Chinese president accuses fallen top officials of ‘political conspiracies’
Comments in address to party leaders point to power struggles behind dramatic downfalls
Chinese President Xi Jinping has accused five disgraced Communist Party heavyweights of involvement in “political conspiracies”, signalling power struggles – and not just corruption – led to their downfalls.
In a keynote speech to party leaders in October, Xi said Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou and Ling Jihua “all engaged in political conspiracy activities”, according a copy of the address published by Xinhua on Sunday.
“[The five were] not only greedy financially and corrupt in their lifestyles, but were also politically ambitious, often agreeing in public but opposing in secret, and forming cliques for personal interests and engaging in conspiracy activities,” Xi told the sixth plenum of the party’s Central Committee.
Zhou had a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee and the other four were either members of the Politburo or the party’s Central Secretariat, the organisation’s nerve centre.
Zhou was the most senior official convicted of economic crimes in the party’s 95-year history.
Guo and Xu, both former Central Military Commission vice-chairmen, were the most senior People’s Liberation Army officers to ever be convicted of corruption.
