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Updated Wednesday, February 22, 2012 0:03 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Chinese police chief's saga reveals tug of war for power

The story that unfolded in Chengdu on Feb. 6 was straight out of a Cold War spy thriller. The police chief of Chongqing, a massive municipality that's home to almost 30 million people, crossed over the provincial border into neighboring Sichuan province in disguise and headed for the U.S. consulate in Chengdu. Not long after Wang Lijun entered the American consulate, security forces — who according to reports were from neighboring Chongqing — surrounded the building. Wang is said to have sought asylum, but the U.S. turned down his request.

Wang spent the night in the U.S. consulate and allegedly offered massive amounts of information to American officials regarding corruption at the highest levels of the Communist Party, the suppression of dissidents and possibly an insider's take on internal power struggles that are brewing under the surface of a seemingly stable People's Republic of China. Wang left the Chengdu American consulate the next day and was subsequently whisked away to Beijing where he is said to be on “vacation therapy.”

The now-former police chief of Chongqing may have been pushed to this desperate act after a falling out with Chongqing's ambitious Communist Party boss Bo Xilai, a popular character in the region due to an anti-corruption clampdown he initiated several years back that has seen many caught in its dragnet, including Wen Qiang, the former director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau who was executed in 2010 for allegedly accepting bribes, shielding criminal individuals and rape.

Each time a high-profile official is busted for corruption cheers ring out across China as too many of its citizens have grown tired of endemic graft. The Chinese Communist Party is well aware that the ridiculous amount of corruption in the government makes a mockery of their claims to be a “communist” party. Every time an official is seen cruising in an obscenely expensive luxury vehicle, buying lavish presents for a mistress or caught with their fingers in the cookie jar, millions of dissatisfied Chinese question the legitimacy of the party that rules China's one-party state. Last month President Hu Jintao said corruption threatens the party's grip on power but, it “cannot be eradicated in the short term.”

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Comments

February 27, 2012 miller.henry641@

Do a trade:
Police Chief Wang Lijun for Ah Bian

A win-win trade!