Signs of trouble for Hu Jintao from the behavior of Bo Xilai’s key allies

Special to WorldTribune.com

Few key military leaders believed to have been friends or allies of disgraced Party strongman Bo Xilai have expressed enthusiastic support for his ouster. This indicates that Hu Jintao, China’s current supreme leader, may have encountered oblique resistance to the purge.

bobud — Bo Xilai, left, then party secretary of the western city Chongqing, with Chinese Gen. Xu Caihou in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 3, 2010. /AP/Ng Han Gua

Typically, after civilian leaders have been purged, it is not necessary for the Party to require key military leaders to publicly support the action.

But the purge of Bo was different. He was a member of the powerful princelings clique already holding some key positions within the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest armed force and the ultimate guarantor of the Communist regime.

Since Bo’s ouster in mid-March, rumors of a secret military coup have saturated Chinese online forums and websites.

The communist leadership led by Hu staged a nationwide crackdown on the websites, but rumors of a possible military revolt continue to grow.

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crackdown on websites, military coup rumors, People’s Liberation Army, princelings, Signs of trouble for Hu Jintao from the behavior of Bo Xilai’s key allies

Signs of trouble for Hu Jintao from the behavior of Bo Xilai’s key allies added by World Tribune on April 22, 2012
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