Tables turned on Jiang's allies since power shift
By Feng Liang
HONG KONG - After Chinese incumbent president Hu Jintao replaced his predecessor Jiang Zemin as the country's new commander-in-chief, political observers say China's power shift has finally been completed. Since the Communist Party's decisive meeting last month, the fourth-generation of leadership - with moderate reformist Hu as the paramount leader - now takes full control in the Middle Kingdom. Hu is now party chief, the nation's president and supreme military chief. The allies of his rival Jiang may not have been routed, but they are subdued, and in some cases the tables are being turned against them.
Seeing that the pro-Hu faction seems to have gained the upper hand in Zhongnanhai (Beijing's walled compound of leadership), some predict changes in the country's political scene. Since late September, appeals have resounded to address the malpractices in the education sector and in HIV/AIDS-stricken Henan province, both of which are usually considered the dominions of Jiang Zemin, who also had been head of state and was well known as head of the Shanghai Clique, comprised of his colleagues and proteges from the east coast near Shanghai and Shandong province. After all, now it is the all-new Hu era.
The education sector has long been kept under the thumb of pro-Jiang State Councilor Chen Zhili and news of education-related corruption and malfeasance has been flooding the media for years, especially illegal fees and bribes. In Madame Chen's and China's drive to make education pay, basic schooling - which is supposed to be universal - often comes with a price tag, putting it beyond the reach of many ordinary Chinese. Big changes may be afoot.
Another Jiang ally and member of the powerful standing committee of the party's politburo, Li Changchun, was the provincial party chief of Henan province in central China. The impoverished and densely populated province has been plagued by the rising number of HIV patients - some call it an epidemic of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis - due to authorities' inadequate supervision of unsanitary and unsafe blood collection practices involving poverty-stricken farmers who were selling their blood. Finally this was outlawed. Both political figures, in education and in Henan, are regarded as confidants of the former president and so problems and potential scandals involving them were swept under the carpet in Jiang's era.
He Yong, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection - the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) chief watchdog agency, told the Ministry of Education that establishing a system-based anti-corruption mechanism should have the highest priority. Political commentators interpret the remark as a prelude to the watchdog group's crusade against corruption in the sector.
Even Jiang Zemin found himself implicated - unfairly say some - in one case. In 2001 he visited the "Oriental University Complex" in Hebei province and wrote an inscription for it. A university complex is a multi-campus higher education base that is comprised of a cluster of universities or colleges. Jiang's improvised inscription and endorsement resulted in nation-wide university complex hysteria: many similar development projects, many large, costly and unnecessary, mushroomed throughout the country. According to the latest official figures, more than 50 large-scale university multiplexes either have been completed or are under construction. In June, the Chinese National Audit Office audited four of them and found that all were implicated in illegal land use approval and appropriation, as well as over-sized investment loaded with high risks. They would be taboo today as China tries to cool its economy and reduce reckless investment in construction and other sectors. The audit report also singled out Oriental University Complex, which bears Jiang's inscription, accusing it of massive illegal renting of needed and tillable land. Under its development scheme, up to 942 acres of farm land were illegally allocated for luxury golf courses.
Back in April, a report from the state-run Chinese Central Television revealed malpractices during the spring enrollment of the China Conservatory of Music, one of the country's blue-ribbon arts schools. Soon, the school's rector Jin Tielin was criticized by the public. Nonetheless, Jin was not officially punished because of his political connections: Song Zuying, one of his female students, is a favorite artist and friend of the former president, Jiang Zemin. The friendship between Song-Jiang may be the reason why in July the website of an influential paper, Guangming Daily, reprinted an article, more than two years old, detailing the rise of Song as an artist.
On September 28, Procuratorial Daily, the official newspaper of the procuratorate establishment, akin to an attorney general's office, lashed out at the appalling performance of Henan officials because of the surge in the number of HIV-positive patients. The province is best known for its so-called AIDS Villages, where most of the adults are HIV-positive or AIDS-infected due to unsafe blood collection practices. In the province, the epidemic's spread was never stopped or even slowed down. According to official figures, 25,036 people in Henan are HIV-positive and 11,815 have contracted AIDS. Independent statistics from volunteer groups, however, are much higher. Some data suggest that at least 65% of 800 villages in Henan province report cases of HIV-positive or patients who contract AIDS.
Notably, the article in the Procuratorial Daily stated that the current administration of Henan government would not be held responsible for the malfeasance by its previous leadership, which had to answer for the epidemic raging through the province. It specified that the previous leaders, even if they had been promoted or moved out of the province some time ago, should be held accountable and punished accordingly.
Unsafe and uncontrolled blood selling in rural Henan - the root cause to the fast spread of the deadly disease AIDS - reached its high during the 1990s, when Li Changchun reigned over the province as the Communist Party chief between 1992 and 1998. The commentary, published after Jiang relinquished his last official military title last month, gives rise to speculation that justice will be meted out to previous provincial bosses.
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