Former, current leaders in a game of whack-a-mole

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KATSUJI NAKAZAWA,
Nikkei Asian Review
June 16, 2015

When he greeted the new year, former Chinese President Jiang Zemin must have felt as though he had been cornered. His once-powerful faction was in the pincers of President Xi Jinping’s vigorous anti-corruption campaign.

Key members of the Jiang group had already fallen victim to the campaign, including Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s most powerful decision-making body, and Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. Zhou was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, while Xu was placed under investigation before dying in March.

Of the Politburo Standing Committee’s current seven members, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli have long been seen as closer to the Jiang group than to Xi. But amid Xi’s sweeping anti-graft crackdown, the incumbent is winning over the four.

At the beginning of this year, Xi’s campaign was rattling bureaucrats, auto industry officials and others close to Jiang. Numerous bigwigs around them had already been targeted by Xi’s campaign.

Jiang has a history with the FAW Group, a leading state-owned Chinese automaker headquartered in Changchun, Jilin Province. The so-called machine-building industry faction was his support base; it was one of the Jiang administration’s special interest groups.

But when the year began, FAW was doubled over following an investigation — part of Xi’s anti-corruption drive — and due to the detention of more than 100 of its senior officers.

In reference to Xi, Jiang purportedly said at the time, “I did not expect a mediocre-looking person from the second red generation (the children of revolutionary-era Communist Party leaders) to go so far as to do that. If we cannot demonstrate our presence now, we will let him gain even more confidence.

The 88-year-old Communist Party elder then decided to demonstrate — albeit far from Beijing — that he is still alive and kicking. He visited Hainan Island, off the southern tip of mainland China and east of Vietnam.

Hainan Island hosts the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, which Jiang played a leading role in establishing. Even after retirement, he has maintained a strong influence on the island.

Cry on Dongshan Ridge

On Jan. 2, Jiang, his wife Wang Yeping, children and grandchildren went up the island’s imposingly beautiful Dongshan Ridge.

Jiang was flanked by his eldest son, Jiang Mianheng, who had dominated the Chinese telecommunications industry, and his second son, Jiang Miankang.

After visiting a mountainside temple with his family members, Jiang cried in an unusually loud voice, “Jiang Zemin came here! It’s a worthwhile trip.” He also pledged to promote the scenic mountain after returning to Beijing, saying:”This place will be crowded with tourists.”

Jiang’s shout spread across the country the following day, first via the WeChat account of a Dongshan Ridge park, then through Chinese media outlets, which also provided photos. WeChat is a free calling and messaging app.

So what was that out-of-character cry all about? Jiang was signaling his faction: “Even after retirement, I have taken up my position in the capital, Beijing, not in Shanghai, and I still have political influence. Don’t worry.”

The Jiang group is also called the Shanghai faction. Chinese people think Jiang spends most of his time in Shanghai, the group’s stronghold. But Jiang has a residence in Beijing’s Zhongnanhai neighborhood, home to many leaders and where maximum security is ensured.

After Xi became China’s top leader, there were news reports that Jiang was completely driven out of Zhongnanhai. But “the reports were erroneous,” a person familiar with Chinese politics in Beijing says.

Jiang was not bluffing on Dongshan Ridge; he was going to return to Beijing.

The former president used an electric cart to go up Dongshan Ridge. But on the way down, he dared to walk in a desperate bid to demonstrate his good health.

Dongshan comeback

The long-unheard real voice of the Communist Party elder, aired by media outlets, sent jitters through the party.

The message the wail sent was actually a coded one calling on members of the Jiang group to begin a counterattack against Xi and his anti-corruption forces, according to an informed person on Hainan Island. “The true meaning of the message could be deciphered only by those knowledgeable of two events in China’s ancient history,” the person said.

One story involves Xie An, a talented general who secluded himself on Dongshan Mountain in what is now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Xie made a comeback after the age of 40, when he defeated a 1 million-strong enemy force. This well-known episode is known as the “Dongshan zaiqi,” or the Dongshan comeback.

The general led the troops of the Eastern Jin dynasty — said to be on their collective back foot — to a resounding victory over the troops of the Former Qin in the 383 Battle of Fei River.

The Eastern Jin dynasty was based in what is now Jiangsu Province, while the Former Qin, founded by a different ethnic group called Di, was based in what is now Shaanxi Province.

Jiangsu is the home province of the Jiang family and of Zhou, while Shaanxi is the home province of the Xi family.

As for the term Dongshan zaiqi, there is another theory, supposedly based on an event involving Li Gang, a government official of the Song dynasty who was born in 1083 and died in 1140.

Li called for do-or-die resistance to the invading troops of the Jin dynasty, a dynasty of Jurchen tribes. But the Song dynasty, which was inferior to the Jin dynasty in terms of war capability, chose to enter peace negotiations with the northern enemy.

Li was removed from his post and banished to Hainan Island. He secluded himself on Dongshan Ridge.

One day, a monk from a local temple told Li he would soon be able to return to the capital of the Song dynasty. Three days later, the situation surrounding the Song dynasty was thrown into flux, and Li was told to return to the capital.

Li was released from exile and made a comeback. He hailed from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, where Zhou Yongkang, the indicted key member of the Jiang group, was born.

Back to modern day politics, Jiang is believed to have been calling on members of his group, including disgraced ones such as Zhou, to get back in the fight and defeat Xi, whom the Communist Party elder sees as a barbarian enemy, like the Former Qin and the Jin dynasty.

There is speculation that a Chinese media tycoon close to Jiang helped in carefully orchaestrating for Jiang’s Dongshan drama to be reported across the country.

Alarmed by the publicity Jiang’s wail received, the Xi leadership immediately ordered the deletion of all articles and photos posted online about the former leader’s visit to the mountain and issued a gag order.

In other words, the new emperor got a hold of the old emperor’s attempts to spread the comeback message and used his superior strength to quash it.

On Jan. 6, only four days after the Jiang family’s visit to Dongshan Ridge, Jiang’s eldest son, Jiang Mianheng, abruptly resigned from his post as head of the Shanghai branch of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The resignation of the heir, who is in his 60s, came immediately after his return from Hainan Island. He stepped down, citing his age. But because of the timing, rumors swirled that he quit under pressure from the Xi leadership.

Praying to a statue

Months earlier, Jiang and his wife made a previous visit to Hainan Island, to the Nanshan Culture Tourism Zone, shortly after China celebrated the Oct. 1 anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The Nanshan Culture Tourism Zone is located southwest of Sanya, on the southern tip of Hainan Island. Jiang and his wife visited there to pray to a huge statue of Guan Yin, a deity of mercy, for familial and factionwide peace.

“They were walking around in slow steps,” a witness said.

This story has caused some people to pause, wondering if a former top Communist Party official — and remember, communists are atheists — could really rely on Buddha.

Well, it appears the statue was built with a specific purpose in mind.

In China, even after a new top leader takes office, his predecessor continues to wield strong influence, thanks to all the senior officials he positioned in the Communist Party, military and government during his rein.

Hu Jintao took over from Jiang as China’s top leader at the Communist Party’s national congress in 2002. There was even a secret agreement between the two regarding how Jiang would continue to hold sway.

The secret agreement was a surprising one, calling for Hu to consult Jiang about serious issues and for Jiang to rule on them.

Despite the deal, however, Jiang was so anxious about the erosion of his post-retirement influence that he turned to Buddhism for help.

It was during this turn that Jiang had the 108-meter-high statue of Guan Yin built on Hainan Island. Work on the towering white structure began in 1999 and was completed six years later.

The Nanshan Culture Tourism Zone is privately run. But it is impossible to construct such a massive theme park in China without the support of the Communist Party and government. Furthermore, the main theme of the Nanshan Culture Tourism Zone is religion, a politically sensitive issue in China.

According to some locals familiar with the matter, Jiang moved to build the huge statue on the advice of a Buddhist leader he trusted.

“The Buddhist leader told Jiang this way: ‘If you build a statue of Guan Yin, the country will be protected, and your power after retirement will also be in safe hands,'”one of the locals says.

A wall near the statue has the Chinese characters “hu guo you min” inscribed by Jiang. The words refer to protecting the country and helping the people. The back of the wall also has characters, these written by Zhao Puchu, the Buddhist leader Jiang trusted.

There was a good reason to build the statue of Guan Yin in Nanshan on Hainan Island. Ganjin, an ancient Chinese Buddhist monk born in what is now Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, Jiang’s hometown, drifted to Nanshan in the eighth century after failing to reach Japan on his fifth attempt to sail to the country.

Ganjin, or Jianzhen, visited Dongshan Ridge and successfully stepped on Japanese soil on his sixth voyage.

So think of Hainan Island as a steppingstone to success.

Jiang’s trip to Hainan Island in October was not reported at all. On Oct. 3, immediately before the trip, he inspected the National Museum of China, which sits along one side of Tiananmen Square, in Beijing.

Strangely enough, it was not until Nov. 17 that Jiang’s inspection of the museum was announced on the museum’s website. The “political season” in China was already over; the delayed announcement clearly reveals the Xi administration’s censorship powers.

Jiang wants to demonstrate his presence, while Xi wants to prevent Jiang from doing so. So they are playing like a couple of ancients, one of whom just cannot bear being out of power, and the other of whom is determined to gag his predecessor.

Katsuji Nakazawa is former head of Nikkei’s China Headquarters.