Chris Buckly and Andrew Jacobs
The New York Times
July 29, 2014
President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption among the Chinese elite took public aim on Tuesday at its biggest target so far, when the Communist Party announced an investigation of Zhou Yongkang, the former chief of domestic security.
Mr. Zhou, who retired from the Politburo Standing Committee in 2012, accumulated vast power while in office, and his family became enormously wealthy. Now, according to the terse announcement by the party’s anti corruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, he is being investigated “on suspicion of grave violations of discipline.”
The news was reported almost immediately on Chinese state news media and delivered by a grim-faced anchor on the main evening news broadcast. The reports gave no details about the allegations, but they pointedly omitted the word “comrade” in referring to Mr. Zhou, a sign that an official has been severed from the party and faces punishment.
Mr. Zhou is the first member, sitting or retired, of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s inner ring of power, to face an inquest by the commission for corruption and abuses of power.
Mr. Xi had been saying since he became the country’s senior leader at a party congress in November 2012 that his drive to stem corruption and put his stamp on the party would take down both “flies and tigers” — junior and high-ranking officials. It had been widely known in party circles that Mr. Zhou was in the party’s sights, especially after he was detained late last year, but the government did not say so publicly until Tuesday, breaking months of censorship and official silence on the matter. In an online commentary Tuesday evening, People’s Daily, the party’s main newspaper, portrayed Mr. Zhou’s downfall as an object lesson.
“Zhou Yongkang was a big tiger, and if even he can be brought down, any corrupt elements nursing delusions will understand: If they stretch out their hands, they will get caught,” the commentary said.
Deng Yuwen, formerly an editor at The Study Times, a weekly newspaper issued by the Central Party School in Beijing, described Mr. Xi’s decision to take down Mr. Zhou as a bid to cement his authority.
Although the official announcement about Mr. Zhou did not mention criminal charges, the opening of a party investigation greatly increases the chances that Mr. Zhou will be indicted, tried and sentenced to prison, according to Mr. Deng, who is now a freelance commentator on Chinese politics.
“Zhou Yongkang signifies how far Xi will go to establish his authority,” he said, “and it’s a warning to others not to stand in his way.”Until now, the anticorruption campaign’s biggest target had been Xu Caihou, a retired military commander. The party announced in late June that General Xu, a former member of the Politburo, was under investigation for taking bribes, directly or through his family.
The case against Mr. Zhou may center on the fortunes amassed by his family, often in sectors of the economy that were once under his sway. An investigation by The New York Times showed that Mr. Zhou’s son, a sister-in-law and his son’s mother-in-law held traceable assets worth about a billion renminbi, or about $160 million; much of that wealth was concentrated in the oil and gas industries, where Mr. Zhou was in a position to shape decisions and promotions.
That estimate was based on publicly available records and a limited assessment of their companies’ value; it did not include real estate or overseas assets, which are more difficult to identify and value.
The investigation could send tremors through the Chinese political landscape because of Mr. Zhou’s seniority, and because Mr. Xi and his colleagues have now broken an unspoken compact among China’s elite that leaders who ascended to the summit of power — the Politburo Standing Committee — would be immune from formal investigations, even in retirement.
Mr. Zhou, 71, retired at the same party congress that elevated Mr. Xi, but he remained a potentially dangerous adversary, with ties to other senior retired figures and to officials who rose under him. Still, earlier graft investigations have shaken his bases of influence — in Sichuan Province in China’s southwest; in the nation’s biggest oil and gas conglomerate, the China National Petroleum Corporation; and in the country’s police and civilian intelligence services.
At the zenith of his power, few Chinese politicians were more intimidating than Mr. Zhou. For the five years that he sat on the Standing Committee, he was also in charge of the party committee overseeing the police, the domestic security forces and the civilian intelligence service, as well as courts, prosecutors and prisons. He proved willing to apply police power with little regard for China’s already weak legal fetters.
The party leadership had decided late last year to pursue Mr. Zhou, but there was no public confirmation until now, people close to senior officials have said. The news coincided with an announcement that the party’s Central Committee would meet in October and that “promoting governing the country according to law and other major issues” would be on the agenda.
People close to senior officials have said that Mr. Zhou’s son, Zhou Bin, is central to the party investigation and has also been detained, as have other members of Mr. Zhou’s extended family, including his wife, Jia Xiaoye; a brother, Zhou Yuanqing; and a sister-in-law, Zhou Lingying.
One political consultant in Beijing who meets with senior and mid-ranking officials said he had been told that Zhou Bin recently gave new direct evidence against his father, who, according to the consultant and other party insiders, had strongly denied any personal wrongdoing during months of detention. The new evidence helped solidify a consensus among top leaders to announce the investigation publicly, said the consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing his access to officials.
“In fact, the party wanted to make it public earlier, but they couldn’t,” the consultant said. “So now they’re finally able to make it public, and can breathe a sigh of relief.”
