Military-Communist party link in jeopardy
Beijing (AsiaNews) - The Communist Party Central Committee Plenum has announced the appointment of two generals as vice-chairmen of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC). Their promotion is a sign of growing concerns among the top military of possible reforms.
After a four-day closed-door meeting, the CMC announced that Fan Changlong, commander of Jinan Military Command, which oversees large parts of eastern China, and the former air force commander Xu Qiliang will join the party's top decision-making military body.
The two are also likely to be appointed members of the Politburo at the party congress that opens this Thursday, which will mark the end of the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao era.
Xu Qiliang is considered a protégé of former president Jiang Zemin, who after ten years after retirement still exercises great influence over the party and the economy. Fan is a close ally to the defence minister, General Liang Guanglie, who should retire in the near future.
At first glance, the changes and promotions appear to be bargaining chips Hu is using to keep his post as CMC chairman. Like Jiang Zemin before, the outgoing president and party secretary will remain CMC chairman for two more years following the end of their tenure. Some of his detractors suggest that he is keeping the post to protect himself against possible vendettas at the end of his party and presidential role.
In fact, recent promotions show that the military is divided like the party between pro-reformers and conservatives. The former want political reforms, at least within the party and greater economic liberalisation to reduce corruption in party ranks. The latter want to slow down reforms and maintain the country on the current path, irrespective of economic, environmental and social problems, with military force and greater party monopoly as the only means to control them.
Within the military, the reformers are still loyal to the party, whilst conservatives want to maintain their privileges. Since 1989 and the Tiananmen massacre, the party needs the military, which has become a major player in the economy. Although a den of corruption, it still upholds Mao's Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.
At his latest meeting, the CMC also dealt with Bo Xilai, the disgraced party chief in Chongqing, who was involved in sex scandals and murder, by expelling him. Bo was one of the party princelings, the son of an important party leader, who sang the praise of Mao Zedong whilst making million dollar deals. His friends, Generals Liu Yuan and Zhang Haiyang, did not get any promotion.
There are fears of divisions within the military. In the past few months, the People's Liberation Army launched a campaign to boost loyalty towards the party. Yesterday, an article in the People's Daily gave prominence to a slogan: "I command the rifle and the party commands me."
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