China's leadership makes show of unity ahead of key Communist Party congress

BEIJING: Past and present Chinese leaders appeared together on army day Wednesday in a striking show of unity ahead of a key Communist Party congress later this year.

Former President and party chief Jiang Zemin, seldom seen in public since giving up his last official title in 2004, joined current top leader Hu Jintao on stage at a ceremony celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.

The appearance of Jiang and former premiers Zhu Rongji and Li Peng seemed intended to show the party was united symbolically ahead of the upcoming 17th Party Congress, the specific dates of which have not been officially announced.

Although Jiang has largely faded from sight, he is believed to retain some influence through allies at the top levels of the party and government.

What should be noted is that 6 former member of Chinese Politburo showed up in official public ceremony.

It has been an unwritten rule of Chicom that retired high officials keep low profile. However, Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, Li Peng as well as three other former Politburo members showed up during 80th celebration of PLA's founding. In light of recent wholesale sacking of high officials in Shanghai, the powerbase of Shanghai Mafia headed by Jiang Zemin, this could be a show of force by old guards to check the growing clout of Hu Jintao.

It is an interesting development.

In light of recent wholesale sacking of high officials in Shanghai, the powerbase of Shanghai Mafia headed by Jiang Zemin, this could be a show of force by old guards to check the growing clout of Hu Jintao.
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Or Hu ordered the old folks to show up as a show of support for his changes in Shanghai.

Or the old guys figured the local fat cats in Shanghai had it coming so they wanted to show the national flag by standing behind Hu.

I don’t know how much land expropriation by party officials was done by Shanghai officialdom to line their pockets but elsewhere in the China it made world headlines.

People really loathe governments when they do this.

The US supreme court a couple years ago — before it turned to a conservative majority —made a rule change which made it easier for municipalities to seize land for business purposes.

It has caused all kinds of upset around the USA.

Likely that law will be overturned in the not too distant future.

I don’t think that the old guards have thrown the towel yet.
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I don’t disagree.

It may be a cultural thing.

In the USA when the old presidents gather around a sitting president—they tend to reflect well on the sitting president.

It may well be the opposite in China. Former Politburo members in the presence of a sitting premier may well make him look bad.

In China, the aged are esteemed and given deference. Confucian tradition makes it hard to completely go ones way. Those with more experience with life should be heeded and honored. The Chinese do not put the elderly away out of mind and out of sight. It is not the Eastern Way of doing things.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

Gaming is increasingly popular among China's youth

China enjoys anti-corruption game

Chinese gamers at an internet cafe in Shanghai (file photo)

Gaming is increasingly popular among China's youth An online game in China that allows players to eradicate corrupt officials has proved so popular its website has crashed, state media reports.

Since its launch eight days ago, the game, "Incorruptible Fighter", is reported to have been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

The game was devised by a regional government in east China to highlight the problems of corrupt officialdom.

China has been hit recently by a number of high-profile cases of corruption.

The former head of the country's food and drug watchdog was executed last month after being convicted of taking bribes.

Last week, the Communist Party's former leader in Shanghai was expelled from the party, and may now face charges, after he was linked to a pensions fund scandal that has also implicated other senior officials.

President Hu Jintao has vowed to take action against officials found guilty of corruption, which has become rampant since market reforms opened the economy in the 1980s.

'Sense of achievement'

"Incorruptible Fighter" allows players to get ahead by killing and torturing corrupt officials, while assisting the upstanding ones.

Along the way, they are led through a series of moral challenges before entering a corruption-free paradise.

The characters in the game are based on well-known figures from Chinese history.

"We want game players to have fun but also learn about fighting corruption, folklore and history," Qiu Yi, an official in charge of the project, told the China Daily newspaper.

The paper also quoted one gamer called Sun as saying: "I feel a great sense of achievement when I punish lots of evil officials."

The game appeared to have become a victim of its own success. A note on the site on Thursday said it had crashed due to overwhelming demand.

"The game is currently under hardware and software updating as the online players have exceeded the limit of the server and the programme," the notice read.

But some are questioning the game's target audience. "Government officials should be the ones getting anti-corruption education, not local youngsters," Wang Xiongjun of Peking University told the China Daily.

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