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JANUARY 28, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 3
Jiang Cracks the Whip
Is he targeting graft - or his political foes?
By TODD CROWELL and DAVID HSIEH Beijing
"Back in the good old days," older Chinese sometimes lament, "we were poor, but our cadres were clean." Indeed, soon after the birth of the People's Republic in 1949, Mao Zedong executed officials for merely diverting budgetary funds to other projects. Mao was obsessed with internal discipline, so much so that he plunged China into chaos during the Cultural Revolution. The vindictive politics of the period may have pushed the nation over the abyss, but at least the cadres were squeaky clean.
Corruption worsened when the reform period began. Deng Xiaoping never got a grip on the scourge, and may well have decided that it was a regrettable but unavoidable part of his opening to a market economy. Graft became so rampant that students and workers took to open protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Like his mentor, President Jiang Zemin initially felt a need to tread cautiously. Some of the country's biggest satraps were also the most corrupt. But in 1995, he succeeded in ousting for graft the powerful Beijing Communist Party boss, Chen Xitong, who happened to be one of his chief political rivals. Last week, Jiang announced another major assault on corruption. Wearing a Mao suit, which he dons to highlight his role as national leader and to project solemnity, the president told the Central Discipline Inspection Commission: "To bring order to the country, we must first rectify the Party. To do that we must be strict." Offenders, "no matter how high their position," would be punished, Jiang vowed. In particular, senior officials must rein in their relatives' misdeeds. It was one of the president's strongest speeches on corruption.
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Jiang's new drive may have another aim - to secure a fresh term for himself as top leader, as well as put in place his preferred new leadership team when the tenures of the current hierarchy end in 2002-2003. Discipline Inspection Commission chief Wei Jianxing, a Jiang confidant, heads the anti-graft campaign. According to Asiaweek's sources, its seeds were planted shortly after the president's triumphal performance during China's 50th-anniversary celebrations last Oct. 1, which placed him on a pedestal with Mao and Deng. Jiang's closest advisers wanted to capitalize on the momentum to cement his authority and legacy.
Soon, calls began to circulate in Beijing political circles for Jiang to stay on. But that quickly sparked grumbles. National People's Congress chairman Li Peng reportedly wondered why he should not be given another term as well. And in a recent talk with veteran cadres, former NPC chairman - and Jiang rival - Qiao Shi cited a supposed saying by Deng Xiaoping that older leaders should make way for younger ones. That remark was excised from the official report on the occasion for internal circulation.
In mid-December, former NPC vice chairman Cheng Kejie, a Li Peng ally, was arrested for accepting bribes and other alleged abuses. Rumors linked one of Li's sons with dubious economic activities. Last week, Hong Kong's respected Ming Pao daily reported that the in-laws of Gen. Liu Huaqing, an ex-army strongman and sometime Jiang opponent, were being sued in Hong Kong for failing to repay debts of nearly $2 million. At the same time, Hong Kong and Taiwan newspapers said the wife of Beijing party chief Jia Qingling, a Jiang protégé, had been arrested in a Fujian province corruption scandal. (He quickly divorced her.) "By launching a graft crackdown, Jiang can win popular support as well as target his political foes," says a political insider in Beijing. "But the question is whether he can maintain control once the drive is in full swing."
Meantime, party personnel chief Zeng Qinghong, Jiang's top strategist, is busy forming "leadership groups." Their purpose: to select worthy people to staff a future administration, possibly under Vice President Hu Jintao, Jiang's heir-in-waiting. That could upset other top leaders, who would want plum positions for their own allies and protégés. As the fight-graft campaign unfolds, the political fireworks could get quite spectacular.
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