A high level Chinese official has confirmed what some China Watchers have believed for years, that there was a plot to overthrow President Xi Jinping.
Speaking on a panel for the ongoing Communist Party Congress in Beijing, China’s Chief of Securities Commissions Liu Shiyu named six officials who sought to overthrow Xi, who came to power in 2012.
They were “high-ranking and powerful officials who were hugely greedy and hugely corrupt, and who plotted to usurp the Party’s leadership and seize state power,” said Liu on October 19, reported the BBC.
“These cases were definitely shocking,” said Liu, who added that Xi had “addressed these problems, and eliminated a huge and hidden danger to the Party and the country.”
The six men Liu named are:
- Former Chinese security Czar Zhou Yongkang, currently serving a life sentence for corruption, abuse of power, and the revealing of state secrets
- Once high flying former politburo member Bo Xilai, who was given a life sentence for corruption and abuse of power in 2013
- Sun Zhengcai, the Communist Party secretary of the mega city of Chongqing, who was only recently expelled
- Ling Jihua, a former presidential aide now imprisoned for life on corruption charges
- Xu Caihou, an army general who passed away in 2105
- Guo Boxiong, a top military official and politburo member now in jail for bribery
Xi Jinping foiled coup by ex-Chinese political heavy weights: Official https://t.co/tLpToEg1kB via @TOIWorld pic.twitter.com/CMTvxnQuK2
— Times of India (@timesofindia) October 20, 2017
The claims made by Liu counter typical statements from Beijing that the Party is unified and that Xi’s “tigers and flies” anti-corruption campaign is just about weeding out corrupt elements within it.
Many China watchers see Xi’s campaign more about factional fighting within the Party. There are those who say the six men named are part of a faction loyal to a past Party leader, the now 91-year-old Jiang Zemin.
Both Zhou and Bo had previously been fast-tracked by Jiang through the Party’s ranks because of their willingness to be instrumental in the mass persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that Jiang instigated in 1999.
While Liu did not offer details about the attempted coup, it is believed by some China watchers that when previous Party leader Hu Jintao stepped down in 2012, factional plotting against Xi began in earnest.
Did #XiJinping Stop a Coup? https://t.co/nKDBZHHc7l#19thPartyCongress #JiangCoup #China #Beijing pic.twitter.com/ROrRO95Xcm
— SinoInsider (@SinoInsider) September 28, 2017
As earlier reported, sources inside China said that both Bo and Zhou were scheming against Xi so Bo could become Party leader.
As head of the Political and Legislative Affairs Commission (2007-2012), Zhou oversaw the regime’s massive security apparatus, which included the paramilitary People’s Armed Police, which had over a million men.
How far their plotting got is unknown, but the wheels of Bo and Zhou’s aspirations are said to have fallen apart when Bo’s former Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, tried to defect to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu in February 2012.
As reported previously, the subsequent demise of Zhou – who was once one of the most powerful men in China – was slow and steady. it was a well-orchestrated action to preserve the survival of the Party.
Despite Jiang’s presence at the opening of the Congress, China watchers are wondering if and when he himself will be formerly arrested.
As for Jiang’s fate, time will tell.
Watch this episode of China Uncensored about the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress:
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The post Chinese Official Details Plot to Overthrow Xi Jinping appeared first on Vision Times.
