From China Brief:
On the surface, the recent death of Politburo Standing Committee member and First Vice Premier Huang Ju presents President Hu Jintao with an opportunity to further consolidate his power by marginalizing the influence of the rival Shanghai Faction within the Chinese leadership. A former mayor and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary of Shanghai, Huang was rumored to have been involved in business irregularities since the late 1990s and was suspected of corruption. Yet, the Shanghai Faction led by former president Jiang Zemin and Vice President Zeng Qinghong remains influential, as illustrated by the obstacles that Hu and his faction have encountered while trying to widen the anti-graft dragnet in Shanghai in the wake of the September 2006 detention of Chen Liangyu, Huang’s successor as the party secretary of the city. [Full Text]
