MCLC: Jiang Zemin steps back

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Jiang Zemin steps back
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (1/23/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/world/asia/jiang-zemin-ex-china-leader-st
eps-back-fueling-speculation.html

Former Chinese Leader Steps Back, Fueling Speculation
By CHRIS BUCKLEY

HONG KONG — A decade after he stepped down as China’s top leader, the
powerful Communist Party elder Jiang Zemin has used the death of a former
rival to signal that he may allow his political shadow to recede and give
the nation’s newest leader more room to consolidate his authority.

The sign came in official accounts of mourning for Yang Baibing, a general
who was pushed from office after being implicated in efforts to challenge
Mr. Jiang. A report on General Yang’s funeral by Xinhua, the state news
agency, on Monday ranked Mr. Jiang last among a dozen party luminaries who
had offered words of comfort and condolences.

As recently as late November, Mr. Jiang, 86, was placed third in rank in a
similar mourning announcement, behind Hu Jintao, who had stepped down
earlier that month as head of the Communist Party and will retire as state
president in March, and Xi Jinping, Mr. Hu’s successor in those posts.
For some political analysts seeking to fathom the undercurrents of power
in China’s secretive elite, Mr. Jiang’s reduced protocol ranking suggested
something more — that he may finally curb any impulses to exert influence
behind the red walls of Zhongnanhai, the party leadership’s compound in
central Beijing.

“In China, the saying goes that you must live up to your title to give
your words sway, so if Jiang Zemin meddles in politics again after making
this step, his reputation will be badly damaged,” said Yao Jianfu, a
retired party official and researcher in Beijing.

“It’s a change in protocol, but now he’ll be expected to live up to it and
stop being such a political busybody,” said Mr. Yao.

That may not come easily to Mr. Jiang, whose later career was marked by
the flamboyant gestures of a politician who had grown to enjoy attention.
He retired as party general secretary in November 2002, and stepped down
from his final major post, chairman of the Central Military Commission,
nearly two year later. Since then he has used public appearances, books,
poems, essays and calligraphy inscriptions as reminders that he remained
healthy and engaged enough to exert influence, said analysts.

Mr. Jiang wielded heavy backstage influence in choosing the new leadership
team under Mr. Xi that was appointed at the Communist Party’s 18th
Congress in November. The seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, which
sits at the apex of party power, is now dominated by protégés and allies
of Mr. Jiang, and short on officials close to Mr. Hu, the departing leader
who succeeded Mr. Jiang.

Mr. Jiang’s concession regarding protocol appeared calculated to signal
that he is ready to step away from the political fray, but in a way that
does not exclude renewed efforts to exert influence, said Joseph Fewsmith,
a specialist in Chinese politics at Boston University.

“I think that everyone was amazed that at 86 he still had the ability to
achieve the influence that he wielded at the 18th Party Congress,” said
Mr. Fewsmith. “Having helped put in place the leadership that he wanted,
it seems likely that he will now seek a lower profile.”

Yet even in announcing Mr. Jiang’s lowered ranking, state news media
suggested that he remains a figure who expects deference.

“After the 18th Party Congress, Comrade Jiang Zemin submitted a request to
the Party’s central leadership that in the future he be ranked alongside
the other old comrades in the protocol ranking,” Xinhua reported on
Wednesday. “This embodies the noble integrity and generous spirit of a
Communist.”

Mr. Jiang’s step comes while the new leader, Mr. Xi, has been trying to
consolidate his power and win public confidence through repeated vows to
eradicate corruption and impose discipline on lax officials. It was a
theme that Mr. Xi came back to on Tuesday, when he told central officials
that he would take on both “flies” and “tigers” — wayward local officials
and corrupt senior leaders — and would demand unflinching obedience to
central directives.

An official with a state media organization said that when Mr. Xi vowed in
early December to curb the perks and fanfare lavished on serving leaders,
he remained deferential to Mr. Jiang and other retired leaders and
stressed that the strictures did not apply to them.

“This was a way of showing respect to old comrades,” added the official,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing bans on disclosing internal
party discussions.

An editor with another party media organization cited an official circular
that conveyed the same message from Mr. Xi. The editor said Mr. Jiang’s
protocol concession appeared intended to indicate “he won’t get in the
involved in the arrangements for the 19th Party Congress, whether he’s
dead or alive.”

At the 19th congress, due in late 2017, five of the seven members of the
Politburo Standing Committee are likely to step down, if party retirement
age norms stay unchanged.

Mr. Jiang sees Mr. Xi as an ally, while Mr. Hu had won the party’s top job
even though he was not Mr. Jiang’s choice. Mr. Hu retired from the
chairmanship of China’s top military body in November, and has shown no
appetite to linger in the political limelight.
Since the Party Congress, Mr. Jiang has kept himself in the news. In
addition to publishing a book about his ideas on economic reform, he has
written a preface to an anthology of verses about bamboo, which included
one of his own poems, and the preface to a picture book about a deceased
protégé, according to state media.

“Jiang could still exert influence, and he has publicly made the point
that he volunteered to the protocol change, that he wasn’t forced,” said
Chen Ziming, an independent scholar in Beijing who closely follows
politics. “But I don’t think he’ll pose a major impediment to Xi. He
generally supports him.”

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting from Beijing.