[Epoch Times, August 24, 2021]On August 17, Xi Jinping presided over the tenth meeting of the CPC Central Committee for Finance and Economics. A total of five members of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee attended. Among them, the ranking of Wang Yang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the CPPCC, has changed significantly.
Xi Jinping is the director of the Central Finance and Economics Commission, Li Keqiang is the deputy director of the Central Finance and Economics Commission, and Wang Huning and Han are members of the Central Finance and Economics Commission. Wang Yang is not a member of the Central Finance and Economics Committee. However, in CCP media reports, Wang Yang was ranked behind Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, and before Wang Huning and Han Zheng.
Previously, the Central Committee of Finance and Economics of the Communist Party of China held nine meetings, and Wang Yang participated twice, the first meeting in April 2018 and the fourth meeting in April 2019. In CCP media reports, Wang Yang was ranked behind Han Zheng.
On August 18, a central delegation headed by Wang Yang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, flew to Lhasa to attend the celebration of the “70th Anniversary of the Peaceful Liberation” of Tibet.
In 2011, it was Xi Jinping who attended the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet; in 2001, it was Hu Jintao who attended the 50th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet. Both Xi and Hu were successors at the time, and both succeeded as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Someone speculates based on the above two news on August 17 and 18 that Wang Yang may be Xi’s successor.
The author believes that the above two news shows that Wang Yang’s status in the Communist Party of China is indeed rising. In particular, Wang Yang, who was not a member of the Central Finance and Economics Commission, attended the meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Commission on August 17, and his ranking was advanced after Li Keqiang, which was extraordinary.
However, it seems that Wang Yang may be Xi’s successor based on these two pieces of news alone.
First, Xi Jinping is trying his best to seek three re-election.
Xi has been in office for more than eight years and has investigated and prosecuted 540 senior officials at or above the deputy provincial military level and other central management cadres. These include members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, a group of generals, lieutenants, and major generals, a group of ministers, deputy ministers, secretaries of the provincial party committee, secretaries of the provincial political and legal committee, governors, and heads of public security departments (bureaus). These high-ranking party, government and military officials and the back-office bosses Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong, who promoted and reused these high-ranking officials, have a deep hatred for Xi.
On March 4, 2016, the Xinjiang Unbounded News Network under the leadership of Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong’s cronies, then a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and Secretary of the Xinjiang Party Committee Zhang Chunxian, published an open letter requesting Xi’s resignation. Three threats were made in the letter. Life is safe. From then to today, the one thing that Xi is most worried about is that after he was ousted, his political opponents liquidated his family.
For more than eight years, anti-Xi forces at home and abroad have been working together to oust Xi. Before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China next year, it is their last chance to oust Xi. They are gathering all the anti-Xi forces to create the biggest trouble for Xi.
If their scheme succeeds, they will surely die and hurry up. This is the most important reason why Xi has to achieve three consecutive terms at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China regardless of the cost.
Second, Xi did not appoint a successor according to precedent.
Both Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping are the successors designated in advance by the veterans of the Chinese Communist Party. Before serving as the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Hu and Xi both served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC, a secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, a president of the Central Party School, a vice chairman of the state, and a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Zeng Qinghong used to be Jiang Zemin’s designated successor. At the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and a secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. These positions are the positions that Hu Jintao once held as his successor. However, due to his reputation and opposition from other CCP veterans, he failed to replace Hu Jintao as the party leader at the 17th National Congress of the CCP in 2007.
It has been more than eight years since Xi came to power. Two Politburo members Sun Zhengcai and Hu Chunhua, who were born in 1963, are expected to be the successors of the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the Premier of the State Council.
However, on July 24, 2017, Sun Zhengcai was arrested and later sentenced to life imprisonment and accused of “conspiring to usurp the party and seize power.” This incident jointly affected Hu Chunhua’s future. At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 2017, Hu Chunhua failed to be promoted to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. He was still a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. He was not trained as successors like Hu and Xi.
As of today, Xi’s successor position has been vacant. Since Xi’s seeking three consecutive terms, both at home and abroad, he saw so clearly that some overseas media claimed that Xi’s successor was Xi Jinping.
Third, it is impossible for Xi to choose his peers as his successors.
Xi Jinping was born in 1953 and Wang Yang was born in 1955. The difference between the two is only two years.
In 2007, Xi Jinping was designated as his successor. He was 54 years old when he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. The then leader of the Communist Party of China, Hu Jintao, was 65 years old.
In 1992, Hu Jintao was appointed as his successor, when he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and secretary of the Central Secretariat, he was 50 years old; then the leader of the Communist Party of China Jiang Zemin was 66 years old.
Fourth, Xi’s successor will only be selected from within his circle of cronies.
If Xi wants to choose a successor, the most important thing is to prevent him from being liquidated after he steps down. Such a person must be a cronies among Xi’s cronies.
However, Wang Yang is not a close friend of Xi. Wang is neither the old ministry of Xi’s Fujian, Zhejiang, or Shanghai when he worked, nor is he an alumnus of Tsinghua University, nor is he a native of Shaanxi, let alone a confidant. Confidant. It is unlikely that Xi will hand over the supreme power of the party, government and military to Wang Yang.
If Wang Yang succeeded Li Keqiang as the next prime minister, it would be possible.
Wang Yang, born in March 1955, will be 67 years old when the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in the autumn of 2022. According to the unspoken rule of “seven ups and eights” for the top officials of the Communist Party of China, the 67-year-old Wang Yang may continue to serve as the CCP at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. blinkled hard.
Wang Yang debuted very early. He has experience working in Anhui, Chongqing, and Guangdong. He has experience in the State Planning Commission and the State Council. He is said to be a “rare financial expert” and has experience in united front work in the CPPCC National Committee.
When Wang Yang was the mayor of Tongling City in Anhui Province at the age of 33, the “Tongling Daily” published a blockbuster article “Wake up, Tongling! “, calling for “surgery at all rigid, stale, and closed ideologies,” which aroused strong responses across the country. After Wang Yang came to power in Guangdong, he adopted a series of enlightened policies in administration, economy, anti-corruption, and crackdown on gangs, and achieved remarkable results. Wang Yang has been appreciated by Deng Xiaoping, Zhu Rongji, Wen Jiabao and other leaders, and is considered one of the representatives of the reformists of the Chinese Communist Party.
Among the seven members of the Standing Committee of the 19th Politburo, Xi Jinping’s only cronies are Li Zhanshu; there are widespread rumors that Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang are at odds; Wang Huning, Han Zheng, and Zhao Leji are members of Jiang Zemin’s faction; only Wang Yang keeps a proper distance from all parties. , Maintained a normal working relationship with Xi.
When Xi came to power, there were few real “owners”, which made him very limited in choosing and employing people. He had to choose and employ people in his old departments where he worked in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shanghai, among his Tsinghua University alumni, and among his old family members in Shaanxi. However, it is difficult to say how many of Xi’s hard-core confidants in this circle are.
For example, Hu Heping, a Tsinghua alumnus of Xi, after serving as the secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, said many tributes to Xi. However, when Xi gave Hu’s fifth instructions on illegally building villas in the Qinling Mountains, Hu did not implement them in time. As a result, Xi had to give the sixth instruction and sent Xu Lingyi, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, to personally supervise the formation of Shaanxi. After the problem of illegally built villas in the Qinling Mountains was resolved, Hu Heping was transferred from Shaanxi and became the Minister of Culture and Tourism.
Xi’s personal circle of confidants is too small, to the point where almost no one can use it. In 2019, Hong Kong experienced the largest anti-transmission movement in history. Xi was unable to choose two young and capable people to help him take charge of Hong Kong affairs. He had to find two people who had retreated to the second line-the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Xia Baolong, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General, Luo Huining, Deputy Director of the Finance and Economics Committee of the National People’s Congress-served as Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and Director of the Liaison Office of the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong, respectively.
In the four years since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi has turned “a good hand into a bad one”: Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center is losing; the “one country, two systems” plan to reunify Taiwan has gone bankrupt; Xinjiang’s human rights issues have attracted worldwide attention; domestic economic downturns and debt problems Serious, employment problems are prominent, foreign exchange reserves have bottomed out, and China’s concept stocks have lost more than 9 trillion yuan; China-US, China-Canada (Canada), China-Japan, China-Australia, China-India, China and the EU, and even small companies such as China and Lithuania. Relations between China and other countries have deteriorated severely; the international community has been tracing the source of the “CCP virus” and voices of accountability continue… These major domestic and foreign issues are all unsolvable.
In the face of internal and external difficulties, Xi may use Wang Yang as the next prime minister to help him clean up this mess.
Another reason is that before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Wang Yang, as a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, had a high voice for joining the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. With the suppression of the influential “political elderly” Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong, Wang Yang failed to become a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Xi Jinping knows this well. Now, Jiang and were once Xi’s biggest political opponents. Wang Yang, who was suppressed by Jiang and Zeng, can be reused when necessary.
Furthermore, during his tenure as Vice Premier, Wang Yang was a representative of the Chinese side in the China-US Strategic Dialogue, and he had experience dealing with American dignitaries. He once compared the Sino-US relationship to a husband-and-wife relationship. Although there are quarrels and disagreements, mutual understanding and mutual trust must be enhanced, and they must not be divorced. At that time, Wang Yang’s open-minded attitude, humorous talk, and pragmatic style were well received by the United States. Nowadays, Sino-US relations are highly tense, and Xi needs someone to help him cushion it.
In 2013, after Xi Jinping concurrently served as the leader of the Central Finance and Economics Leading Group, he changed the “Coordinating Agency for Economic Work by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee” to “An organization entrusted by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and its Standing Committee to make major strategic policy decisions for economic and social development.” . So far, both the economic decision-making power of the CCP and the political decision-making power of the CCP are in the hands of Xi.
Li Keqiang has been re-elected as Premier of the State Council for two consecutive terms. At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China next year, even if Li Keqiang can remain as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, he will not be able to serve as Premier of the State Council. Then, at the tenth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee on August 17, Wang Yang, who is not a member of the Central Finance and Economics Committee, ranked behind Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. This may indicate that Wang’s position will undergo major changes. Wang may succeed Li Keqiang and become the next one. Premier of the State Council.
However, the CCP’s high-level internal fighting has been going on fiercely, and major personnel arrangements may also be changing before the last minute. Whether Wang Yang can stay at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and whether he can become the next Premier of the State Council remains uncertain.
The Epoch Times
Editor in charge: Gao Yi
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