Two pieces of news reported coincidently in CCP media China analysts say are signs that the Jiang Zemin faction is falling. The Jiang Zemin faction has been locked in open conflict with the Hu-Wen faction within the CCP since earlier this year, when a plot for a coup d'etat was uncovered.
The signals that the Jiang Zemin faction in China are in rapid decline are getting stronger. Two recent news pieces from CCP media both hint that the faction otherwise known as the Blood-debt faction are coming to an end.
Chen Xitong turns 82 in June. The former Communist Party chief of Beijing, and mayor of Beijing during the student-led protests that filled the Chinese capital in 1989, he was accused of corruption in 1995, and sentenced to a 16-year jail term in 1998.
Now, Chen defends his case in a book due to be published in Hong Kong as the worst miscarriage of justice involving a high-level leader since the Cultural Revolution. In describing internal fighting within the CCP, he added that "In a power struggle, any means possible - any low-handed means - will be used, and the objective is to seize power". Chen told Hong Kong media that he was nothing more than a figurehead in 1989.
In the past, Chen was considered a rival of former CCP chief Jiang Zemin, but Chen denied the accusations of scheming and disloyalty against Jiang that led to his downfall.
China Affairs analyst Wen Zhao: “Chen lost power in the political struggle with Jiang Zemin, and was punished under the pretense of corruption. He can receive interviews and publish now, obviously because of the decline of Jiang’s influence. In another words, Jiang’s former political rival can once again speak out. That shows that Jiang’s power is weak now. Another point is that Chen Xitong strongly wants to distance himself from the relationship between he and the June 4th. He wants to whitewash his responsibility. All people inside the CCP want to separate themselves from the bloody debt. Nobody wants to shoulder his or her responsibility for the debt of blood from before. As to Jiang Zemin, he was promoted because of the June 4th massacre, and he walked all the way to the top position. The situation is such that now the blood debt faction in the CCP is getting more and more isolated.”
On the other hand, the former minister of the CCP Ministry of Railways Liu Zhijun has now been expelled from his party posts and brought to justice. Liu was dismissed from the post of Minister of Railways in February last year. More than a year later he has been expelled from the party. Political infighting are likely reasons for the delay.
China Analyst Jason: “During this time period, intercessions didn't work. It is because of the decline of the Jiang Zemin faction. It has been completely impossibly to rescue him.”
The CCP Ministry of Railways has been controlled by the Jiang Zemin faction. Now, with the downfall of Liu Zhijun and high speed rail project leader Zhang Shuguang, analysts think the time is ripe for Hu Jintao to take down the Jiang Zemin faction, otherwise known as the blood debt faction.
NTD Song Yuanhui and Tang Yu interviewed and reported
