A: Profile of CCP Leader
Li Keqiang assumed the position of Premier of the State Council of China during the 18th Congress of the Communist Party (CCP) in 2012. He is expected to feature prominently in the 19th CCP, scheduled for 2017. Many reports indicate that Xi Jinping has consolidated his power over the CCP Politburo and will hold on to power for two more terms totaling 15 years at the top. Due to this, it is apparent that Li Keqiang could either work as the Chinese Premier for a long time to come or he might become the focus of a major power struggle. Such tensions or struggle could make Li Keqiang the most powerful man in China in the sixth generation of the CCP or eliminate him in totality.
Dr. Li was born on July 1, 1955. He is an economist and has been in charge of the country’s economic policies for the past 15 years. His position as premier makes him the second most powerful member of the CCP’s Standing Committee. This makes him only second to Xi Jinping.
The career of Li Keqiang commenced as a member of the Chinese Communist Youth League. He was born in Hefei in the Anhui province, located in the eastern region of China, south of Shanghai. His father was a local official and a loyal member of the Communist Party. He grew up as a dedicated member of the Communist Party and graduated from high school in 1974 during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. He gained some local awards that saw him come out as an outstanding person. He went into rural Anhui and took part in some of the Communist Party’s developmental projects there that involved young people doing national service in order to boost China’s development in the 1970s.
After completing the national service, Dr. Li entered the Peking University in 1976 where he did his Law Degree. In the same year of entering Peking University, Dr. Li joined the Communist Party and became an active member and leader. He rose to head the Peking University students’ federation and became a popular youth leader in the 1970s and 80s. He went on to complete his doctorate in Economics and became well versed in macroeconomic thought and Communist ideology.
Li Keqiang’s ability to organize and lead young people made him popular amongst the rank-and-file of the party and he led some local Communist Youth League units in 1982. However, Li went on to become the first secretary of the national Communist Youth League in 1993 where he served till 1998. In the process, Dr. Li worked closely with the former CCP General Secretary, Hu Jintao who also rose into prominence through the Communist Youth League system.
There is a general perception that Li Keqiang is one of the leaders in the Communist Party who are first generation leaders. This is because in contrast with people like Bo Xilai, Li Keqiang had no direct connections with the ruling elite and the upper class of the Communist Party . He had to prove himself by working as a youth organizer and hence, became a first generation leader whose credentials were based on his efforts rather than what people helped him to achieve through connections and links.
Li Keqiang was brought into the fold of the top-level of government by the Premier, Wen Jiabao. This was based on Li’s track record and abilities in the previous years. This was in particular due to his ability to plan and ability to undertake economic planning and development. Thus, in 2008, Li Keqiang served as the first-ranked Vice Premier. Amongst his duties was to oversee a number of activities that were part of the CCP’s centralized policies and plans. This include macroeconomic policy and implementation, economic development and price controls. They were meant to help China to improve and enhance its economic growth and the attempt towards global leadership since the 2002 Congress of the Communist Party. Therefore, Li was seen as a major brain that could help to stabilize things locally and aid in the international expansion of the country’s economic activities and processes.
Li was considered a strong ally of Hu Jintao due to the fact that they worked together for a long time whilst he was at the Communist Youth League secretariat. Therefore, he was on good terms with some of the party leaders and his track record and activities were enough to justify his ability to lead the country and move it to a highly esteemed level.
One of Li’s landmark views is that China had to build a strong and lucrative local consumption base. This is because the country’s export-led growth was viewed as something that was problematic for China in the first decade of the 21st Century. Thus, under Li Keqiang’s leadership and advice, China has slowed down its international economic expansion and they are focusing on improving the quality of life of the local Chinese population. People around the world view Li Keqiang as the cause of China’s slowdown and failure to export as much as they were doing in the past. However, he views a stronger local economy to be a priority. Thus, he announced comprehensive reforms to change and modify things in 2013.
B: Research Note: The Bo Xilai Scandal
Bo Xilai was born in July 1949 and his father was a major Chinese politician who had a lot of power and authority. His father, Bo Yibo was one of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party in the days of Mao Zedong and he led some of the most definitive activities and policies of Communist China after it took over the mainland of China in 1949. Thus, Bo Xilai was considered one of the “princelings” of Chinese politics. He was charismatic and was presented as a natural successor and a top leader of China in the early 2000s.
However, Bo was smeared by a major scandal that led to his expulsion from the party and his eventual trial and imprisonment. This was in spite of the fact that Bo Xilai was a likely candidate to be elected to join the Politburo Standing Committee in 2012. In spite of all these promising trends, he was indicted in a major scandal and his political career and reputation ended in a flash of a time.
The scandal came up in February 2012 when Wang Lijun, a senior lieutenant of the Chinese police service sought asylum in the American consulate with claims that he had evidence about a major crime Bo Xilai had been involved in. This led to Wang Lijiun’s claim that Bo Xilai and his wife were responsible for the murder of a British business man who had close ties to the Bo family. The business man, Neil Heywood had been poisoned. And Wang who was then the police chief brought charges against Bo’s wife for being allegedly a part of the plot to kill the British businessman.
On the other hand though, Bo Xilai as the premier of the area had placed a number of officials under surveillance. This included Wang Lijun who was indicted for some corruption charges. After Wang brought accusations against Bo Xilai’s wife, Wang was demoted to a less desirable role suggesting there was a major rift between the two leaders. This showed there was some kind of friction and dissatisfaction between the two parties. There were also claims that Bo Xilai had some recordings that could easily implicate Wang in many ways and forms.
Thus, the scandal laid the foundation for tensions to erupt between the two leading figures. In February 2012, when Wang escaped to the American consulate and made his claim, he got a high level of protection from the American diplomatic authorities who were supposed to protect him under international law. Therefore, the Chinese authorities could take up the case on the mainland and deal with the accusations.
Bo Xilai was extremely powerful in his capacity as leader of the Communist Party. He had served as minister of commerce from 2004 to 2007. In his tenure, China became a dominant player in the international front. China opened up to the rest of the world and a lot of things happened that made China westernized. Also, within the period of Bo Xilai’s leadership of China’s commercial sector, a lot of elitism occurred in China. The rich and elites lived in a lot of luxury.
Bo Xilai’s son, Bo Guagua is known to be associated with luxury. He has studied in some of the most elite institutions in the west like Oxford and Harvard. Bo Xilai and his family have come under scrutiny for promoting luxury, affluence, elitism and westernization which is in direct contract to Bo Xilai’s father’s commitment and dedication to the Communist ideas of Mao Zedong. These show some degree of foreignness that the Chinese Communist Party considered to be somewhat inappropriate and wrong. Therefore, a lot of negative perceptions had been built subtly about Bo Xilai before the scandal came up.
In the period of 2007 and 2012, Bo Xilai served as a member of the Central Politburo. This caused him to continue to support his ideas of introducing western standards of elitism and luxury in China. At the same time, Bo Xilai was also the secretary of the Chongqing Communist Party unit. This gave him a lot of power at the local level because it enabled him to take power and control a lot of things without limit. This played a role in the entire processes that led to wire tapings and other forms of controls that led to his ability to exercise authoritative power of numerous things in the area of his control.
In his days as the leader in Liaoning, Bo Xilai created an elitist core in the Communist Party. This is because he brought up some kind of populist ideas that were against the traditional communist values that the current generation of elites were not used to. This led to a lot of tension with some of the more traditionalist authorities and leaders of the party. Bo Xilai was in favor of granting some kind of residential permits to people who lived in certain parts of urban communities. This was seen as inappropriate because the class of workers were not like that of others in various places. This was seen as a source of tension. Also, workers who were in rural areas and were banned from coming to urban areas were given permits that allowed them to move to cities. This was seen as some kind of affront because China’s policy of keeping people in rural areas was a part of the country’s policy towards an even development and growth. The process was seen as a diversion and departure from the known ways of doing things in the CCP.
The main people Bo did things with were the members of the “princeling” community who were mainly elite western-educated children of rich leaders of the CCP in the days of Mao Zedong. Their view was to open up China’s economy and move closer to a free market model of running affairs. This did not auger well with people who were considered to be more conservative and traditional. Therefore, there were various forms of resistance from within the party.
In the rise of Xi Jinping, he made it clear that he was going to launch an attack on corruption and this would affect the “bears and tigers”. This was something that was seen as a statement that showed that the party would go after rich people and elites who were trying to introduce Capitalist ideas and elitism in the party.
In spite of this, Bo Xilai had major results that made seemed to justify his plans and policies. For instance, as an influential member of the Northeast Area Revitalization Plan, Bo was able to crack down on organized crime. He was able to increase spending on welfare programs. Under his watch, there was over 10% GDP growth in a constant approach to revive the “Red Culture” that his father was known for in his days as head of Mao’s administration. He also laid foundations that were to promote egalitarianism and enhance free-market reforms. However, this was all rendered negative with his criminal indictment and conviction. This showed the average Chinese people that Bo Xilai was a bad and corrupt person. This way, the ideologies of the other traditional Communist leaders were given prominence and accepted as right and more appropriate.
Ultimately, Bo Xilai was charged with corruption. He was tried in a court and found guilty. Bo Xilai’s attempt to appeal to the topmost court of China failed. Ultimately, his guilty conviction led to a life imprisonment and he was stripped of all his assets.
Some commentators identify that the accusation and conviction of Bo Xilai was based on trumped up charges. This is because his case came up in February 2012, just months before the Congress that instituted the successor to Hu Jintao. Bo Xilai was tipped to replace Hu. However, upon the charges that were raised against him, Bo was suspended as party chief of Chongqing pending investigations. He therefore lost his position and leadership role in the party and is now dysfunctional in influencing affairs in China.
References
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Lam, W. W.-L. (2015). Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping: Renaissance, Reform,. New York: Routledge.
Radio Liberty. (2012, November 7). Profile: Chinese First Vice Prime Minister Li Keqiang. Retrieved from Radio Free Europe: http://www.rferl.org/content/china-profile-li-keqiang/24764285.html
Taylor, A. (2013, August 26). The Illicit Romantic Affairs At The Heart Of China's Bo Xilai Scandal. Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-bo-xilai-scandal-the-love-affairs-2013-8
Wang, X. (2016). Obama's Challenge to China: The Pivot to Asia. New York: Routledge.
Wong, E. (2016, March 1). Chinese Court Upholds Life Sentence for Top Aide to Bo Xilai. Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/world/asia/china-bo-xilai-aide-wu-wenkang.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FBo%20Xilai&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0
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