Disunited front in Beijing: Corruption czar toppled, Xi rises, dissident silenced

The state media in Beijing contrasts “stability” in communist China with the political “chaos” across the Pacific in the U.S. Behind the elaborate staging for President Trump’s visit, a vicious power struggle has broken out into the open, held in check only by the censoring of a wealthy, well-informed dissident who could only be silenced abroad by the U.S. social media giants.

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Geostrategy-Direct

The powerful Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official in charge of a major anti-corruption investigation of the party’s political and military elite, whose own illicit practices were exposed by an exiled Chinese dissident, announced he would step down from his position on the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

‘extremely unpopular with cadres in the party, government and army’: Wang Qishan. left, with China’s President Xi Jinping.

Wang Qishan for the past five years has been President Xi Jinping’s point man on an anti-corruption campaign that targeted and ensnared scores of senior officials and thousands of lower-level Party cadres.

Earlier this year, Wang was exposed as having engaged in illicit financial practices by exiled dissident Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who regards the expected retirement of Wang as a victory for his campaign as a whistleblower of high-level Chinese corruption.

“Wang is extremely unpopular with cadres in the party, government and army,” said Dr. Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a Geostrategy-Direct contributing editor and China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “His retirement could be seen as an indirect concession by Xi to the legions of party officials who are opposed to Wang’s tactics.”

Wang’s downfall comes just after the 19th party congress of the CCP in which Xi was elevated to a level of power not seen since Mao Zedong. It also comes two weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to China for meetings with Xi.

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