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Beijing party boss tainted by smuggling scandal
2002-11-05
BEIJING - When Jia Qinglin, then boss of Beijing's Communist Party, railed against corruption at a city meeting early this year, even reporters from China's state-run media could not resist a snigger.It was common knowledge Jia had been tainted by a massive smuggling scandal when he was in charge of Fujian province in the 1990s. His career, the reporters thought, was at a dead end despite his friendship with party chief Jiang Zemin. But just before the party unveils a dramatic leadership change at its 16th congress starting on Friday, Jia stood down from his Beijing job to take a central government or party post. Chinese sources and analysts now say Jia, 62, could be in line for a place on the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee -- the top decision-making body -- after the congress, when Jiang and other leaders over 70 are expected to stand down. Jia, now a member of the 21-man Politburo, could take over as head of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which advises parliament, two independent Chinese sources told Reuters. His future is still uncertain -- he may take a less important role, possibly on the party Secretariat or as Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress, the rubber stamp legislature, others say. But Jiang has been trying to install Jia and other key allies in the new leadership to preserve his political power and protect family interests after retirement, analysts say. "Jiang would like to promote Jia to the Standing Committee because Jia really owes him a huge favour," said one Chinese source with close ties to senior party officials. "He would do whatever Jiang said." MIXED MESSAGES Jia's promotion might help Jiang's ambition to wield power from "behind the curtain" after retirement, like his predecessor Deng Xiaoping, analysts say. But it would undermine Chinese leaders' professed efforts to stamp out rampant official corruption, which Jiang himself has said threatens to undermine the party's legitimacy, they say. "It seems to send a very bad message to corrupt lower level officials that with good connections you can not only survive but be promoted," said Murray Scot Tanner, a China specialist at Western Michigan University focusing on crime and law. "That would just scream out to me that this is a leadership that is not serious about corruption and believes that it can continue to muddle through in one of the issues that makes average Chinese people really, really angry." Officially, Jia's name has been cleared even though he was party boss and governor in Fujian during the period from 1993 to 1996 when the Yuanhua Group bribed provincial and other officials to turn a blind eye to massive smuggling through Xiamen port. More than 200 senior figures, including Jia's wife, Lin Youfang, were implicated in the largest smuggling case in five decades of Communist rule. Several were executed. But Lin publicly denied any involvement in the scandal and dismissed reports that she and her husband were told to divorce after it was exposed. Jiang then took pains to appear alongside Jia in photographs in state newspapers and on television in a clear sign that he would not be held responsible. CLOSE FRIENDSHIP Jiang's friendship with Jia is believed to go back decades. Both engineers by training, they worked at the same time in the Ministry of Machine-Building Industry, analysts say. Jia is said to have been best man at Jiang's wedding. Jia was whisked to Beijing in 1996 to be acting mayor, the year after the capital's party chief Chen Xitong was arrested for massive corruption and vice mayor Wang Baosen committed suicide. Chen's demise was seen as part of a Jiang campaign to oust powerful rivals in Beijing and replace them with his own allies. In 1997, the year of China's last party congress, Jia became mayor, Beijing party boss and a full member of the Politburo. "Everyone knows Jia's reputation is damaged by the Xiamen smuggling scandal," said one Chinese political scientist who declined to be identified. "But Jiang Zemin has protected him. He could still have a chance to become one of the top leaders." (Reuters)
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