The New Four Elite Families (Chinese Communism after Mao and Deng – Part 5)

While it has been commonly accepted that the intensity of corruption during Deng Xiaoping’s era was not serious as compared to today, there was still a saying of the Four Elite Families in Beijing back then (in comparison to the four Elite Families within Taiwan’s Kuomintang of Jiang, Song, Kong, and Chen). This referred to the families of Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Ye Jianyiing and Wang Zhen.

According to Chinese political observers, Beijing has lately emerged a New Elite Family listing originated from the fortune ranking of the new Princelings. Ranked first is the son of Zhu Rongji – Zhu Yunlai[1]. Second place is Zeng Qinghong’s son – Zeng Wei[2]. Third place goes to Wen Jiabao’s son – Wen Yunsong[3]. And the fourth position belongs to Jiang Zemin’s son – Jiang Mianheng[4].

Hence, the New Four Elite Families of the CCP was unofficially borne. However, observers are keeping their fingers crossed on the sustainability of these Princeling’s fortunes after the 18^th CCP Congress, as the heir apparent of Hu Jintao – Xi Jinping – has appeared to be a very anti-corruption leader hitherto.

(………… coming up next: The return of the previous nobles ……………..)

Wong Teck Yenn

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[1] “朱鎔基和儿子朱云来的基本资料”, 30 December 2009, <http://hi.baidu.com/syp2284/blog/item/d10e7d3e7c5f8bc97c1e713a.html>

[2] “曾庆红的儿子曾伟逃到澳洲，说明什么?”, 27 April 2010, <http://www.boxun.com/hero/201004/zhouyahui/43_1.shtml>

[3] “与李泽楷拍档经商 温家宝儿子温云松活跃商场”, Kan Zhongguo, 19 July 2010, <http://www.kanzhongguo.com/node/359864>

[4] “江泽民的儿子 江绵恒的「生财之道」”, Epoch Times, 28 November 2003, <http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/3/11/28/n419956.htm>

The era of Jiang Zemin’s (江泽民) utilitarianism (Chinese Communism after Mao and Deng – Part 4)

Some Chinese political observers felt that Deng Xiaoping, while being the greatest contributor to the flourishing success of today’s China, made two important mistakes in his life. The first is to belief heavily in the reports of Li Peng and Chen Xitong to use military forces to clamp down on the protesting students during the June 4 Incident at Tiananmen in 1989. The second is to choose a successor, after the Tiananmen Incident, who is an extreme capitalist-natured person as the secretary general – Jiang Zemin. While Deng has always proclaimed himself to be a great observer, he was not able to foretell Jiang’s instinct to deviate away from socialism.

As a result of the Tiananmen Incident, Jiang rose to power within the CCP. Deng wanted him to correct the corrupted situation during the pre-Tiananmen days. However, even before the passing away of Deng, wide activities of corruption were to take place in the Chinese government. According to analysts, Jiang’s son – Jiang Mianheng (姜绵恒) – was one of those that benefited materially from both being an official and a businessman.

If we study the corruption situation in the pre-1989 days, the students protested against corruption and bureaucratism only due to Deng Pufang (邓普方) organizing a few companies making use of the loophole during the transition period between planned to market economy to generate unlawful income for him. However, Deng Pufang’s company at that time was a State Owned Enterprise. All proceeds will eventually go to the Chinese handicapped funds. Yet, the company was still scrutinized publicly and was “cleansed” and reorganized in September 1988.

The amount of questionable funds that is taking place twenty years later is anytime greater in magnitude as compared to Deng Pufang’s case. The princelings listed by observers include Jiang Mianheng (as first described above), Li Xiaolin[1], Zeng Wei[2], Zhu Yunlai[3], Wen Yunsong[4]. And the list goes on. The above-mentioned characters of paramount family backgrounds have all became wealthy whether as a businessman or as a government official. While there are many accusations of the legality issue of their getting rich, this paper will not indulge in non-referenced speculations, which will be left to the many tabloids that can do a much better job in this.

In comparison to 1989, the current corruption situation within the government officials is many times more intense. Some famously reported cases include that of Chen Liangyu[5], Zhu Junyi[6] and Du Shicheng[7]. As a result, the repercussion is also much bigger than in 1989. In fact, the events commemorating the June 4 incident both in China and overseas are growing in strength these days as a result of the growing corruption.

While Deng has been criticized for allowing the Tiananmen massacre, he certainly demonstrated his integrity in the areas of corruption. When Zhao Ziyang reported to Deng about the civilians’ dissatisfaction of the families of senior cadres being involved in business, Deng immediately dictated that anti-corruption activities should start from their own families. As a result, Deng Pufang’s company was persecuted. Zhao Ziyang also followed suit by calling for investigation against his son Zhao Dajun’s (赵大军) company. The widely speculated joke about the reaction of Jiang Zemin today should someone report to him about people’s dissatisfaction against the princelings is that he will order the speculators to be arrested first.

(………… coming up next: The new Four Elite Families ……………..)

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[1] Daughter of Li Peng. Please refer to previous piece on Li Peng for more information.

[2] Son of Zeng Qinghong (曾庆红).

[3] Son of former premier Zhu Rongji.

[4] Son of current premier Wen Jiabao.

[5] Chen was the former Shanghai mayor, who is notoriously known to be a protégé of Jiang Zemin.

[6] Zhu has been the protégé of Chen Liangyu for many years and was involved in one of the biggest scandals in China involving the Shanghai Social Security Funds together with Chen.

[7] Du was the former Qingdao mayor who was apprehended for abusing his power and amassing huge fortunes through illegal land sales in Qingdao.

The change in CCP leaders since Li Peng (李鹏) (Chinese Communism after Mao and Deng – Part 3)

From the second and third generation CCP leaders onwards, many new leaders have emerged who joined the party not for idealistic purpose, but to pursue their personal agenda and interests. As such, there is an evidently growing trend in the CCP becoming a bureaucratic interest elite group that focuses a lot on material wellbeing.

Even though the radical shift in the CCP took place during Jiang Zemin’s （江泽民） era, but transformation truly began since Li Peng’s (李鹏) days. Li’s father Li Shuoxun (李硕勋) was a true idealist, but he became a martyr at an early age. As such, Li grew up in an environment protected by the senior members of the CCP and was known as the offspring of a revolutionary hero. However, in contrast to his hero father, Li was more of an opportunist than a worshipper of communism.

During the early 80s, Li capitalized on the people’s respect of Zhou Enlai (周恩来) and hence created an impression that he was the foster son of Zhou. While Deng Yingchao (邓颖超) knows the truth, he decided to keep quiet out of a desire to protect Li. As a result, Li had a radical career progress. From a junior cadre in Beijing’s Electric Department, he was quickly promoted to the Electric Ministry minister and the country’s education chief. He eventually became the State Council Prime Minister. After the passing away from Deng, Zhou’s real foster children emerged to reveal that truth about Li’s claim of relationship to Zhou. However, his real foster mother was indeed a revolutionary veteran – Shuai Mengqi (帅孟奇).

In comparison to his predecessors Zhao Ziyang (赵紫阳) and Zhu Rongji (朱镕基), Li appeared pale in comparison. To make things worse, not long after he became the premier, he was loaded with the notorious title of a butler due to the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre Incident. At the same time, during Li’s reign, Li’s eldest son Li Xiaopeng (李小鹏) and daughter Li Xiaolin (李小琳) were appointed influential positions in the Power Industry where Li served previously as minister. Li’s youngest son Li Xiaoyong (李小勇), on the other hand, developed his career overseas. According to political observers, the latter migrated to Singapore in 1994 and purchased several luxury properties there. In 1998, he was involved in a 500 million RMB scandal and hence since disappeared from public eyes. The victim of this case even proceeded to protest in Beijing and wanted Li to make good the sum that Li Xiaoyong supposedly misappropriated, but was ignored.

Currently, Li Xiaopeng has given up his business career to enter politics, holding the position of Shanxi Province (山西省) Vice Governor. Li Xiaolin, on the other hand, is now the Chairman of Hong Kong listed company CLP Power International Group.

As such, some observers felt that the change in nature of the CCP began with Li Peng.

(………… coming up next: The era of Jiang Zemin’s utilitarianism……………..)