Mao suit continued choice of China's top leaders for National Day ceremony. Hu Jintao (L), former President Jiang Zemin (R)
Posted on 11/05/2012 1:51:02 AM PST by bruinbirdman
Forces of reaction and economic folly threaten to prevail in China. The long political arm of Jiang Zemin has reached out from the shadows to thwart reform, with huge implications for Asia and the world.
Mao suit continued choice of China's top leaders for National Day ceremony. Hu Jintao (L), former President Jiang Zemin (R)
If reports from the Hong Kong press and China's blogosphere are correct, a remarkable upset has occurred on the eve of the ten-year power shift next week -- the greatest turn-over of top cadres since Mao's revolution.
The South China Morning Post says the new line-up of the Politburo's Standing Committee is "packed with conservatives". The succession deal agreed over the summer has been scuppered.
The 86-year Mr Jiang -- who rose to supreme leader on the bones of Muxidi and Tiananmen in 1989 -- has placed his accolytes in charge of the economy, propaganda, as well as the Shanghai party machine tying the hands of incoming president Xi Xinping and premier Li Keqiang. If confirmed, long-term investors may have to rethink their core assumption about the future course of China.
This power struggle going into the 18th Party Congress matters more in the sweep of history than the run-off two days earlier between a centrist Barack Obama or the centrist Mitt Romney, though the stage drama is less compelling.
Mr Jiang's rear-guard coup should give pause to thought. It was he who instituted the Patriotic Education movement in schools in the 1990s, whipping up nationalist fervour to replace the lost mystique of Maoism. The effect was to nurture revanchist hatred against Japan, creating a monster that now requires feeding.
His eerie return comes at a time when China and Japan are "one error away" from outright war over the
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I wonder what this might mean for the dollar. They’ve been accepting our paper for their products. How long will they keep propping the US economy up?
Are they circling Shanghai because that’s where the money is (some 25%+ of exports pass through there) or because they fear the HK-like liberty that pervades the place?
“the 18th Party Congress matters more in the sweep of history than the run-off two days earlier between a centrist Barack Obama or the centrist Mitt Romney”
Obama is a Centrist? I stopped reading after that.
From socialist trending toward Islam UK, Obama is centrist.
Pitiful little attention whore Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is like a tiny flag in a hurricane , he blows...one way then another. Typical Brit Wet Conservative...not worth warm spit.
Time is short for the western corporate tools to escape China...hop to it GE.
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