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In book, Xi blasts ousted rivals, hints at coup bid

BEIJING — The strip lighting and plastic chairs of the Xinhua bookstore on Dongdaqiao Road do not invite people to linger, and the government-owned store, in the basement of a mall, was deserted.

The book on Chinese President Xi Jinping contains 200 extracts from more than 40 of his internal speeches and essays from 2012 to late last year. PHOTO: REUTERS

The book on Chinese President Xi Jinping contains 200 extracts from more than 40 of his internal speeches and essays from 2012 to late last year. PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING — The strip lighting and plastic chairs of the Xinhua bookstore on Dongdaqiao Road do not invite people to linger, and the government-owned store, in the basement of a mall, was deserted.

Yet something momentous was on the “new arrivals” shelf by the entrance: A book containing the first public and official declaration by China’s President, Xi Jinping, of “political plot activities” by senior Communist Party officials “to wreck and split the party” — code words for a coup attempt, said several Chinese analysts. Its release was a signal, they said, that the challenge was over, that the party had agreed on what happened, and that Mr Xi wanted people to know he had overcome his adversaries.

Edited Excerpts From Discussions by Xi Jinping on Tightening Party Discipline and Rules is a slim volume that sells for 13.6 yuan (S$2.95). As its title suggests, it is no political thriller. Rather, it is a sober collection of 200 extracts from more than 40 internal speeches and essays by Mr Xi from 2012 to late last year, according to the publisher, the party’s Central Documents Press.

And it was selling quite well, said a store clerk. “Mostly people from groups and government organisations are buying it, not so much individuals,” she said. The book arrived on the shelves in mid-December, she added.

The pertinent extract is from a speech by Mr Xi on Jan 13, 2015, to the fifth full meeting of the current Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China’s anti-corruption agency.

Chinese news media had scattered reports of the speech last year, but publication in book form by an authoritative press makes it a statement of what China wants the world to know, said Mr Liao Ran, a German-based employee of a non-governmental anti-corruption organisation that he asked not be named as he was discussing the politically sensitive issue as an individual. The speech shows Mr Xi thinks he has vanquished his rivals, said Mr Liao. “When you look back on these past years, he has dealt with all these challenges, so he’s super-confident,” he said.

In the speech, Mr Xi said: “From cases investigated over the past few years that involved serious violations of party discipline and the law by senior cadres, especially those of Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong, it can be seen that the problem of damaging party political discipline and rules was very serious and merited serious attention.”

The men Mr Xi named have been the subject of rumours in China of plots to unseat him: Mr Zhou, the former security chief; Mr Bo, the former party secretary of Chongqing; Mr Xu, an army general, and Mr Ling, a right-hand man of the former president, Hu Jintao. Mr Su, who was deputy head of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was their associate. All five have been disgraced since 2012, either imprisoned for corruption and abuse of power or faced with similar charges. Mr Xu died last year of cancer.

“The greater these people’s power, the more important their position, the less seriously they took party discipline and political rules, to the point of recklessness and audaciousness!” said Mr Xi. “Some had inflated political ambitions and for their personal gain or the gain of their clique carried out political plot activities behind the party’s back, carried out politically shady business to wreck and split the party!”

An anti-corruption sweep ordered by Mr Xi has led to thousands of officials being dismissed or otherwise punished since 2012.

“Openly, they didn’t use the word ‘coup’,” said Professor Ren Jianming from the School of Public Management at Beihang University. “But ‘plot activities’ and ‘wreck and split the party’ are coup activities, because it’s the ruling party. It was all very secret at the time, and this is the first time they have officially published about it, so it’s very important.”

The government has not disclosed any details of a plot. So is the “super-confident” Mr Xi now safe? “One really can’t say ‘safe’,” said Mr Liao. “There will be one challenge after the next. But this is a way of telling us he is extremely confident that he has the ability to overcome these challenges.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

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