The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers (41 page)

It was only later
…:
State Secrets: China’s Legal Labyrinth
, published by Human Rights Watch in China, 2007, p. 171.

Formidable publication
…: Hu Shuli left
Caijing
in late 2009 after a lengthy battle with her proprietors over attempts to censor the magazine’s content. She started a new venture in early 2010.

At the Bank of Communications
…: See
Caijing
, nos 161 (12 June), and 162 (26 June). Also quoted in Nico Calcina Howson,
China’s Restructured Commercial Banks–the Old Nomenklatura System Serving New Corporate Governance Structures?
, University of Michigan Law School. Sir John Bond declined to comment on the quotes attributed to him.

Chen Jinhua
…: Chen Jinhua,
The Eventful Years. Memoirs of Chen Jinhua
, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2008.

But if China was
…: These figures come from a report by Wang Tao, China economist with UBS,
China Economic Perspectives: How Will China Grow? Part 4: Can Consumption Lead Now?
, 5 May 2009.

In a matter of hours
…: Alcoa contributed $1.2 billion funds in the share market raid.

The political heft behind
…:
Caijing
, 2 February 2009.

The best way to
…: See the account in
Finance Asia
, November 2000.

Zhu Feng, at
…: Some of his comments, and those of other academics on the same topic, were first reported in the
Financial Times
, 17 March 2008.

Speaking to leading
…: http://www.cbrc.gov.cn/chinese/home/jsp/docView.jsp?docID=20071119665FCF8F1C1598D6FFB023DAE44B8200.

Around the same
…: Reuters, ‘China’s Top Banking Regulator Pushes Marxism’, 1 November 2007.

Top executives at the
…:
Caijing
, May 2009.

CHAPTER 3 THE KEEPER OF THE FILES

The appointment with Wang
…: To be fair, when organization department officials met US academics in 2008 in Beijing, they did hand out name cards.

The department’s general
…: In one of the many signs of the way the internet is prising open China, the address of the department’s headquarters in Beijing could be found on Google Map in July 2008. The building is at 80 West Chang’an Avenue. At the
Financial Times
, we did manage to contact the department when requesting an interview in late 2009. In the end, the department declined the interview request.

Our Party’s organizational
…: ‘Zuzhi gongzuo yanjiu wenxuan, 2006 (xia); Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhibu yanjiushi (zhengce fagui ju); Zhenghedang de zuzhi gongzuo ziyuan wenti yanjiu’ [Second Volume of the Selection of Studies on Organizational Work from 2006; Compiled by the Research Department (Bureau of Policy and Regulation) of the CCP Central Organization Department; Study on Integrating the Party’s Organizational Working Resources], p. 397.

Many individuals have begun
…: Li Yingtian,
Neibu Canyue, Renmin Ribao Neicanbu Zhuban, di 43qi, zongdi 836 qi, 2006nian, 11yue, 17ri. ‘Yi dangnei hexie cujin shehui hexie’ de zhuolidian
[The 43
^rd
edition, of 836 editions in total. Internal reference by Internal Reference Department of the
People’s Daily
, 17 November 2006.
The Exertion Point for ‘Promoting Social Harmony Through Inner Party Harmony’
.]

The value of the market
…: See
China News Service
, China.org.cn, 13 October 2007.

He made the Orgburo
…: Jerry F. Hough and Merle Fainsod,
How the Soviet Union is Governed
, Harvard University Press, 1979, p. 125.

There were no professional
…: Laszlo Ladany,
Law and Legality in China
, C. Hurst & Co., 1992.

a well-known author, Liu Baiyu
…: See Gao Hua,
Hua, Hongtaiyang Shi Zenyang Shengqide–Yan’an Zhengfeng Yundong De Lailongqumai
[
How Did the Red Sun Rise over Yan’an?–A History of the Rectification Movement
], Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 2000. As well as Gao’s book, see also http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2006-08-29/180710863110.shtml.

The system allows the Party
…: Hon S. Chan, ‘Cadre Personnel Management in China: The Nomenklatura System, 1990–1998’,
China Quarterly
, September 2004.

The various party bodies
…: John P. Burns, ‘Strengthening Central CCP Control of Leadership Selection: The 1990 Nomenklatura’,
China Quarterly
, June 1994.

Outwardly
…: ‘The Regulations on the Work of Selecting Cadres and Appointing Leading Party and Government Cadres’, issued after the sixteenth party congress in 2002.

Senior leaders in China
…: Just because someone is a crony does not mean, of course, they are incompetent. Li Xiaopeng, for example, Li Peng’s son, impressed many as a competent and committed manager when he was in charge of Huaneng Power. In Beijing, I have often heard that Zhu Rongji disapproves of the way his son has benefited financially from running China International Capital Corporation but there is no public record of this. Jiang Mianheng, Jiang Zemin’s son, is considered to be smart. But as someone who worked alongside him once said to me: ‘There are a lot of smart guys in China.’

Chen replied that foreign investors
…:
Far Eastern Economic Review
, 8 July 1999.

There are six functions
…: This quote is from an article about the issue in the
Wall Street Journal
, 29 September 2006. The account here is otherwise based on personal interviews with individuals involved in the process, including Edward Tian.

Li himself was less
…: The subsequent story in the
Financial Times
on 15 March 2007 canvassed Li’s promotion prospects, although, in retrospect, a little optimistically. Li was promoted into the Politburo, but not the Standing Committee.

Rather than sacrificing
…: See the
Financial Times
, 3 August 2007, and the
New York Times
, 7 November 2007, for accounts of Wu’s case.

Conventional bribery cases
…: This account relies on interviews with some of the lawyers for the defendants in the case and reports in the Chinese media, some of which were based on interviews with the prosecutors. See http://www.hlj.xinhuanet.com/zfzq/2006-03/23/content_6553880.htm; http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-03-24/14156183789.shtml; http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-03-23/15176172792.shtml; http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-07-29/07476557245s.shtml; http://news.sina.com cn/c/2004-06-24/03373503585.shtml; http://news.sohu.com.20050411/n225125586.shtml; and http://news.sohu.com/20050411/n225121587.shtml.

The belief that you cannot
…: In Chinese,
Zhujing Banzhuren
[
Director of the Beijing Representative Office
], Writers’ Publishing House, 2007. Thanks to Graeme Meehan for pointing out this book.

The bribery, corruption, treachery
…: ‘Zuzhi gongzuo yanjiu wenxuan, 2006 (xia); Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhibu yanjiushi (zhengce fagui ju); guanyu quanmian fangfan he zhili yongren shang buzhengzhifeng wenti yanju baogao’ [Second Volume of the Selection of Studies on Organizational Work from 2006; Compiled by the Research Department (Bureau of Policy and Regulation) of the CCP Central Organization Department; Study Report on Comprehensively Guarding against and Correcting the Negative Problems of Personnel Matters], by the Study Group from CCP Jilin Provincial Organization Department, p. 343.

In the ‘hurdles’
…: A wonderfully cynical version of the same complaint was spread on internet blogs in October 2009 and translated by
China Digital Times
that month. It purports to recount a conversation with a retired Anhui government official ridiculing the notion that appointments are made on merit.

The blog said:

Government officials often state in public that their criteria for selecting officials are ‘appointing people on their merit’. Yet in the real world this is not the case. I met a retired government official from Anhui Province during a train trip. He told me the rules commonly adopted in officialdom in China, which quite enlightened me.

He said the top criterion is ‘appointing people on the superior’s instruction.’ It means you should appoint whomever your superior asks you to appoint, otherwise you might get into trouble if your superior’s unhappy.

The second criterion is ‘appointing people from your gang’. Nowadays officialdom is highly competitive and complicated. If you don’t have any buddy around to help you, you’d soon be kicked out, not to mention not able to do your work.

The third one is ‘appointing people on money’. Money is more important than kinfolk. After all, a relative is someone else, yet money is in your own pocket.

The fourth in the rank is ‘the ability to flatter’. Now that you’ve stabilized your official position and seized a lot of money, you can enjoy being flattered by appointing some kiss-asses around you. The ass-kissing is actually an art. And you’ll find yourself addicted to it.

The fifth is ‘appointing on the ability to brag’. The retired official said the GDP growth in his region had all been exaggerated. Every year when it’s time to report the annual GDP, no one wants to be the first to report. Why? If you report your growth as 11%, the one that follows you to report can say 11.5%, which surpasses you on the performance. Your superior would like a fast-growing GDP, yet you can’t exaggerate too unreasonably, otherwise it’d embarrass your superior. Of course you can’t report the GDP as it is as you’d be viewed as dragging your superior’s performance.

The system of selling
…: Tian himself was arrested for corruption in 2003.

Like many business executives
…: See
Caijing
, 30 June 2006. Other information in this section is from personal interviews.

CHAPTER 4 WHY WE FIGHT

On nights before
…: Robert Lawrence Kuhn,
The Man Who Changed China
, Crown Publishers, 2004, p. 193.

Jiang and Hu broke
…: See Alice Miller, ‘With Hu in Charge, Jiang’s at Ease’,
China Leadership Monitor
, No. 13, Hoover Institution Stanford University, Winter 2005.

When China was at peace
…:
Qiushi
[
Seeking Truth
], 1 April 2009.

The signal editorial
…: Quoted in James Mulvenon, ‘They Protest too Much or too Little), Methinks: Soldier Protests, Party Control of the Military, and the “National Army” Debate’,
China Leadership Monitor
, No. 15, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Summer 2005.

The 2009 commentary
…:
CASS Review
, 24 February 2009.

When his first
…: See www.chinainperspective.org/ArtShow.aspx?AID=1503, and also, David Shambaugh,
Modernizing China’s Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

As a result
…: The 90,000 figure is contained in the chapter by You Ji in
Civil–Military Relations in Today’s China: Swimming in a New Sea
, edited by David Finkelstein and Kristin Gunness, M. E. Sharpe, 2006.

It is no coincidence
…: For some of the details here, see M. Taylor Fravel, ‘China’s Search for Military Power’,
Washington Quarterly
, Summer 2008.

Wang Xiaodong
…: For the most recent exposition of Wang’s views, see Song Xiaojun, Wang Xiaodong, Huang Jisu, Song Qiang and Liu Yang,
Zhongguo Bu Gaoxing
[
Unhappy China
], People’s Publishing House of Jiangsu, 2009.

At the time China
….: For details of Yu’s career, see
Yu Qiuli Huiyilu
[
The Memoirs of Yu Qiuli
], PLA Publishing House, 1996.

Large bands of demobilized
…: Among other sources, see http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_68782_45640.html.

By its peak in
…: The figure for the number of businesses comes from James Mulvenon,
Soldiers of Fortune
, East Gate Books, 2001.

The most famous recent
…: On top of public sources for this incident, see also http://www.coobay.com/bbs/disp?id=8784587847846001; http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB278.pdf; and http://tt.mop.com/backyard/read_182426.html.

The indifference
…: See http://www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/xwpdxw/2008-10/19/content_1514486.html.