Special to WorldTribune.com

By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com

The announcement on July 20 of the arrest of top cadre Ling Jihua could mark at least a temporary moratorium in President Xi Jinping’s three-year-old campaign on corruption among senior officials.

It also demonstrates that despite Xi’s repeated rhetorical commitment to “rule of law with Chinese characteristics,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and commander-in-chief is using the anti-graft crusade to firm up his already over-arching powers.

While Ling has never been a Politburo member, he qualifies as a “big tiger” due to the 58-year-old’s close ties with ex-president Hu Jintao. For almost a decade until 2012, Ling served as Director of the Hu Jintao Office as well as Director of the CCP Central Committee’s General Office, deemed the nerve center of the entire party apparatus.

Ling is also a prominent member of Hu’s Communist Youth League Faction (CYLF), several of whose affiliates are members of the Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee.

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