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On this episode of China Uncensored,
Winter is Coming...
in a few months.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored, I’m your host Chris Chappell.
Summer is coming to a close,
which means China’s Communist Party leaders are just getting back
from their annual vacation getaway at the beach resort town of Beidaihe
It's a tradition that dates back to the 1950s.
Lookin' good, Zhou Enlai.
But Beidaihe is more than just a beach
where Party leaders can kick back and check out
how high Xi Jinping's swim trunks are.
It's the classic smoke-filled beach,
the beach where it happens,
full of closed-door wheeling and dealing about the future of the Party.
You might even call it a…
Game of Thrones.
Like the Lannisters and the Starks,
Communist Party Chairman and self- appointed president Xi Jinping
is locked in battle with another faction inside the Party
to see who can get and keep his own people in the highest positions of power.
The leadership of the Party theoretically changes every 5 years.
And decisions are already being made now
about who will be left standing after the shake-up coming in the fall of 2017.
According to precedent,
five of the seven youthful, raven-haired bureaucrats
that make up China’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee
will step down from office.
And one of the new guys will be Xi Jinping’s successor.
That’s right, according to precedent again,
Xi should only serve two terms.
In other words, he’s supposed to step down in 2022.
Except that some analysts are now saying
that Xi may try to hang onto his job for just a tiny bit longer than that,
and avoid naming a successor.
Not that he wants to be ruler for life or anything crazy like that.
According to Chinese politics expert Willy Wo-Lap Lam
awesome name, by the way
Xi might just “retain control of the army and police”
once he’s stepped down as president in 2022.
You know, it’s important to have hobbies after retirement.
Actually, Xi Jinping is probably worried
because he’s already made a lot of enemies
with his intense so-called anti-corruption campaign.
He’s used it to take away power from once-mighty factions
like the Communist Youth League
and the “Shanghai Gang” of former Party leader Jiang Zemin.
Not to mention the complete annihilation
of the Qingdao Crew,
the Jade Garden Boys,
and the Golden Dragon Buffet Clan.
Anyway, the point is,
Jiang Zemin has now become Xi Jinping’s arch rival.
Most of the big names that Xi has taken down
with his anti-corruption campaign were closely tied to Jiang
who continued to have a huge amount of control over the Party
even after he supposedly stepped down in 2002.
So, even though Xi has been in charge of the Party for four years,
he still hasn't managed to sit on the Iron Throne.
First, he's got to get rid of the threat from the House of Jiang.
That came to a head this past week with Jiang’s 90th birthday,
which was notable mainly because state-run media completely ignored it.
Which shows that Xi is indeed gaining the upper hand.
But it was celebrated by hordes of zombie-like followers
in the wastes of the Chinese internet,
who mashed keys to declare their support for and allegiance to “the toad.”
No, that’s not me slandering him.
That’s Jiang’s actual… uhh…
“affectionate” nickname.
Because…
yeah.
And according to the BBC,
“his ‘worshippers’ have flocked to send him birthday wishes
and ‘one more second’,
a moment of their lives to extend his.”
Let me take a moment to just acknowledge how weird and creepy that is.
This show of support is a bit baffling
when you consider that Jiang Zemin’s reign from 1989 through the early 2000s
began with the Tiananmen massacre and only got more bloody from there
Crackdowns on religious groups, organ harvesting, and of course,
massive corruption and cronyism.
But hey, he’s just so darn quirky, so all is forgiven.
But whether it’s genuine toad fandom
or just something cooked up by Jiang’s faction
to try and build him an underground following,
either way there’s a growing display
of subtle opposition to Xi Jinping’s administration.
Even though many of the activities of “toad”-worshipers are censored,
it’s not clear the Great Firewall of China
can keep them out of the Seven Kingdoms forever.
So what can Xi Jinping do?
Well, he’s counting on allies like *** Qishan,
who’s been running his anti-corruption campaign as its Grand Inquisitor.
*** Qishan is generally known
as the one of the most intimidating and Machiavellian figures in the Party.
One official even said he’d rather “see the devil”
than be investigated by ***.
And he’s been as loyal to Xi as a Hand of the King,
even though he was previously seen as part of Jiang’s faction.
But perhaps at some point Jiang did something
to get on *** Qishan’s bad side.
Which was a stupid move, because…
A Qishannister always pays his debts.
Sorry.
But while Xi vs Jiang might be the Starks vs the Lannisters,
is there another House out there,
coming from across the sea,
who also has a claim to the Throne?
Maybe with some cute baby dragons?
I guess we'll have to wait for season seven.
So what do you think of China’s Game of Thrones?
Leave your comments below.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.