KATSUJI NAKAZAWA, Nikkei senior staff writerOctober 14, 2021 04:02 JST
Ex-minister
Fu Zhenghua was the engine behind president's anti-corruption drive Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and
editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent
and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda
International Journalist prize. TOKYO
-- China's weeklong holiday period that began Oct. 1 with National Day gave
ordinary Chinese time to travel and relax. But this time of year also tends to
be one of political earthquakes. This
year was no different. On Oct. 2, a major heavyweight with direct knowledge of
President Xi Jinping's long power struggle abruptly fell from grace. The
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Chinese Communist Party's top
anti-graft body, announced that former Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua has been
placed under investigation on suspicion of "serious disciplinary
violations." Fu,
66, is an incumbent member of the party's elite Central Committee. The
crackdown on an influential figure who has overseen the judiciary and police
has sent immeasurable shock waves through China's political world. Fu
was behind the investigations that put countless people behind bars. Now that
Fu himself has been placed under investigation, doubts could also arise about
the legitimacy of his past investigations. It is a momentous development. Fu
Zhenghua's success in putting his former boss Zhou Yongkang behind bars
contributed greatly to Xi Jinping's political might. © AP "My
impression was that he was a technocrat who started with case investigations
and rose through the ranks," said one party source. "But this is a
case of a man who knew too much. He was forced to leave, in quite a ruthless
manner. Now, anything could happen." One
example of Fu's work was the investigation into Zhou Yongkang, a former member
of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee. Until
2012, as the party's ninth-ranking official, Zhou had dominated all of China's
judicial and police organizations. But
by Oct. 1, 2013, Zhou must have known that the noose was closing. He had
built a vast information network through his former subordinates at police
organizations and had various channels that fed him sensitive intelligence. That
day, Zhou was attending a symposium at the China University of Petroleum, his
alma mater, located in a Beijing suburb. He might have thought this would be
his last opportunity to speak publicly. In
December 2013, two months after the university appearance, the Politburo
Standing Committee received a report on clues about his disciplinary violations
and decided to place him under full investigation as part of Xi's signature
anti-corruption campaign. It
was the first crackdown on a former Politburo Standing Committee member,
breaking an unwritten party rule. Fu,
who was said to be an exceptionally sharp investigator, became a central member
of a team established in the summer of 2013 to pursue the case. Zhou
Yongkang at the 2012 Communist Party Congress and in 2015 during
a court appearance. Fu
is a unique figure. When he was serving as Beijing's public security bureau
chief, essentially the police chief of the Chinese capital, he was tapped as
vice minister at the Ministry of Public Security, which oversees police
organizations across the country. He
drove his former boss into a corner, and now Zhou is serving a life term after
being convicted of corruption. The anti-corruption campaign is the source of
Xi's power, and Fu's successful crackdown on Zhou contributed to bolstering the
leader's rule. Fu's
moves were linked to those by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection,
which was then headed by Wang Qishan, a longtime Xi ally who currently serves
as China's vice president. Fu,
who knows the subtleties of the fierce power struggle and related secrets, was
recognized for his contributions and subsequently rose through the ranks. In
a military parade in Beijing in September 2015, Fu served as a top official in
charge of security. Fu
was also behind the crackdown against hundreds of human rights lawyers and
activists in July 2015, which has come to be known as the "709"
incident -- named for the July 9 date it started. In the eyes of those
arrested, Fu is a merciless, unsparing official. Despite
his proven track record as an elite police bureaucrat and pledge of loyalty to
Xi, Fu fell from grace. Why? Aside
from specific charges he is facing, which will become clear at a later date,
what is noteworthy is his political background as an "outsider." He
is not purely a member of the Xi faction. In the eyes of the Xi side, Fu was a
competent official but a figure that cannot be completely trusted. Fu
became nationally famous after leading a crackdown on Tianshang Renjian, or
Heaven on Earth, a well-known luxury nightclub in Beijing. The venue was used
to lavishly entertain senior bureaucrats and was linked to corruption among
those in political power. Fu
launched an investigation into the nightclub as soon as he became Beijing's
public security bureau chief in 2010. His predecessors had hesitated to do so. Fu's
crackdown on Tianshang Renjian came when Hu Jintao was China's president and Wen
Jiabao premier. Ling
Jihua tried to cover up his son's scandalous accident, an attempt that because
of information provided by Fu backfired against former President Hu Jintao.
© Reuters Fu
was also deeply involved in dealing with a scandal involving Ling Jihua, who
served as head of the party's general office in the era of former President Hu.
Ling is now serving a life sentence. In
the early hours of March 18, 2012, Ling's son was killed instantly when a
Ferrari he was driving at high speed crashed in Beijing. Two women who were in
the Ferrari were reportedly either fully or half-naked. Ling,
eager to join the Politburo Standing Committee at the party's quinquennial
national congress later that year, tried to pull strings to cover up his son's
scandalous accident. As
Beijing's public security bureau chief, Fu had information about an
investigation into the accident. The information eventually affected even the
political situation in the run-up to the national congress, where Xi was
inaugurated. Former
Chinese President Jiang Zemin used the information about Ling's son to condemn
the Hu faction, to which Ling belonged, and succeeded in leading the reshuffle
of the Politburo Standing Committee in the autumn of 2012, filling the top
leadership posts with his cronies. Former
presidents Hu Jintao, left, and Jiang Zemin attend the party's National
Congress in 2012. Jiang was able to fill the Politburo Standing Committee with
his cronies, thanks to the Ling Jihua scandal that weakened the Hu faction.
© Reuters Nobody
knows more of the secrets behind the big incidents that have rocked Chinese
politics in recent years than Fu. And this makes him dangerous to Xi. Xi
harbors a long and deep distrust of police organizations. Including Fu, three
vice public security ministers have now been detained since Xi's second term as
president, which began in 2018. The
other two are Meng Hongwei, who was placed under investigation in 2018, and Sun
Lijun, who came under scrutiny in 2020. Meng had become the first Chinese president
of the International Criminal Police Organization, or ICPO. The
public security bureau chiefs of Chongqing and Shanghai have also been
subjected to crackdowns. It is safe to say that the top police echelons that
have been in charge of public security have completely crumbled. The
people who have survived are the friends and acquaintances that Xi has known
for many decades and can trust. First and foremost of these figures is Wang
Xiaohong, currently the most senior vice minister for public security. When
he was still young, Xi spent many years in Fujian Province and got to know Wang
there. Xi went on to give Wang key posts in Beijing. They have known each other
for more than 30 years. A
source in Fujian described Wang as "one of the few old friends President
Xi can really trust." Wang is said to be a strong candidate to become the
next public security minister. Wang
made news at the end of August 2020, when he issued an order concerning
political discipline through an official publication related to police. Wang
Xiaohong, currently the most senior vice minister for public security, is
foremost among those Xi has known for decades and feels he can trust.
© Reuters Wang
specifically warned that "those who officially pretend to obey but
secretly resist and those who are straddling the fence without showing the flag
will be thoroughly removed." Wang
used the term liangmianren, or two-faced people, to refer to those who
in officialdom pretend to obey but secretly resist. The
term is also incorporated in the party's disciplinary action regulation. It is
a special political term, one Xi has repeatedly used in waging his
anti-corruption campaign. A
year ago, Wang might have already assumed Fu to be a pretender/resister. Meanwhile,
Chen Yixin, a close aide to Xi, currently serves as secretary-general of the
Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which oversees the judicial and
police divisions, including courts and the prosecution. Tang
Yijun, also close to Xi, has been tapped to succeed Fu as justice minister.
Chen and Tang belong to the "Zhejiang faction," which is made up of
those who were Xi's subordinates in Zhejiang Province during the 2000s; they
also form the core of the Xi faction. Unlike
Fu, Chen and Tang are pure members of the Xi faction. Since
becoming China's supreme leader, Xi has spent nine years trying to take full
control of police organizations. The question now is whether the crackdown on
Fu marks the end of these efforts. Many
within the party believe the curtain has not yet fallen. "If Xi seeks
perfect political safety," one source said, "the crackdowns will go
on forever. There is no end in sight."
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