Deng Xiao Ping has died and Jiang Zemin is the leader of Chinese Beijing, the ruling elite that governs with an iron hand. But on mainland China, power can be a tricky thing to hold on to. Ever since Deng's death the question has been "will Jiang Zemin consolidate his power? Is he really in charge?".
To make his claim for the mantle of leadership he and his supporters are referring to Jiang as "the core" of the communist party. As the core he has called for loyalty to him on the part of all party members and the army. But a challenge may be emerging to his claim to be the core.
Zhao Ziyan had Jiang Zemin's job before Jiang had it. He was instrumental in carrying out the reforms that Deng Xiao Ping called for. Before Jiang, Zhao was the annointed successor to Deng. But the Spring 89 demonstrations culminating in the June 4th Beijing massacre changed all that. As far as anyone can tell Zhao did not want to massacre the students and populace of Beijing. He was summarily kicked out of his position for not wanting to murder patriotic Chinese citizens in cold blood and a replacement who had no such qualms about murder was brought in. This replacement was Jiang Zemin, then the Mayor of Shanghai.
Since then Zhao was ostracized and "disgraced". His main assistent was jailed and still remains under house arrest in dismal conditions. Zhao also was under what essentially amounted to house arrest. Jiang Zemin would not allow Zhao to travel to Beijing for Deng's funeral. Zhao is presumably one person who could challenge Jiang Zemin's claim to be the core of the communist party. And it seems he may be doing just that.
About one month after Deng's death a letter began to circulate, ostensibly written by Zhao, criticising Jiang Zemin in his claim to be the core of the party. Zhao declaimed any responsibility for the letter. It was called "Letter to the Politburo and the Preparatory Committee for the 15th Party Congress" and was dated March 5. The party congress wil be in the fall and will be the time Jiang either further consolidates his position or loses some or all of his authority. A news report about the letter is here. The text of the letter is here in big 5 code or here in gb code.
An analysis piece in the South China Morning Post described the letter as a strong challenge to Jiang Zemin, no matter who wrote the letter. Click here for this piece. It is said to reflect the thinking of the party's "liberal wing". Among these thoughts are that setting someone up as a "core" figure is against Deng Xiao Ping, Mao and Lenin's ideas.
The overall tone was that Jiang is trying to set himself up as a central figure, and that is not what is needed now. One paragraph said:
A major reason why Mr Jiang wants to become party chairman, however, is his hope that the chairmanship would bestow on him Mao-style authority to ride roughshod over the politburo and other top organs.What this is referring to is that Jiang wants to bring back the office of Party Chairman so that he may be Chairman Jiang. He is really trying to set himself up as a new Mao Zedong for China. He has tried to come up with his own little Cultural Revolution called the Spiritual Society. But there are other factions that are trying to move away from the one man rule to a rule of law coalition form of government.
The writer of the analysis piece points out that the criticisms in the letter were very valid. They are based upon policies developed in the 1980's that did away with the party Chairman position and stressed moving from personal authoritarian rule to government based on the system and institutions. And as the letter was published in various Hong Kong newspapers, many party members will have had a chance to read it.
Jiang himself though has pledged reform. His spin doctors have said
Mao's greatest contribution was founding the People's Republic of China. Deng is remembered for his economic reform. And Jiang will make his mark in political reform.We will see.
