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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the audience at a luncheon in Auckland, New Zealand on Nov. 21, 2014. Photo: Greg Bowker - Pool/Getty Images -
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during the opening of the third Session of the 12th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 5, 2015. Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
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SHANGHAI — China’s President Xi Jinping has
warned of cliques and conspirators within the ruling Communist Party,
saying they threatened the security of the party and nation. He said
such people would not be spared from punishment as the party seeks to
“eliminate” such problems. He also warned party members against
embracing “liberalism” and opposing central government policy — in what
analysts said was further evidence of his desire to reassert orthodox
Marxist values and combat western influences.
The remarks came in a speech focusing on
deepening Xi’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign within the ruling party.
And while Xi insisted that the campaign was not a political power
struggle, observers said the
comments seemed to suggest a growing anxiety in the leadership over the
political loyalty of some officials, some of whom are believed to have
grown disillusioned with the corruption crackdown and Xi’s tightening of
discipline within the party.
“There are careerists and conspirators in our
party who undermine its governance,” Xi said in the speech, which was
made in January at a meeting of China’s top anti-graft body, but, for
reasons not made clear, was only reported by Chinese media this week.
While he said some such people were motivated
by a desire for greater power or higher status, he also hinted
at political dissent within the party, saying that "some officials have
been forming cabals and cliques to covertly defy the CPC [Communist
Party of China] Central Committee's decisions and policies," which
risked "compromising the political security of the Party and the
country."
Xi reiterated earlier comments, first made
during a state visit to the U.S. last year, that the anti-corruption
crackdown — which was launched soon after he took power in late 2012,
and has brought down more than 100 senior officials in government, the
party and military — was "not a 'House of Cards' power struggle" in
which targets were chosen because of political rivalries, or
well-connected officials would be spared from justice.
“We must make it clear that our Party's fight
against corruption is not a snobbish affair that discriminates between
different people,” he said.
The official Global Times
Wednesday quoted a researcher at Guangzhou’s Jinan University as saying
the problem of officials trying to achieve political ambitions by
forming close ties with high officials in cliques was “very serious, and
... will greatly affect public confidence in the ruling party.”
Officials have said that the highest-profile
victim of China's graft crackdown, former security chief Zhou Yongkang,
who was jailed for life last year on corruption charges, had formed a
series of cliques. And the official Xinhua
News Agency said Wednesday that Zhou was just one of a number of
“senior corrupt officials [who] have been found to have forged close
relationships with groups of officials at local government level and
with business tycoons in different factions with shared interests, such
as the 'oil clique,' 'secretary clique' or 'Shanxi clique.'"
A
newspaper with a picture of China's then Politburo Standing Committee
Member Zhou Yongkang is seen at a newsstand in Hong Kong, July 30, 2014. Photo: REUTERS/Bobby Yip
The anti-corruption campaign, which has also
led to the punishment of hundreds of thousands of lower level officials,
is generally seen to have been popular with many ordinary Chinese
citizens. But it is believed to have aroused dissatisfaction among some
of the party's 88 million members, who have balked at the
strict discipline imposed by Xi. In a series of tightened requirements,
he has called on party officials to live frugal lifestyles and stop
attending private clubs, including golf clubs, not to have extramarital
affairs, and to restrict their families’ business dealings. China's
leaders have acknowledged that some officials have responded to the
crackdown by simply working less hard.
In recent months the discipline campaign
appears to have become increasingly political, with new rules preventing
party members from criticizing party policy in public — and increased
emphasis on Marxism and atheism. And amid a widening campaign against
"western values" in China, a number of party members have recently been
punished for the previously rarely heard charge of “making groundless
comments” about the Communist Party.
Xi said in his speech that banning such
comments “doesn’t mean members can’t criticize the party," but added
that "comments on important political issues, liberalism or singing out
of tune with the central government are not allowed."
He also said the party would "kick out"
“two-faced” members who promised to fight corruption but never reported
problems. And he vowed that the anti-corruption campaign would not “wind
down.”
And in a recent move, which some analysts have linked to political infighting, the Communist Youth League — power base of Xi's predecessor as president, Hu Jintao, and current Premier Li Keqiang — recently had its budget slashed in half after an investigation by anti-corruption teams revealed embezzlement and other irregularities.
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