Even though Xi Jinping grew up in Beijing as a privileged child of a vice premier, he was looked down on by the children of other leaders because his father lost power under Mao and was sidelined by Deng.
After the 1989 pro-democracy movement ended in bloodshed in Tiananmen Square, Chinese leaders were concerned about the longevity of their rule. Chen Yun, one of the CCP patriarchs, advised Deng Xiaoping to pass the regime to their children. He said, “It seems that our offspring are the most reliable as they won’t dig their ancestral graves. … We fought hard and won the kingdom, so our descendants should inherit this kingdom.”
Chen’s suggestion was tacitly approved by Deng, and the two set up a rule: Each family of the top leaders could arrange for one descendent to enter politics while the others could “go into business” to make money. This rule laid the foundation for many red princelings to profit from state businesses and forced Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao to pass the baton to a princeling. From the CCP elders and their children’s perspective, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao were just their butlers since they didn’t fight in the revolution with Mao and lacked legitimacy. So these two leaders did the housekeeping, so to speak before the true heirs—the red princelings—would mature politically and claim the throne.
The CCP’s Organization Department turned Chen’s idea into an unwritten rule. It allowed the children of the CCP’s top brass to participate on an “equal footing” on the “political circuit” that culminates in a position in Zhongnanhai, but they must go through grass-root “tempering” to build up their credentials and climb the ladder.
Because of the uncertainties, which were beyond their control, many princelings chose to work in the central government rather than go to remote local areas to be “tempered.” However, three princelings were exceptional. The first two were Xi Jinping and Bo Xilai, whose rivalry made international headlines and was discussed in Part 1 of this series. The third is Liu Yuan, son of Liu Shaoqi, the former Chairman of China and once named Mao’s successor. These three men chose to be “tempered” by gaining experience at the local level a few years after college. They thus began their rivalry and competition for the throne at Zhongnanhai in their 20s.
Bo Xilai graduated from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a Master’s degree and spent two years in the Research Office of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the General Office of the Central Committee before assuming the position of deputy party secretary in Jin County of Liaoning Province.
Xi Jinping graduated from Tsinghua University and was a secretary working for Geng Biao, the Defense Minister at the time. In 1982, with the help of his father, Xi chose to work in Zhengding County, Hebei Province, which is very close to Beijing. Xi had hoped to become the party secretary of the county. However, the Hebei Provincial Party leader, Gao Yang, resented princelings with no experience being parachuted in. Consequently, like Bo Xilai, Xi Jinping started his political career as the deputy party secretary of a country.
Liu Yuan, however, started his career at a much lower level. Unlike Xi and Bo, Liu’s father had been tortured to death by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. After graduating from Beijing Normal College, he worked as a deputy director in a camp commune in a county in Henan Province. Of the three rivals, Liu rose through the ranks the fastest. In just six years, he was promoted to vice governor of Henan Province in 1988 and was the youngest vice governor in China. It took Xi Jinping another 11 years to become the vice governor of Fujian. At the time, Liu appeared to be the most promising princeling who would one day become China’s top leader.
However, four years later, Liu switched his career track. In 1992, he joined the military and became the second political commissar of the Armed Police Force’s Hydropower Command Department with the rank of major general. In 2010, Hu Jintao promoted him to be the commissar of the PLA’s general logistics department with the rank of general. Liu’s sudden switch to a military career surprised many people as it meant the end of his political career. As a military officer, he would never have a chance to become the Party leader.
Many speculated why the political career of this rising princeling ended so soon. People came up with two reasons. One was his father, Liu Shaoqi, who was tortured to death by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. The other was that Liu was one of the few princelings who opposed the use of military force against the students in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
The Party elders feared that Liu would become another Zhao Ziyang. Former CCP leader Zhao Ziyang was sacked for his support and sympathy for the student movement. Zhao’s father was also killed by the CCP during the early revolution. The Party elders feared that Liu Yuan would follow in Zhao Ziyang’s footsteps and advocate political reforms. They believed that the two men might hold grudges against the Party for having killed their fathers and, therefore, wanted to change the Party politically.
After Liu Yuan lost his chance to become the top CCP leader, he maneuvered between Bo Xilai and Xi Jinping, the two rivals competing for the top job. In 2012, after Bo’s police chief Wang Lijun defected to the American Consulate, Bo’s plan to take down Xi Jinping in a coup became public. It was also revealed that Liu Yuan had supported Bo Xilai’s coup plan. But Liu then quickly cut ties with Bo and turned to support Xi Jinping.
Even though Liu subsequently played an instrumental role in taking down Bo Xilai and his allies, Xi Jinping couldn’t completely trust him, and Liu retired sooner than expected.
Shortly after Xi became Party leader in the fall of 2012, he appeared with Hu Jintao at a meeting with top PLA officers. Hu praised Xi as a qualified successor. According to CCTV footage, almost everyone in attendance was taking notes with their heads down except General Liu Yuan. The defiant Liu looked up at the ceiling without taking any notes.
After Hu Jintao was escorted out of the 20th Congress last fall, and after the suspicious death of Li Keqiang, things between Xi and the princelings have gotten uglier recently.
Liu Yuan took the opportunity of his father’s memorial to gather the princelings for a show of force. Nov. 24 marked the 125th birthday of Liu’s father, the late Chairman Liu Shaoqi. A memorial concert was held at the Beijing Concert Hall on the evening of Nov. 6. The number of key princelings in attendance was unprecedented, including Mao Zedong’s grandson, Zhou Enlai’s niece Zhou Bingde, two of Zhu De’s grandsons, son of founding marshal Chen Yi, and the son of Mao’s chosen successor Hua Guofeng.
A few days before the concert, Liu Yuan published an article, in which he opposed individual arbitrariness, dictatorship, and any form of individual worship. His words directly challenged the legitimacy of Xi Jinping’s rule.
The November 1st article timely preceded the most important gathering of the princelings in years. The princelings with the highest status, the descendants of CCP’s three founding fathers, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De, all showed up to support Liu’s event commemorating his father. Interestingly, the princelings were given precedence according to their father’s prestige in the Party, reminding the public of their authentic and legitimate lineage to the Red Throne.
If Xi Jinping were there, he wouldn’t have had a very high precedence. Not surprisingly, he didn’t attend it. Nor did he send a greeting message. Five years ago, he attended the same commemoration event and delivered a speech. His absence made the rift between Xi and Liu very obvious. Liu Yuan and other anti-Xi forces took advantage of his father’s memorial event to rally the top leadership and call for a change.
CCP patriarchs have long worried about whether their offspring can hold power indefinitely. Chen Yun, the man who advised Deng Xiaoping to let their children rule China, once gave this advice about the communist regime’s political longevity: “If we want the communist regime to be passed on from generation to generation, we must not let the lower classes live in affluence. We must toss them around with various political campaigns and deprive them of their rights with various policies.
Then, we give some rights back, like squeezing toothpaste, so that the lower classes will be grateful to us. When running around and competing for basic survival, they won’t have time to care about ideals, democracy, or freedom. Then, people will turn to us and ask us to maintain social order like we are the savior with a moral high ground. Only in this way can we pass the kingdom to our next generation worry-free.”
There is no question that Xi Jinping has faithfully followed this template designed by the Party elders. He would tell the princelings who opposed him that he had been following their fathers’ orders. General Liu Yuan’s status and influence among the princelings, his father’s tragic death under Mao, and his talent and past experiences make him a formidable opponent of Xi.
But whether or not Liu will successfully bring real changes to China depends on whether he has the wisdom and courage to end the communist rule and dissolve the communist Party. If not, he won’t have the genuine support from the masses. And he would just become the next Xi Jinping.
