Since taking office, Xi Jinping has emphasized “strengthening the leadership of the Party” and enhancing the power in his hands. Recently, internal documents have been obtained that reveal that the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has intervened in government affairs, directly demanding that local governments “resume work. From all indications, Xi has been cutting Li’s power and squeezing his influence. Li Keqiang’s comments at last year’s two sessions were also seen as a slap in the face of Xi’s so-called “poverty alleviation”.
Documents Leak that CDC Interferes in Government Affairs to Guide Local “Resumption of Work”
Recently, obtained Shijiazhuang City Discipline Inspection Commission on May 25, 2020 “letter on conveying the relevant views of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection research team”. The document mentions that on May 9, 2020, a research group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection conducted a study on Shijiazhuang City “to promote Epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development work”.
The document begins with a request to Party committees at all levels: “Party committees at all levels should pay more attention to small and micro enterprises while grasping large-scale enterprises” and “take more vigorous and targeted measures to help them”.
Then, the document put forward requirements for localities and departments at all levels: “departments at all levels should increase the publicity of policies related to resumption of work and production” and “promote the policies to really take effect”; “localities should pay special attention to safety production and product quality while grasping the resumption of work and production”.
Current affairs commentator Li Linyi said the document is a research team from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection investigating the local “resumption of work and production” in Shijiazhuang, and even put forward “safety production” and “product quality”. requirements. This part is not under the jurisdiction of the Commission, but should be the responsibility of the State Council and local governments. This is the CDC meddling in government affairs.
On January 22, Xi Jinping stressed at the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that he would “ensure that the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan are put into practice.”
On January 25, Li Keqiang chaired a meeting of the State Council party group to study Xi’s speech at the CCDI meeting, calling for “strengthening the overall strict governance of the Party in the government system” while “promoting the sustainable and healthy development of the economy and society.
According to Li Linyi, the CCP’s so-called 14th Five-Year Plan, which focuses on economic development, has now become one of the key elements of the CCDI’s future supervision. In other words, in the next few years, the Commission will tighten its supervision of economic officials and even the State Council in order to achieve Xi’s 14th Five-Year Plan goals.
Li Linyi said that Li Keqiang’s meeting with the State Council was, in a sense, a statement to Xi that he would be supervised and at the same Time the economy would have to be improved.
Li Keqiang’s power is compressed as many deputy secretaries of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection become ministers
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is targeting the State Council, as has been shown previously. In the past few years, there are at least five deputy secretaries of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection as the State Council department “a hand”.
From November 2016 to January 2017, four deputy secretaries of the CCDI were appointed as ministers of the State Council: Chen Wenqing as Minister of State Security; Huang Shuxian as Minister of Civil Affairs; Yang Xiaodu as Minister of Supervision; and Zhang Jun as Minister of Justice. Yang Xiaodu and Zhang Jun were promoted to Director of the State Supervision Commission and Procurator General of the Supreme Procuratorate respectively after the 19th National Congress.
On December 26, 2020, two deputy secretaries of the CCDI took up new posts, one of whom went to the State Council: Chen Xiaojiang became Vice Minister of the Central United Front Work Department and Director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.
At the top of the State Council, current Vice Premier Liu He and Director of the Central Leading Group Office of Finance and Economics and He Lifeng, head of the CCP’s Development and Reform Commission, are both close associates of Xi, while Vice Premier Han is a member of Jiang’s faction. These appointments are seen as Xi’s suppression of Li Keqiang.
The book Superpower Showdown, edited by two Wall Street Journal reporters and titled “Superpower Showdown,” refers to a conversation Xi Jinping had with then-Vice Premier Ma Kai in 2013.
In that conversation, Xi asked Ma Kai which was more effective in running the economy, the Party Central Committee or the State Council.
Ma Kai replied, “The North Courtyard.”
The North Courtyard in Zhongnanhai is where the State Council is located, and the South Courtyard is where the CPC Central Committee is located.
Xi Jinping: “I don’t think so.”
Some overseas media commented on this basis that Ma Kai’s remark cut off Li Keqiang.
Xi cut Li Keqiang’s power one after another Li’s remarks at the two meetings were said to hit Xi’s “poverty alleviation”
For the past period of time, the sound of Xi and Li’s discord has been continuously circulated. Xi has cut Li Keqiang’s power on several occasions.
According to the practice of the “two sessions” of the Communist Party of China, the first day of the general secretary to attend the sector, depending on the situation of the year. The first day of the Premier’s visit to the CPPCC sub-group must be the economic category, and his speech was regarded by outside public opinion as the wind vane of the CCP government’s macro policy, carrying more weight than the General Secretary’s speech at the time.
The “two sessions” in late May 2020 broke the convention.
Xi Jinping first spoke to the economic sector on May 23, while Li Keqiang attended a joint meeting of the Association for Science and Technology on the same day. Some commentators believe that this highlights the principle of Xi’s “party-controlled economy”.
In the “two sessions” on March 4, 2019, Xi Jinping first went to the Culture and arts and social science sectors, and attended the joint meeting. Li Keqiang, on the other hand, went to a joint meeting of members of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the Federation of Industry and Commerce to talk about the economy.
Another example is the “17+1” video summit of the leaders of the Communist Party of China-Central and Eastern European countries on Feb. 9 this year. The CPC-CEE leaders’ meeting, which was supposed to be attended by Li Keqiang, was hosted by Xi.
According to public information, Li Keqiang has attended all the CPC-CEE leaders’ summits from 2013 to the present.
Although Li Keqiang is losing power, some of Li’s comments are also considered to be a slap in Xi Jinping’s face.
In late May 2020, Li Keqiang told a press conference after the Communist Party’s “two sessions” that “600 million people in China have an average monthly income of only about 1,000 yuan”.
According to a commentary on the Twitter account “Financial Eye”, Li Keqiang’s authority as premier has been narrowing since his “Keqiang economics” was suppressed by Xi Jinping in 2013. This time, Li’s revelation that 600 million people earn less than 1,000 yuan a month can be said to be a kind of rebellion against Xi Jinping’s so-called “Chinese dream, the community of human Destiny and the realization of a moderately prosperous society by 2020″.
After that, Caixin, which is close to Wang Qishan, published “Where are the 600 million people who earn less than 1,000 yuan a month? The statistics bureau responded that 600 million people have a monthly income of 1,000 yuan: there is data to prove it” and other articles to support Li Keqiang.
In the “two sessions” of that year, Li Keqiang also publicly pushed the “stall economy”, once triggered a hot debate. After a few days, the “stall economy” topic was suddenly cooled down. The government of Beijing, which is a close friend of Cai Qi’s, continues to outlaw ground stalls, which has been interpreted as a “different tone from Xi and Li”.
Analysis of Energy Bureau: Li Keqiang Loses Face
Recently, the Communist Party of China’s Sixth Ecological Environmental Protection Inspectorate (hereinafter referred to as the inspector group) made a rare criticism of the National Energy Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Energy Bureau) under the State Council.
On January 29, the group gave feedback to the Energy Bureau on the situation of ecological environment inspectors. The inspector team worded its criticism of the Energy Bureau in an unusually sharp manner. For example, the work of the Energy Bureau “has a gap” with Xi Jinping’s requirements, and the deterioration of the Energy Bureau’s political ecology has also had a serious impact on the implementation of ecological and environmental protection-related requirements.
The inspection team also criticized the Energy Bureau for “failing to build what should be built and building what should not be built”; arranging for the development and construction of major energy projects, while requiring fewer supporting ecological and environmental protection initiatives; and not requiring enough ecological and environmental protection.
Although the Chinese Communist Party authorities claim that the central ecological environmental protection inspectors are actions approved by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Li Linyi believes that, in any case, the board hit Li Keqiang’s subordinate National Energy Administration, Li has lost face, and the Xi-Li rift is obvious. At the same time, the Xi administration’s move also has the implication of continuing to crack down on the Jiang faction, which has always held the Energy Bureau. The two previously fallen directors of the Energy Bureau, Liu Tienan and Nur Bailey, are believed to have a Jiang faction background.
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