We continue to monitor the slow march of Zhou Yongkang to his ultimate elimination. As this makes out, what he really participated in was certain to see him hung anywhere. The other crimes, and they are not few, made him a made member of the 'bloody hands' faction whose end we are witnessing.
I
do not know if China is becoming better for any of this. It is clear
that the guilty were unable to hold an inconvenient hard line on
ideology while they held power and that opened the door to much which
is now been pulled back somewhat.
Present
signals are actually disconcerting and that includes recent noises in
Honk Kong as well as Li Kai Seng financial exit. Since the Chinese
economy appears to also be contracting now as well, we could well be
open to a major black swan shock although other news is also good
including the flotation of Alibaba.
The Goldilocks Solution: Why Zhou Yongkang Will Be Charged With Murder
That
Zhou Yongkang is guilty was decided long ago. Now the Chinese
Communist Party must decide what crime he is guilty of.
Recently
one of the most powerful men in China, Zhou was put under control
soon after the purge of his co-conspirator Bo Xilai in April 2012.
Zhou’s
fate was the topic of endless speculation. His infrequent public
appearances were much analyzed, and much ink was spilt wondering
whether Communist Party head Xi Jinping would go so far as to arrest
this former member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Party
tradition conferred permanent immunity on those who once held this
office.
Then
the state-run Xinhua news agency made a brief announcement on July 29
that Zhou was under a formal investigation. The announcement in
effect confirmed what insiders had long known—Zhou was under
arrest. One doubts Zhou noticed any difference in his situation on
July 30.
But
now that the Party has finally admitted to locking Zhou up, what will
it do with him?
Murder
Recent
chatter on the Internet provides a clue. It has become routine when
there is big news to launch trial balloons on the Web.
China’s
large population of netizens is treated like a focus group. Their
reactions are watched and gauged, and the next propaganda move
plotted.
Rumors
also serve as a teaser. The speculation about the new gossip whets
appetites and creates an audience for the next big news—when the
Party chooses the precise time and occasion to release it.
The
rumors about Zhou on China’s Web are that he will be tried for the
murder of his first wife.
This
is not a new accusation. Epoch Times reported two years ago that
Zhou murdered his wife.
Zhou’s
first wife, Wang Shuhua, divorced him in 2000. Not long after the
divorce, she was killed in a traffic accident. Not long after her
death, Zhou married a beautiful, young CCTV hostess.
Wang
Shuhua was killed when her car was struck from opposite sides by two
other cars. The two drivers were both military police. One was
sentenced to 15 years and the other to 20. However, after three to
four years, each got out of jail and was promoted.
One
driver became the vice director of the Victory oil field drivers
team. The other became vice director of the China Oil Shangdong
branch. Zhou Yongkang was once the top man in China’s oil industry
and retained strong influence over the sector.
Epoch
Times sources say Zhou arranged the murder. Zhou’s younger son
certainly believes this. He has broken all relations with Zhou, not
even letting him see his grandson.
Too Little
Of
course, whether Zhou is guilty of his wife’s murder is not the key
consideration for the decision makers in Zhongnanhai, the Party
leadership’s compound.
The
Party faces a problem. If it accuses Zhou of too little, then he may
quite improbably become an object of sympathy. If it accuses him of
too much, the accusation rebounds on the Party, damaging an
institution that already has precious little legitimacy in the eyes
of the Chinese people.
Consider the case of Bo Xilai. The former Politburo member and Party head of mega-city Chongqing had a long list of crimes that he could have been arraigned for.
Most
conspicuous among his wrongdoings from the standpoint of Zhongnanhai
was the political crime of plotting to unseat current Party head Xi
Jinping. That crime was the real reason he was arrested, purged,
tried, and convicted,
but it was never mentioned in the state-run press.
But
Bo was guilty of even more serious crimes. With his wife Gu Kailai,
he helped pioneer making money by taking the organs from Falun Gong
practitioners and selling them for transplantation. Beyond that, Bo
sold the bodies of dead practitioners to factories that preserved
them with plastic and sold them to exhibitions and medical-supply
houses.
Instead
of being charged with these crimes, Bo was found guilty of bribery,
corruption, and abuse of power. Moreover, the corruption he was
charged with was a moderate amount, a mere fraction of the billions
he is believed to have stolen.
Now,
a year after his trial, one meets Chinese people who feel sorry for
this former Maoist charmer. They say, “Everyone in the Party
steals. Why was Bo Xilai singled out?”
The
Party erred, then, in the battle for public opinion. It couldn’t
be honest about Bo’s crimes, and now it can’t explain why he got
a life sentence when so many crooked cadres are running free.
Zhou
Yongkang in the Great Hall of the People on March 3, 2011 in
Beijing. Zhou will stand trial in the coming months, although the
charges against him have not been announced.
Real Crimes
Zhongnanhai
also can’t be honest about Zhou Yongkang’s crimes. Zhou not only
plotted with Bo Xilai to bring down Xi Jinping, but also twice tried
to assassinate Xi, as the Epoch Times has previously reported.
These
are the crimes that Zhongnanhai can’t forgive. The Chinese people,
though, if given the chance, would bring a different set of charges
against Zhou Yongkang.
For
10 years, from 2002 to 2012, Zhou was the driving force behind former
Party head Jiang Zemin’s persecution of the spiritual practice
Falun Gong.
Zhou’s
security forces were responsible for detaining hundreds of thousands
of practitioners. Those detained were typically subjected to
brainwashing and torture. Tens of thousands had their organs
harvested, killing them.
After
refining the techniques of repression in the persecution of Falun
Gong practitioners, Zhou began applying those techniques to other
parts of the population. Dissidents of all kinds suffered the
extra-judicial detention and hellish treatment that had been reserved
for Falun Gong.
With
a budget greater than that of the armed forces, and with an armed
police force numbering over a million, Zhou turned himself into an
independent political power.
Under
the name of “stability maintenance,” Zhou turned that power loose
on the Chinese people. Farmers who protested having their land stolen
by local officials, homeowners whose houses were demolished by
well-connected developers, villagers who protested being poisoned by
industrial pollution, towns that objected to being robbed by the
officials put over them—these citizens found troops of police
descend on them.
All
the while, this former godfather of China’s monopolized oil
industry raked in billions in corruption for himself and his family.
The Goldilocks Solution
One
can be sure that the coup and the assassination attempts, the crimes
against humanity, and the terrorizing of China’s population will
not even be mentioned when this nasty brute faces trial.
If
these crimes are once admitted by the Chinese regime, the Chinese
people will see the Chinese Communist Party as the real problem.
Zhou’s crimes will be taken to be instances of a criminal system at
work.
For
the same reason, while Zhou will surely be charged with some
corruption at his trial, no one will admit how much he really stole.
At
the same time, Zhou must be punished. If he is allowed to slip
responsibility for the coup and the assassination attempts, then
chaos will reign. Party discipline will vanish. A return to
warlordism will be around the corner.
This
is where Zhou’s dead first wife will prove to be convenient. Murder
is serious. No one can object to Zhou Yongkang getting a stiff
sentence for taking a life. Like Goldilocks with her porridge, the
murder charge is not too hot and not too cold. It is just right.
Zhongnanhai
will make sure the cadres know the real reasons for Zhou’s
punishment, and they will draw the right conclusions.
The
Chinese people will have the satisfaction of seeing the powerful Zhou
Yongkang brought down, without grand corruption or extraordinary
crimes inciting rebellious thoughts.
The
Party will escape blame, for the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment