‘restructuring’ should be treated with caution
via Wen Jiabao talks of democracy and freedom in CNN interview | World news | The Guardian.
Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future – NYTimes.com
Chinese officials steal education dossier of top students and sell for thousands. Thereby destroying the future of the students. Without the dossier the student has no chance of success in any career.
Shoe-Hurling at China’s Premier Wen Jiabao Is Shown on TV – NYTimes.com
In a startling break from convention, China’s state TV has shown a protestor from Cambridge University tossing a shoe at Premier of China Wen Jiaboa who is the Ace of Clubs in our Communist China Playing Cards.