Analysis: Senior Chinese Officials Removed From Office

TaiwanPlus News

At least nine senior Chinese officials were removed from office at a high-level political meeting that wrapped up on Saturday. TaiwanPlus speaks with Yu-Hua Chen, assistant professor of China studies at Akita International University, to learn more about what's happening within the Chinese Communist Party.

Transcript

00:00A number of senior Chinese officials were removed from their positions during a meeting of China's

00:04top political advisory body. Can you tell us who these officials are and why they've been removed?

00:10So it seems it is the reason why they are removed is because they are so-called naked official,

00:17which has been Xi Jinping's anti-corruption target for about 10 years. Naked official means

00:22China's party officials and state officials and whose spouse or children they will leave overseas and

00:30having foreign citizenship or visa. The thing is Xi has been always worried about the loyalty of

00:38the party officials and state officials. So these group of people, naked officials, they might have

00:45some loyalty issue because they have family members and many family members overseas and they have some

00:50foreign assets as well. So Xi really worries that these group officials might leave some state secret.

00:57What is the significance of this in the broader context of the state of the Chinese Communist Party

01:01right now? I think the real reason is Xi really want to target his potential political enemies or

01:09their protégés. So every Chinese leaders in the past five generations from Mao, Deng, Jiang, Hu, Xi,

01:17they all use anti-corruption for political reasons. Not really because those officials who are removed,

01:24they are corrupted, but because they are potential enemies of the who got in power.

01:28So we have to see this news in a much more broader context of Xi's anti-corruption campaign against his

01:36political rivals. The political system of China under Xi Jinping's leadership is becoming more and more

01:42similar to that of Mao Zedong era, right? Xi become the only person who matters in this system. And

01:49almost every party official, state officials, even military officials, they need to listen to Xi Jinping's

01:55wishes. And Xi is trying to use this anti-corruption campaign to show everyone at his disposal.

02:02So I guess what effects is this centralization of power having inside China?

02:08Important phenomena that we have seen so far. For one, Chinese policymaking may not be so efficient

02:14and effective compared to about 10 years ago. Because since everyone needs to listen to Xi,

02:22so if I were party members, I would just let Xi decide everything. But the problem is Xi, just one

02:30single person, he only has 24 hours. So it's impossible for him to decide everything. So the problem is,

02:37the problem about Xi Jinping's political system is, everything become much more slower and become

02:42much more efficient because of the limit of Xi Jinping's time and also his capability.

02:47And what effects could it have in the future?

02:49The problem is, Xi, at some point in the future, he needs to go retire, or he might have some health

02:58issues, right? So that is something that everyone is worried about once Xi is gone for unknown reasons.

03:05So the politics of China, even the political order in the Indo-Pacific region might really

03:11set into chaos, right? Because there is no potential success of Xi.

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