BY: Bill GertzSigns of a serious division within the ruling Communist Party of China are emerging over a crackdown on corruption led by current leader Xi Jinping, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report on the division.
The political rift is being linked to a nationwide anti-corruption drive launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and to differences among top leaders over the purge of several of China's most senior leaders who held posts at senior Party levels that in the past were immune to such crackdowns.
Corruption in China—bribery, graft, and abuse of power—remains a key feature of the reform communist system in place since the 1980s.
The recent unclassified intelligence report circulated within the U.S. government disclosed that the leadership rift is linked to the case against Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the seven-person collective dictatorship that rules China. Analysts of China have long argued that leadership divisions in China would be among the indicators of a breakdown of one-party rule that could produce a change in a system in place since the Communists seized power in 1949.
| Much, much more from Mr. Gertz, who has a gift for identifying key problems lurking under the surface of the news. Worth the read. |