Detto, fatto. A voi.
‘Tiger’ Zhou Yongkang to Be Tried for Corruption in China
After months of uncertainty, the news came in the wee hours of Saturday morning: Zhou Yongkang, former security czar and retired member of China’s most elite political body, the Politburo Standing Committee, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and arrested, and will stand trial for a range of serious crimes, including taking bribes, adultery, and leaking state secrets. He is the most senior official toppled for corruption since 1949.
“What Zhou did completely deviated from the Party’s nature and mission, and seriously violated Party discipline. His behaviors badly undermined the reputation of the Party, significantly damaged the cause of the Party and the people,” said a statement released after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.
The decision to push for a trial for “Tiger” Zhou (“tiger” is the phrase used to refer to a corrupt high-level official) is a risky one that could backfire on President Xi Jinping. A less bold alternative: simply stripping Zhou of his party membership and allowing news about his crimes to fade away.
Xi has clearly opted for the less easy option but one that ensures maximum publicity for his two-year effort to crack down on corruption. By arresting Zhou the president clearly wants to show that even high-ranking officials are not immune to prosecution for their corrupt behavior. Just as important, Xi intends to warn others that he has amassed a level of power so formidable that others should not dare cross him. “Even a monster-size tiger like Zhou cannot escape the fate of being shut in a cage,” reported the party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Sunday.
“What Xi is doing is, to put it mildly, disliked by the establishment, particularly retired standing committee members,” Steve Tsang, head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, said in an e-mail, according to Bloomberg News. “If Xi stumbles, the knives will be out for him. But Xi has no intention to let that happen and by being assertive is requiring others to support or follow him publicly.”
So far it seems to be working. At least seven different provincial party committees, including those in Shanghai and Tianjin, released statements pledging their fealty to Xi’s anti-graft efforts, the Global Times reported on Monday. Military brass also chimed in: “The announcement [detailing actions against Zhou] was well-received by all the officers and soldiers,” the People’s Liberation Army Daily reported. “It has deeply won the hearts of the party, the military, and the people.”
Xi, too, seems to be aiming for maximum symbolic effect. According to a post that appeared briefly on Saturday on the official WeChat account of the People’s Daily, since deleted, Zhou is being held in the small town of Yanggu, Shandong. Yanggu is the site where, according to Chinese legend, the hero Wu Song defeated a Chinese tiger. “The battle against Zhou is [Xi’s] masterpiece, and he wants every single detail to be perfect,” Qiao Mu, a professor of media studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told Bloomberg.
Given the severity of the alleged crimes, Zhou is likely to get a suspended death sentence, which is usually commuted to life imprisonment after two years, says Tong Zhiwei, a law professor at the East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai.
Fonte: "Tiger" Zhou Yongkang To Be Tried for Corruption in China - Businessweek
China arrests ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang
Ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang, the most senior Chinese official to be investigated for corruption, has been arrested and expelled from the Communist Party, state media report. The Supreme People's Procuratorate, China's top prosecuting body, said it had opened a formal probe against him. Before he retired two years ago, Mr Zhou was the head of China's vast internal security apparatus.
Many of his former associates and relatives also face corruption probes. Since coming to power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a high-profile campaign to weed out corruption among party and government officials. Mr Zhou was accused of several crimes, including "serious violations of party discipline", "accepting large sums of bribes", "disclosing party and state secrets" and "committing adultery with several women" as part of corrupt transactions, Xinhua news agency reported (in Chinese). Mr Zhou's arrest was announced in a statement by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, released late on Friday night.
'Most feared'
Mr Zhou, who is in his 70s, has not been seen in public for more than a year. Analysts say the investigation against Mr Zhou allows Xi Jinping to consolidate his power base, remove people opposed to his reforms, and improve the image of the Communist Party. Mr Zhou was previously also a member of China's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee.
Analysis: Zhuang Chen, BBC Chinese
Zhou Yongkang was allegedly the most feared and powerful senior official before he retired two years ago from the pinnacle of China's decision-making body. He is also the biggest "tiger" - the highest ranking official - caged by Xi Jinping in his anti-corruption drive.
Dubbed "Master Kang", Mr Zhou put many of his followers in powerful positions in the oil and security sectors during his heyday in office. Many of his loyalists have since been either sentenced or indicted on corruption charges. It has taken over a year to investigate his case, which suggests the authorities are mindful of its sensitivity. Some suspect the party would rather deal with his case in secrecy, given how much Mr Zhou knows. The fact that he is to be investigated by state prosecutors means the authorities have gathered sufficient evidence. It also shows an ever-more confident Xi Jinping making Mr Zhou a case in point to further consolidate his power. The suspense now is over whether Mr Zhou will be charged and tried in public, in the fashion of his disgraced former ally Bo Xilai.
A Chinese minister has previously said that the investigation against Mr Zhou would take a long time to complete.
Mr Zhou had enjoyed a close working relationship with former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last year on bribery charges.Bo's wife Gu Kailai was given a suspended death sentence in 2012 for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. Bo's downfall was seen as the biggest political shake-up to hit China's ruling elite in decades, and revealed divisions at the top of the party over how the scandal should be handled.
Fonte: BBC News - China arrests ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang