The Chinese Communist party prizes conformity, and many of its aesthetic trademarks – the uniform black suits, the turgid speeches – call to mind a massively powerful machine, its anonymous parts in perfect lockstep. Within this system, the fallen security tsar Zhou Yongkang – China’s third most powerful man until he retired in 2012 – was a rare anomaly. The further he receded from view, the more attention he commanded.
On Tuesday, the Communist party put an end to months of speculation when it announced an inquiry into Zhou, 71, “for grave violations of discipline”, shorthand for corruption. He is the highest-level figure in the party’s history to be investigated for graft. But for years prior, profiles of Zhou painted him as China’s Dick Cheney, his immense power matching only his moral decay. He certainly looks the part: while China’s president, Xi Jinping, carries a perennial expression of enlightened bemusement, Zhou’s steely visage suggests barely concealed malice; his occasional smiles look painful and forced.
During Zhou’s last five years in power, he was the head of the Communist party’s political and legislative affairs committee, in charge of its state security, courts, police and paramilitary. He was known for his frequent use of the term “hostile forces” – an intentionally vague category encompassing a multitude of disparate camps, from pro-democracy campaigners to activists in Tibet. He worked tirelessly to contain them, maintaining a vast “stability maintenance” apparatus involving draconian internet censorship campaigns and extralegal penal systems. Zhou’s only superiors were the president and the prime minister, and during his tenure China’s domestic security budget exceeded that of its military.
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Jonathan Kaiman, The Guardian via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1rMUKvU
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