Posted on 04/23/2012 3:04:49 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Wen JiaBao’s PLA unit and Zhou YongKang’s security force were in a standoff, over the custody of Xu Ming, an associate of Bo XiLai. Eventually Zhou’s force was driven out. Zhou is an ally of Bo XiLai. Wen was investigating Bo.
Zhou gained custody of Xu Ming first on Mar. 14. On Mar. 19, Wen found out and ordered that Xu Ming be turned over to him. But Zhou resisted. He had Xu moved to another location, but on the way they lost custody of Xu to Wen’s people. Zhou then deployed a security force to regain custody of Xu. Zhou’s force surrounded ZhongNanHai, where Xu had apparently been taken. They got into a standoff with the PLA unit 8341*, which was in charge of ZhongNanHai. They were all armed and the two groups were in a yelling match late into the night. Eventually the PLA unit drove out Zhou’s forces.
Afterwards, Zhou was investigated for the incident and wrote self-criticisms**.
Xu Ming is currently being detained and investigated in regard to Bo XiLai’s case.
* Unit 8341 is basically a palace guard unit with 8000 troops.
** He wasn't purged, presumably because such a move could have ignited a wider conflict between his supporters and Wen's partisans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.chosun.com ...
well, that explains it.
To some of us ignoramus’s a little context might be in order.
Same thing with that Chinese intrigue. It takes a little while to get past the Zing Xing Zang Bo stuff.
Here’s a scorecard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Jiabao
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Yongkang
I presume your Internet is down or you haven’t chosen a search engine yet.
It’s not that complicated - it’s the equivalent of thousands of armed Federal personnel divided along partisan lines squaring off against each other. All this with the military potentially dividing along factional lines and getting together the logistical requirements for martial law within areas under their control and a prolonged military campaign against rival factions. How close China came to civil war, we can only wonder...
Yep! Sounds like a runaway game of grabass.
So, essentially those coup rumors on Chinese blogs that the Party went to so much trouble to suppress were true, even though it seems that the Bo supporters stood down before any actual shooting erupted.
If Bo's supporters can pull a stunt like this in Beijing, just imagine what they might be capable of in Chongqing.
Wow. "Chinese intrigue?" You mean, like, uh, their names?
It's not a damn bit of difference between knowing who Jo Bi Den, O Ba Ma and Xian Bay Nor are.
Why demand that someone else set the table for you? Go get your own plate and serve yourself at the info buffet.
Before either of you guys correct me in post #8, I figured that the ordering of last name first might be too much muddling the point for our Okie friend, so will you pardon my oversimplification?! =)
so the War Lord period cycle is occurring again!
Zhou Yongkang was China's Interior Minister. You may have heard of the expression Interior Ministry troops. Basically, Zhou had an army of paramilitary police (1m People's Armed Police) at his disposal. However, to mobilize the key military leaders for a coup would have taken a lot more time just for horse-trading. Zhou's timid response indicates that he wasn't willing to go all the way, which was probably another reason why he was kept on in the Politburo Standing Committee (which comprise 9 of China's most powerful pols, including Xi Jinping, Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao). Still, if gunfire had broken out, I suspect Zhou would have had no choice but to win or die trying.
“On the day that former Chongqing boss Bo Xilai was removed from all his Chinese Communist Party posts and his wife announced to be a murder suspect, a mob of at least 10,000 people took over the streets of one of the municipality's distant districts.
The crowds hurled rocks at security officers and smashed or set fire to more than a dozen police cars before reinforcements arrived to lock things down.
The chaos was not sparked by Bo's dismissal. Instead, public anger had exploded about reductions in medical insurance and social security after the merger of two of Chongqing’s districts.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/23/2763762/in-bo-xilai-scandal-chinas-national.html
So... Xu’s on first?
Started reading this and all I could think was, “Xu’s on first?”
This will be going in someone’s personnel jacket.
It’s amazing how this news has not travelled much in southern China. My wife just came home from Xiamen, and her family knew nothing about any of this. No surprise though.
That makes this little altercation in Beijing even more serious, as the standoff was between the most senior Party leadership. It would be akin to having forces loyal to Harry Reid and Joe Biden having an armed confrontation in Georgetown.
This is similar to the MVD and the Russian Army standoff of 1991.
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