China’s President is set to secure a third term next month
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping
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XI Jinping, China’s President, has sent a stark message to would-be rivals with the life imprisonment of a high-ranking party official, a UK expert has said. Former deputy security minister Sun Lijun was sentenced on September 22 after being convicted of corruption charges. He was also handed a suspended death sentence for leading a “political clique” and being disloyal to Xi.
In addition, five former police chiefs implicated in his corruption case were also jailed.
The court said Sun’s crimes included giving and taking bribes amounting to 646 million yuan (£83.5 million), manipulating the stock market and illegally owning two firearms.
In January, China’s Public Security Ministry, where Sun was a deputy minister until 2020, held a meeting to denounce him and vowed to eradicate the “venomous” influence of his “political clique”.
Professor Steve Tsang said the draconian measure was is a clear indication that Xi retains his vice-like grip on power less than a month before the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, one of the most important dates in China’s political calendar.
Prof Tsang, director of the China Institute at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) told Express.co.uk: “In general terms, Sun was not one of Xi’s proteges and was holding a senior and sensitive post.
“He was one of the ’tigers’ taken down officially for corruption (at least as one of the charges) and for being ‘disloyal’ to Xi.”
Prof Tsang dismissed any suggestion that Sun had represented any kind of rival to Xi, describing the imprisonment as “nothing special” in that respect.
He explained: “Xi has done that to over 200 ’tigers’ since he came to power, and none of them was a Xi protege.”
However, he added: “Jailing him for life in the run-up to the 20th Congress was just a little reminder to those who might contemplate not supporting Xi’s third term what consequences they might face.”
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Referring to a series of recent purges, Prof Tsang said: “I don’t think it represents the winding down of the anti-corruption-cum-rectification operation at all.
“Xi will sustain that for as long as he is in power since it is so convenient for him to take down whoever deemed disloyal to him.”
Jailing Sun and the other party officials sent a powerful signal, Prof Tsang stressed, saying: “That’s the intention of the reminder.
“Not sure if this was sent as Xi thought it necessary so revealing a sense of insecurity, or just ‘routine’ so no one even dares to think about it. I don’t know which applies.”
The 20th National Congress will be held in Beijing on October 16, and will feature 2,296 delegates from the CCP’s estimated 90 million members.
Referring to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit last month, Prof Tsang added: “The fact that he went to the SCO summit a month before the 20th Congress shows he was completely confident that there will not be a plot against him.
“Otherwise, he would stay put to make sure.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term in Congress.
At the last Party Congress in 2017, Xi vowed to keep targeting both the “tigers” and “flies”, a reference to elite officials and low-level bureaucrats, in his battle against corruption.
Falling from grace each year are also hundreds of thousands of officials who violate the Communist Party’s “discipline and laws”, including in recent times failure to contain COVID-19 outbreaks.
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