Legitimacy of Communist Party of China

My article Legitimacy of Communist Party of China appeared in NitiCentral.

Here is the link...

While India is debating the interference by one of the 3 pillars of democracy into another’s domain, China does not face such problems as all the pillars of governance, i.e. judiciary, legislative, executive and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have to obey the diktats from the Communist Party of China (CPC), namely the Politburo of its Central Committee.
It is a fact that for nearly 7 decades, discussing the legitimacy of the Party’s supremacy has been forbidden in China.
However, with the changing economic scenario and as the cadres prepare to hold the 5th Plenum of the 18th Party Congress next week, we may soon witness changes.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) recently reported: “Open discussion by top graft-buster Wang Qishan about the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party - a topic long deemed unquestionable - has raised the eyebrows of some commentators.”
While addressing the Party and World Dialogue 2015 in Beijing last month, Wang, a member of the Politburo’s Standing Committee asserted: “The legitimacy of the Communist Party of China derives from history, and depends on whether it is supported by the will of the people; it is the people's choice."
It is a new discourse, especially in front of a gathering which included overseas participants.
Though the Hong Kong newspaper said that many analysts did not agree with Wang's interpretation of ‘legitimacy’, it indeed marked a change of wind. The SCMP quoted Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based commentator, who believed that Wang's remarks mark “a shift of attitude in the party as a result of intensified social conflicts and increasing pressure from an underperforming economy.”
Zhang added: “In the past, the issue was not allowed to be discussed, because the Party thinks its rule is justified unquestionably.”
Many China watchers believe that since Mao’s death and the advent of Deng Xiaoping at the end of the 1970s, the Party's legitimacy mainly relied on economic growth, which was supposed to suffice for the masses. That was the ‘to get rich is glorious’ policy of Deng.
Earlier, during the Great Helmsman’s days, political power grew out of the barrel of a gun. Today, China cannot depend anymore on the ‘gun’ to impose its rule over the masses and with the power of Xiaoping’s mantra receding with the economic slowdown, is the Party’s ‘legitimacy’ fading away?
It is where India has a great advantage over the Middle Kingdom, and this, despite the dysfunctional ups and downs of the democratic process.
In March, the Qiushi, the CPC’s organ mentioned that development has brought about new challenges for the Party to maintain its relationship with the public. It listed some of these challenges.
One is income disparity which increased the public's complaints: “If not resolved, these complaints will weaken confidence and trust in the Party,” the article says.
Then, the open market economy has brought “laissez-faire and a multicultural ideology”, and the Party’s publication concludes: “This has weakened and diluted the Party's education of the public.”
Further, the plurality in the social structure makes it difficult to lead and guide the people, asserts the Qiushi, while, “economic globalization and the Internet make it easier for the West to achieve a cultural infiltration of China.”
It is always easier to blame a ‘foreign hand’, but it does not change the fact that the Party is facing more and more problems of ‘legitimacy’.
The Party organ also quotes the disintegration of some regimes (‘coloured’ revolutions), “all have had a disturbing psychological impact on the people of China,” before concluding: “some people no longer trust and follow the propaganda of the Party the way they used to.”
And what about the large scale corruption in the Party and in the PLA?
Many feel that the possibility of a revolution could not be ruled out in China today. The situation in the Armed Forces is particularly worrying for the leadership in Beijing.
In April, Xinhua reported that Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), approved a Notice titled, “Opinion to Develop a Political Team of Cadres That Will Demonstrate Absolute Loyalty to the Party, Has a Strong Capability to Fight in Wars, and Displays a Good Work Style and Image.”
When this type of ‘order’ is issued in China, it usually means that the opposite is happening; in other words, senior officers are no more loyal to the Party.
The Notice directed that all levels within the PLA should focus on “strengthening the ideology work to build a strong Party spirit; strictly abide by the political rules and requirements; display devotion to the Party; and ensure absolute obedience to the Party’s directions, to the PLA’s Political Department, and to Chairman Xi.”
The anti-corruption campaign has targeted scores of PLA officers (more than 50 generals are said have been investigated).
In June, Reuters quoted the PLA Daily affirming that ‘enemy’ forces were trying to infiltrate the ranks to push for the ‘de-politicisation’ of the military and reduce the Party's role in the Army.
The PLA publication admitted: “With a changing society, younger officers were now entering the forces without a proper understanding of the party's role and its discipline requirements.”
It cited Mao: “When political discipline is firm, then the ruling party prospers; when political discipline is weak, the ruling party falls … Liberalism has always been the great enemy."
The military is deeply shaken with two former CMC’s deputy chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou being charged with corruption.
In a separate analysis, the SCMP affirmed, “Without a more durable basis for power, challenges loom.”
It cites some facts of history: 3,000 years ago, the House of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty in the battle of Muye and became the Middle Kingdom’s new ruler. At that time, the Duke of Zhou came up with the concept of the Mandate of Heaven: a bad ruler will be thrown away by Heaven and replaced by a virtuous one: “but the new king, whose legitimacy came from heaven, must have good conduct for it to continue endorsing his status as the rightful ruler.”
Historically, dynasties which have not been able to deliver the goods to the masses have been overthrown. Rebellions or revolts are a sign that the divine approval was been withdrawn and that it is time for the Kingdom to give way for a new dynasty, which will have Heaven’s legitimacy.
Sensing the changing winds in the midst of China’s economic difficulties, Wang Qishan decided to break the taboo and mention the Party's legitimacy: “For things to work in China, we have to see whether the people are happy or not, satisfied or not, whether they would approve of our work”, he said.
At the same time, Xinhua reported that President Xi Jinping's push for reforms has “come up against unimaginably fierce resistance.”
The news agency said that “the in-depth reform touches the basic issue of reconfiguring the lifeblood of this enormous economy and is aimed at making it healthier …the scale of the resistance is beyond what could have been imagined.”
Reuters, which reproduced the article, commented: “the commentary suggested the reforms had not achieved the desired results and were opposed by various factions.”
According to Xinhua, the strength of the CPC is still growing, it would have gained 1.1 million members last year, taking the Party’s membership to some 88 million, (more than the population of Germany), but, at the same time, disillusion has also exponentially grown amongst the masses.
Xinhua may speak of the strengthened vitality of the Party under Xi, but the fact remains that in China today, less and less ‘aam aadmi’ believe that the Communist Party can solve the issues facing the Chinese Nation.
A rather worrying challenge for the Party and its current leadership.

Second 'Tibetan' Tiger caught in Wang's Net

Le Dake at the Centre

Yesterday Reuters reported that a former top Chinese security official in Tibet was being investigated ‘for suspected graft’.
It was announced a day earlier by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog, headed by Wang Qishan.
Reuters says that it is “a rare example of corruption busters going into the restive and remote region.”


The case of General Yang Jinshan
It might be rare, but it is not the only case, as many agencies later reported.
Last year in October, I wrote on this blog: “It is the end of the road for Lt. Gen. Lt. Yang Jinshan, a former Commander of the Tibet Military District of the Chengdu Military Region (MR). He lost his membership of the Central Committee of the CCP.”
Lt. Gen. Yang Jinshan (Han nationality), born in August 1954, joined the Communist Party of China in May 1972. In December 2005, he was promoted to the rank of major general and in July 2011, he became a lieutenant general. From 2007 to 2009, he served as the Head of Armament Department of Chengdu Military Region (MR). In 2009, he became Commander of Tibet Military District. In November 2012, he was elected as Member of 18th CPC's powerful Central Committee.
Lt. General Yang Jinshan had an Air Force background; this may explain the repeated 'air exercises' in the Tibet District, facing Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim during the last few years.
In June 2013, General Yang was transferred (on promotion) to Chengdu as a Deputy Commander of the Chengdu MR. In October 20154, he was formally expelled from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China 'for serious disciplinary violations'.
Lt. Gen. Yang, as one of 41 members of the PLA in the Central Committee, was 'senior' in the Party to his direct boss, Lt. Gen. Li Zuocheng, the Commander of Chengdu MR.
In July 2014, The South China Morning Post (SCMP) had reported "One of the top PLA officers leading the Chengdu military area command has been detained amid graft allegations making him the latest high-ranking officer to fall in a sweeping effort to clean up the image of the world's largest fighting force." The Hong Kong newspaper quoting four different sources said: "Investigators took Yang Jinshan, a lieutenant general, to Beijing last week as part of a corruption investigation. His family members and secretary were also detained."
The arrest of General Yang was part of the wider inquiry into Xu Caihou, the former Central Military Commission (CMC) vice-chairman.
Xu had been accused of accepting very large bribes. In June 2014, Xu was himself expelled from the Communist Party. A few months later, Yang walked into his mentor's steps.
Further, Yang was probably connected with the disgraced Politburo leader, Bo Xilai, as Yang served in the 14th Group Army, based in Kunming, Yunnan province (under the Chengdu MR). One of the founders of the Group Army was Bo Yibo, Bo Xilai's father.
The SCMP suspects: "Bo Xilai visited Yunnan not long after his right-hand man Wang Lijun sought refuge in the US consulate in Chengdu in February 2012. Since that visit, some of the senior officers of the corps have been replaced, prompting speculation about whether the reshuffle was linked to Bo."
We have not heard of Yang Jinshan since then.

The case of Le Dake
Dr. Le Dake is born in Dongxiang County, Jiangxi in March 1960 (age 55). He was the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s People's Congress till his arrest. He has been serving in this post from January 2013 to June 25, 2015.
In December 1976, Le Dake worked as a ‘sent-down youth’ in a Red Star Farm. Later, he attended to Jiangxi University in 1983 and graduated in 1986 (he apparently earned a PhD).
Dr. Le Dake started his career in the 1980s in the Public Security Bureau (police), in Jiangxi Province; later, he switched to State Security (external intelligence) work in 1994.
In 2004, he was posted in Tibet where, as director of TAR’s Regional National Security Department, he was responsible of collecting ‘hostile foreign intelligence’. His name was rarely appeared in the press.
Earlier, the Intelligence boss would remain in the shadow, but after 2013, Le Dake became openly an active member of the TAR Legislature’s Standing Committee.
In 2008, after the unrest in Tibet and just before the Olympic Games in Beijing, President Hu Jintao set up an emergency military-security cell for watching Tibet. The objective of the unit was to ‘save’ the Olympic Games in Beijing from hostile Western attacks.
The website, Intelligence Online then said that the group consisted of “the heads of the security and intelligence agencies, leading military men, newly-appointed politicians and members of Hu’s clan, with the exception of Zhou Yongkang: number three man in the party and supervisor of the security services.”
Why Zhou, since then himself ‘investigated’, was not part of it, is a mystery.
The website adds that in Lhasa, Hu depended on the State Security set up “to provide information on the role of the United States in the crisis.”
A French journalist Roger Faligot in his book “Les Services Secret Chinoise de Mao aux JO (Chinese Secret Service from Mao to Olympic Games), had revealed that Le Dake had “infiltrated agents into India where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, and has sought to isolate him politically.”
It is very difficult to corroborate this information and even to say if the arrest of Le Dake is linked with his ‘work’ in Tibet or simply is connected with corruption.
Another possibility is that Xi Jinping has decided to change the cook for his new stew, 'Buddha jumping the Wall'? The future will tell us if the stew is tastier or not.

China floats dangerously over troubled waters of South China Sea

My article China floats dangerously over troubled waters of South China Sea appeared in NitiCentral.

Here is the link...

Some watchers have predicted a ‘crack’, others a ‘collapse’, all might be wrong, but the fact remains that the Middle Kingdom has entered troubled waters, not only in the South China Sea.
Chinese-language Radio Free Asia (RFA) recently reported about a meeting between three foreign scholars and Wang Qishan, the all-powerful head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the organisation responsible for chasing the ‘tigers’ and the ‘flies’ and enforcing the Communist Party of China’s rule and discipline over the country.
Guess what? The ‘scholars’ were Japanese, a nation not always on best terms with the Chinese leadership.
The meeting took place in Zhongnanhai, the Party’s secluded headquarters, on April 23. The Japanese scholars were Stanford University academics: renowned political scientist Francis Fukuyama, economist Masahiko Aoki, and former CITIC Securities’ head, Tatsuhito Tokuchi.
According to RFA: “Wang was talking most of the time”, but later, Tatsuhito Tokuchi, Wang’s long-time friend, posted the speech of the CCDI’s boss on the Internet.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) said that the detailed report appeared on a website affiliated with the Tsinghua University’s Centre for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance. It was penned by Tokuchi, a member of the centre’s council.
RFA affirmed that “a key message that Wang passed on in this meeting was that his anticorruption campaign faces severe difficulties.”
It is difficult to comprehend why Wang needed to pass this sort of serious message through the Japanese academics. It probably means that all is not well in Wang’s current anti-corruption campaign, which started soon after Xi assumed power in November 2012.
Wang would have explained his dilemma to the Japanese:
“If I stop, the public will be disappointed and the result may be social turmoil. If I proceed, some cliques will fight back and even fight to the death.”
It is worrying for China’s stability if the anti-corruption campaign has reached such a stalemate. RFA commented:

“Another key message was that Wang promised his opponents that he will not seek a complete systematic reform that will fundamentally prevent corruption.”

It means that corruption is so deeply engrained in Chinese society that it is practically impossible to fully eradicate.
Nobody doubts that corrupt officials in China badly resent Wang’s campaign and are waiting to strike back.
RFA rightly commented:
“It is rare for a politburo standing committee member to have a discussion with visiting foreign scholars. Wang’s high-profile meeting with them and the posting of his talk through an official channel is a big taboo for high-ranking Party officials.”
It also means that today Wang can do what other officials have never done, i.e. speak to ‘foreigners’, knowing that his words will be immediately reported in China as well as abroad. With Xi, he still remains the most powerful man in the Kingdom, but for how long?
The situation is indeed serious. The social media has regularly reported Communist officials committing suicide. In May, Chen Tianhong, the head of a town in Jiangsu province, jumped to his death from the 21st floor of the government building. It was the third suicide of a Communist cadre officially reported by Chinese media in a month.
In March, four officials jumped to their deaths on three consecutive days.
The SCMP earlier wrote:

“The number of suicides recorded by officials has risen sharply in recent years, which analysts said was inevitably linked to Xi’s anti-graft campaign. More than 100 ‘tigers’ – corrupt senior officials – and many low-level cadres ‘flies’ have been purged.”

On May 29, China Military Online announced that the military authorities released a list of two more PLA generals who had been investigated: Maj. Gen. Fuyi, former commander of the Zhejiang Provincial Military Command and Maj. Gen. Zhou Minggui, vice director of the political department of the PLA Nanjing Military Region. This brought the tally to 35 officers of the rank of major general and above, investigated since the beginning of the year. One can easily imagine the resentment, the fear, the bitterness and the suspicion (against those who have managed to slip through the CCDI’s net), created by Wang’s campaign.
The SCMP affirmed:

“Since the PLA changed track earlier this year and started releasing updates on the graft crackdown in the military, five of the army’s seven area commands have lost their logistics chiefs to corruption investigations. The exceptions are Nanjing and Jinan.”

But the ‘purification’ process (or the purge in Marxist terms) is not only going on full swing in the PLA, all fields are ‘affected’.
According to the latest statistics, from November 2012 to April 2015, 124 top officials (alias ‘tigers’) in state-owned enterprises have been ‘investigated’ for corruption; State-run energy companies are said to account for a quarter of all fallen state-owned enterprise (SOE) executives.
China News Service reported that executives working in the mainland’s infrastructure sector were the second largest group to be probed by the top corruption watchdog CCDI.
Wang Tianpu, the second-highest ranked official of China’s largest oil refiner has recently been detained and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation have both lost their president or vice-president in the battle.
In the midst of this all-out internal war, Wang Qishan ruled out any chance of an independent judiciary.
In his encounter with the Japanese scholars, he admitted that the Communist Party was struggling, it was not easy: ‘it is like a doctor operating on himself’.
According to Tatsuhito Tokuchi, Wang mentioned the rare case of a Russian surgeon removing his own appendix to illustrate the difficulty of ‘self-renewal’ and ‘self-purification’: “We realise that it is only a beginning … and we need to keep going,” commented Wang.
Zhuang Deshui, an anti-corruption expert at Peking University told the SCMP:
“The authorities might have thought in the beginning that hitting ‘tigers and flies’ would have some deterrent effect. But as the number of corruption cases and the ranks of purged officials kept growing, certain interest groups and senior officials – maybe even including those more senior than Zhou – were also involved.”
In its May issue, Trend Magazine, based in Hong Kong, discussed the colloquial term ‘Iron Hat King’:
“The CCP likes to play political games by using argot to criticise someone without disclosing his name.”
The Chinese media said that there is no ‘Iron Hat King’ in the anticorruption campaign. It means that there is no king who will forever enjoy their royal immunity; in other words, even former top officials can be subjected to corruption charges. The article suggested that former President Jiang Zemin is the ‘Iron Hat King’. His court (or clique) comprises of Zeng Qinghong (the ‘Qing Prince’), a former Politburo’s Standing Committee member, Bo Xilai, the ‘crown prince’, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the Central Military Commission’s members and Zhou Yongkang, the former Security czar, today in jail.
It would mean that the CCDI is coming close to Jiang, the former President. That would explain why it is not easy for Wang and Xi.
The democratic tradition in India, though sometimes chaotic, brings far more stability to the nation. When an ‘Iron Hat King’ or even a Party is too corrupt, he is just removed by the masses at the time of the next elections. It is what happened to the Indian Dynasty last year.

Will China crack up?

My article Will China crack up? appeared in NitiCentral.

Here is the link...

Being a China watcher is a difficult job.
It can however make you rich or famous, provided you write something many in the West will enjoy: the announcement of the Middle Kingdom’s ‘coming collapse’. Unfortunately, wishful thinking is often (not to say never) followed by reality.
It is what David Shambaugh, a respected Chinese expert, who is director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, has done in his Saturday Essay in The Wall Street Journal.
‘Coming Chinese Crackup’ was prominently circulated on social media by all those with an interest in the ‘cracking’ of China. Wide circulation was probably the objective of the Journal; that way, Shambaugh’s piece has been a success, though it may not automatically make China crack up.
What did the professor ‘prophesied’? He wrote: “The endgame of communist rule in China has begun, and Xi Jinping’s ruthless measures are only bringing the country closer to a breaking point.”
Unfortunately for those who dream of the Dragon’s demise (I am one of them), it is only a point of view and it is doubtful if the events will unfold as forecast.
Bill Bishop, the editor of the excellent Sinocism Newsletter has different views, he commented: “I think his scenario has a 10% probability, and the probability of a ‘crack-up’ may even be lower now than it was in 2011-2012. Xi's apparent control of the PLA and security services, the instruments of hard power should make it much harder for anyone to mount significant resistance in an organized way … and the support from many quarters for what Xi is doing should not be underestimated. Shambaugh does a smart job hedging by leaving the timing open-ended...”
But Bishop sees a new surge of ‘coming collapse of China’ predictions.
Matt O'Brien’s article ‘Is China’s 1929 moment coming?’ in the Washington Post is another one.
As the National People's Congress (NPC) started its deliberations in Beijing, Shambaugh saw the delegates, “participating cheerfully and parroting back official slogans.” This might be true, but it does not mean that it is the end of China.
Interestingly, the author himself admits: “Predicting the demise of authoritarian regimes is a risky business. Few Western experts forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union before it occurred in 1991; the CIA missed it entirely. The downfall of Eastern Europe’s communist states two years earlier was similarly scorned as the wishful thinking of anticommunists—until it happened.”
Ditto for the ‘color revolutions’ in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and the Arab Spring; who predicted them?
Shambaugh’s main argument is the following: “Despite appearances, China’s political system is badly broken, and nobody knows it better than the Communist Party itself. China’s strongman leader, Xi Jinping, is hoping that a crackdown on dissent and corruption will shore up the party’s rule.”
Nobody can deny that there something rotten in the Kingdom. During the past 2 months, 30 officers of the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) of the rank of major generals and above are said to have been ‘investigated’. It is unprecedented.
The South China Morning Post spoke of the ‘horrible corruption in the PLA: “All People’s Liberation Army ranks have a price, getting a Communist Party membership has a price, and important military positions are reserved for cronies, senior officers’ children and in-laws.”
The Hong Kong daily quotes Major General Yang Chunchang, a former deputy commandant of China’s Academy of Military Sciences, saying: “Everybody in society knows that in the PLA … you need to pay to join the party. Promotions to become leaders at platoon, company, regiment and division levels all have their own price tags.” The general added “It has affected the security of the army. …It’s too horrible, bribes are in the scale of several tens of millions [yuan].”
The fact that President Xi Jinping is “determined to avoid becoming the Mikhail Gorbachev of China, presiding over the party’s collapse”, does not make China automatically ‘crack up’, as Shambaugh suggests, even if he adds: “His despotism is severely stressing China’s system and society—and bringing it closer to a breaking point.”
Shambaugh believes that: ‘The endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun …and it has progressed further than many think.”
There is no doubt that Communist China will crack one day; historically, it has happened to all empires and regimes, but it is worth noting that the present leadership in Beijing has carefully studied the ‘collapse’ of the Soviet Union and other authoritarian regimes and has drawn its own conclusions. Xi’s fight against corruption is just one action to avoid that end.
When Shambaugh makes the end bloody: “Communist rule in China is unlikely to end quietly. …Its demise is likely to be protracted, messy and violent,” the author does not raise the question: who will benefit from such an implosion or explosion?
Certainly not the United States or Europe which are so intimately linked, economically and otherwise, with ‘Communist’ China.
What would be more interesting to study is what would be the direct and immediate implications of a ‘collapse’ of China on the West and Asia.
Shambaugh speaks of ‘five telling indications of the regime’s vulnerability and weakness’.
Unfortunately, the author’s arguments often lack logic. Let us take the first ‘indication’: “China’s economic elites have one foot out the door, and they are ready to flee en masse if the system really begins to crumble.”
If a large number of wealthy Chinese flee to New Zealand, Canada or Australia, it has more to do with the crack-down on corruption institutionalized by Xi Jinping and his colleague Wang Qishan, than a sign of forthcoming collapse. Before ill-gotten wealth is confiscated by the all-powerful Central Discipline and Inspection Committee, corrupt officials and business people are keen to transfer their wealth to safe heavens abroad. How is it a sign on the forthcoming ‘end’ of the present regime?
In the same way, the other 4 ‘indications’ are not wrong, but conclusions are often hasty, to please the readers.
Shambaugh’s conclusion is: “These five increasingly evident cracks in the regime’s control can be fixed only through political reform.” It is certainly true, but one has to admit that China’s societal values are different from the ones of the West, and reforms do not mean the same thing in Washington and Beijing.
Looking at a recent example, has the Ukrainian revolution been a success or has the Western interference created further mess? It is a question that Shambaugh should ponder upon.
It is also surprising that the WSJ article does not mention Xi Jinping’s new theory of the ‘Four Comprehensives ‘which refer to building a moderately prosperous society, deepening reform, governing the country according to rule by law, and enforcing strict party discipline.
One can understand that the last ‘comprehensive’ is not palatable to the US, but it is not a proof of ‘collapse’.
The instability of the so-called ‘minorities’ areas (Tibet, Xinjiang, etc.) could be a more dangerous issue as it is presently wrongly handled by Beijing.
Ultimately, nobody knows if (and when) China will crack up, collapse or simply reform soon. The last would be the best alternative for China and the rest of the world.
By the way, do you think that the International Monetary Fund, many Western nations as well as some of US’s Asian allies (Australia, Japan and South Korea, etc.) would agree to participate in a Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), is China was perceived by them as ‘cracking’?

Wang Qishan drops by at Tibet Meet

Left to right: Padma Choling, Jampa Phuntsok, Wang Qishan,
Wang Huning, Chen Quanguo, Lobsang Gyaltsen

A few days before the opening of the yearly grand messe, aka the National People’s Congress (NPC), China Tibet Online speculated: “You may wonder what China’s top leader will say [this year] about Tibet?”
The website affiliated to Xinhua answered by quoting the previous interventions of President Xi Jinping, when he met with the Tibet Delegation at the NPC in 2013 and 2014.

According to the website:
On March 9, 2013, attending a discussion held by the NPC’s Tibet Delegation, Xi Jinping stressed the need to "unswervingly consolidate ethnic unity and create a long-term mechanism to ensure such unity is upheld".
Xi further spoke of its strategy for ‘comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society’.
On March 4, 2014, Xi Jinping attended a meeting involving ethnic minorities of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s political advisory body. He emphasized that terrorism must be fought according to law in order to consolidate ethnic unity, social stability and national unification. The message was probably addressed to Xinjiang.
Yu Zhengsheng met the Tibet delegation on March 10, 2014.
China Tibet Online concluded: “The above provides some clues as to what one can expect of Xi Jinping regarding Tibet during the Two Sessions”.

Wang Qishan arrives in the Tibet 'room'

The 2015 Two Sessions
The Chinese government's work report (something like the State of the Union in the US) delivered by the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, during the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress included some ‘highlights’ about the Tibetan-inhabited areas (note that the Chinese Premier did not refer to the Tibetan Autonomous Region alone, but to all the ‘Tibetan-inhabited areas’. This remains one of the main bones of contention between the Dalai Lama’s Administration in Dharamsala and Beijing).
Li Keqiang affirmed that Beijing would like:

• To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding the Tibet Autonomous Region
• To protect the source of the three major rivers - the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang [Mekong] River in Qinghai Province
• To adhere to the policy of Regional Ethnic Autonomy
• To protect the intangible cultural heritage and the rich resources that Tibet boasts of

The 'deliberations'

This year, the Tibet delegation did not get the CPC’s General Secretary’s visit, but the all-powerful Wang Qishan, the supreme boss of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s (CCDI) and member of the Standing Committee of the CPC’s politburo, paid a visit to the Tibet delegation and ‘participated in the deliberations’.
Xinhua (Chinese language) published a report.
On March 12 at 3 pm, Wang Qishan entered the room allotted to Tibet in the Great Hall of the People. He was received by some Tibetan delegates (Pub Tsering, Sonam Phuntsok and two monks) with a khata (ceremonial scarf) and escorted to the meeting room.
Here is rough translation of the article on Wang’s visit.
Wang Qishan participated in the deliberations of the second session of the Tibet delegation to the NPC meet.
A photo appeared along with the article. It shows Wang surrounded by Wang Huning (director of the Central Policy Research; member, politburo and close confidant of Xi Jinping), Jampa Phuntsok (Vice-Chairman, NPC's Standing Committee), Chen Quanguo (Tibet’s Party Secretary), Padma Choling (Chairman, TAR’s regional Congress), Lobsang Gyaltsen (head of the TAR’s government) and Wu Yingjie (Party’s Deputy Secretary).

According to Xinhua:
After listening to Qiangba (Jampa Phuntsok), Lobsang Gyaltsen, and other representatives, Wang pointed out that the pursuit of wealth and civilization is the eternal quest in the history of human development.
The CPC's ‘two hundred years’ goal is to meet the people's growing material and cultural needs. You should maintain close ties between the Party and the masses; you should strengthen national unity and safeguard the stability of the society, he said.
Party members and cadres should not forget the party's fine tradition and [work?] style; you should keep serving the people wholeheartedly and never mind having close ties with the masses. Implement the spirit of the eight provisions [?] with perseverance; improve your [life] style; this is a solemn commitment of the Party Central Committee; it is the ardent desire of the masses.
Correct the 'Four Winds': it is a struggle one cannot afford to lose; if we do, we will lose the trust of the people, causing in turn greater damage to the Party.
Wang said that the new word cannot forget the old word, improve your style.
Chen Quanguo presided over the meeting. He said that Wang Qishan’s speech was important as it provided China with an overall strategic focus, and helped thinking deeply. As for Tibet, according to Chen, Wang reaffirmed the importance of the development work for the future and this, under a stable and honest government.
At first sight, nothing very exciting or new in Wang's words, except for his insistence of the 'fine tradition of the Party' and the life style of its members.
Interestingly, Wang Qishan did not mention the new theory of Xi Jinping, ‘The Four Comprehensives’. Does it mean that it is not agreed by all in the Politburo?
It may be an issue, because The South China Morning Post reported “an apparent slip in the rhetoric led to a tough question about President Xi Jinping's political theory: quite how many ‘comprehensives’ are involved in the so-called ‘Four Comprehensives’ theory?”.
The Hong Kong newspaper explained: “The answer's not so obvious. …Yet surprisingly, copies of the work report of Premier Li Keqiang for delegates and the press contained no reference to ‘strict enforcement of discipline in the party’ [the forth comprehensive].”
One comprehensive was missing in action. The ‘error’ was later rectified.
During his speech to the Tibet delegation, Wang did not mention any ‘comprehensives’ (it would be very surprising, if he had mentioned it and it had not been reported,).
Why Wang and not Xi Jinping or Yu Zhengsheng (who usually monitors the United Front Work and 'drop by' last year) visited the Tibet delegation?
Perhaps a question of heavy schedule!
But it could also be that Wang’s visit to the Tibet Delegation is a prelude to a more active role of the CCDI in Tibet, in the months to come. In which case, some heads will roll down.
It is not easy to answer this question too.
The presence of Wang Huning, who is a member of the 'Tibet' delegation (don't ask me why!) is interesting, due to his closeness with Xi Jinping.
Last point, the Dalai Lama’s name was apparently not mentioned. It might be a sign of ‘softening’, but softening …with Chinese characteristics, which often translates into ‘no softening at all’.

China’s loss is India’s gain

My article China’s loss is India’s gain appeared in NitiCentral


Here is the link...

Where is China going? Apparently the Middle Kingdom is not doing too well! Even economically! The economic publication Bloomberg recently reported, “China’s economy got off to a weak start in 2015 with disappointing manufacturing and service-sector readings, renewing calls for the Government to introduce more measures to spur growth in the months ahead.” In January, the factory activity recorded its first contraction in more than two years.
The Daily Economic News, a Chinese publication, predicted five macro-economic challenges for 2015. First, the increase in money supply may not be sufficient to revive businesses; second, exports would continue to decline; third, as banks tighten credit, the demand for credit could be difficult to satisfy; fourth, real estate developers will be unable to reap their usual high returns and lastly, as the Central Government tightened local Governments’ spending to reduce their debts, private investment may not be enough to push up local schemes.
It is difficult to say if the prediction will be correct or not; in any case, President Xi Jinping will have other serious problems to tackle in 2015.
Two other issues could particularly destabilise China: the current anti-corruption struggle and the severe new restrictions on Internet.
One ominous sign is the large number of suicides recorded in China. The Party has started asking its cadres to check on the number of ‘unnatural deaths’ of party members, in other words, suicides.
Zhang Ming, a political science Professor at Renmin University in Beijing told Bloomberg, “There’s a growing number of official suicide cases reported over the past two years as the anti-corruption campaign intensified,” adding that officials don’t want “to expose the people behind them, so the easiest way is to commit suicide to protect people above them and their family members”.
In case of deaths, Party cadres are instructed to fill up an eight-column form with name, sex, rank and work unit of the deceased, along with the time and cause of death. If possibly due to suicide, the location, method of death and status of the investigation, have to be given.
Wang Qishan, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the man behind the anti-corruption crusade, told a recent meeting of the Commission that “the handling of cases implicating corrupt high-ranking officials – such as Zhou Yongkang, Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong – showed the CPC Central Committee’s unwavering volition to punish corruption and strictly manage the Party.”
‘Wrongdoings’ include forming fractions and cliques, exchanging gifts bought with public money, banquets, travels, entertainment activities and ceremonies using public funds, “The situation has improved, but the root is still there, even though the tree has fallen. New tricks might be pulled under huge pressure, and our mission to prevent re-occurrence is arduous. …We cannot afford to lose,” said Wang.
“We can’t afford to lose the battle” seems the new war cry of Xi and Wang.
The CCDI report revealed that “[in 2014] 226,000 cases were filed as a result of complaints, with 218,000 closed. The cases led to 232,000 officials being given Party or administrative punishment, a yearly increase of 30 per cent, and another 12,000 people were transferred to judicial organs on criminal charges.”
Wang told the Commission that some officials still haven’t realised how ‘grave and complicated’ was the corruption issue. He mentioned several remaining problems such as slack supervision and ineffective measures to address grassroots disciplinary violations.
To corruption should be added, loyalty.
In Xinjiang in 2014, 355 Communist Party cadres have been investigated for ‘breaching party political discipline’, (usually, an euphemism for corruption), a six-fold increase over the previous year. Out of the 355 cadres investigated, 333 received unspecified punishments, which means that ‘loyalty’ and not ‘corruption’ was the main charge. President Xi has warned that wavering on core issues such as openly opposing the party line, or secretly working against Central Government would be severely punished.
In Tibet, 15 party officials have been disciplined “for joining independence groups and providing intelligence to the Dalai Lama in activities deemed a threat to national security”. The ‘cleansing’ is not limited to restive provinces. The Central Military Commission announced that the PLA must root out ‘chronic diseases’ and adopt a zero-tolerance stance toward corrupt officers. The reason for the intense chasing of the corrupt is that President Xi Jinping knows that if the disease is not eradicated China will follow the path to disintegration like the Soviet Union.
But is it not too late to tackle a seemingly incurable disease?
Xi believes that Marxism is the answer.
During a recent Politburo session, Xi spoke to his colleagues of the importance to be committed to Marxism and Socialism. The South China Morning Post mentioned, “The Politburo squeezed a collective study session on Marxist dialectical materialism into its tight schedule, a year or so after it held a similar one on historical materialism.”
Xi would have stressed that dialectical materialism was the party’s worldview and methodology in its efforts to unite and lead the people. The SCMP analysed, “The ruling party deviated from hard-line Marxist ideology when Deng Xiaoping launched market reforms in the late 1970s. Since coming to office, Xi has been eager to fill the ideological void by emphasising both Marxism and traditional Chinese culture and values.”
The second ‘hardening’ is the new tightening over the Internet. While China sees the controlling of Internet beneficial to its indigenous growth; some are aware that it is a tricky issue which could badly boomerang on the country’s economy.
The Global Times recently admitted that the ‘Great Firewall’, as China’s sophisticated Internet monitoring system is known, is misunderstood, “The firewall blocks certain overseas websites in a targeted fashion, rather than isolating China’s Internet from the overseas one.”
It argued that the success of China’s biggest Internet giants — Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, the so-called ‘BAT’, was due to the firewall.
Without this, The Global Times concluded, “China would become the realm of Google China, Yahoo China and Facebook China.”
What is interesting is that for the first time, the mouthpiece of the Party admitted the existence of the firewall.
The New York Times wrote a hard-hitting editorial, “Under the guise of improving security, the Chinese Government is clamping down on technology companies and further limiting the access its citizens have to information that is not sanitized by the Communist Party. These moves will hurt the Chinese economy and create a major rift between China and the rest of the world.” It quotes a letter sent by foreign business groups to President Xi protesting against new policies that “require companies that sell computer equipment to Chinese banks to turn over their source code to the Government.”
The US newspaper threatened, “But this push for greater control could cost China dearly,” before concluding, “Mr. Xi cannot expect the United States or any other country to engage in negotiations to liberalise trade and investment with his country while his Government is actively making it impossible for foreign businesses to survive there.”
It is where India, the largest world democracy, where freedom truly exists, has certainly a slot to occupy. The ‘Make in India’ of Modi Sarkar may become more and more popular with foreign investors extremely nervous at the latest developments in China.

Xi and his rogue Generals – Will PLA cleanup spillover borders?

My article Xi and his rogue Generals – Will PLA cleanup spillover borders? appeared in NitiCentral.

Here is the link...

A few days ago, The PLA Daily announced that there will be no sanctuary for corruption in the Chinese defence forces.
Quoting the flagship newspaper of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Xinhua explained that “in the battle against corruption, there will be no privilege or sanctuary of impunity for anyone.”
The PLA strongly denied that “continuing the campaign against corruption could destabilise people’s morale and public trust.”
On the contrary, it asserted that the campaign would continue: “The battle against corruption has entered a crucial tug-of-war stage; the anti-graft campaign is in line with the people’s expectations and as the campaign deepens, …the Communist Party of China (CPC) and political environment in China will become even healthier. The anti-corruption efforts will only boost the morale among the Party, the military and the public; not undermine it.”
The message is clear, the cleansing campaign in the PLA is here to stay; moreover, in the present battle, there cannot be any safe haven for the corrupt.
Bill Bishop, the author of the The Sinocism China Newsletter argued that it is not a usual purge campaign: “I am quite convinced it is a mistake to call the corruption crackdown under Xi a ‘campaign’. …I think people have been far too dismissive of some of the changes Wang Qishan [Politburo’s Standing Committee member] is making within CCDI [Central Commission for Disciple Inspection] system. …Xi and Wang are less than 24 months into this and can’t hit everything at once, especially as Xi is still consolidating power. It may fail, but the crackdown is already much deeper and longer than almost anyone expected, and the signs are that it is intensifying, not slowing, and looks to be still in its early days inside the PLA.”
The battle is indeed intensifying; the Xinhua piece noted “the anti-decadence movement is still grave and complicated and will inevitably meet some kind of resistance.”
President Xi Jinping knows very well that the question is not to fix one or two adversaries, such Bo Xilai or Zhou Yongkang, the former Chongking Party boss and security Tsar respectively; the present move has to go much deeper, if the CCP is to survive. Many historical studies have shown that it the crucial point where the former Soviet Union collapsed; it is the struggle for survival of a system. It is even more vital for the defence forces.
Whether Xi and Wang will succeed or not is another issue. The PLA Daily threatens: “The anti-corruption campaign has already touched senior ‘tigers’ like Zhou Yongkang and Xu Caihou, and who will be left untouchable?”
General Xu Caihou was the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission before retiring in 2013; he has now been booked as one of the main culprits.
Reuters wrote about the modus operandi: “Luxury cars filled with gold bars were given away as bribes by a former senior military officer implicated in a graft case investigators say involves 30 billion yuan (5 billion US $).”
An assistant of Xu Caihou, Gu Junshan who was deputy director of the PLA’s logistics department, is now suspected of having ‘offered’ hundreds of military positions on behalf of his boss.
Quoting the Phoenix Weekly, a magazine with close ties with the Central government, Reuters says: “Sources close to the top of the logistics department said Gu took bribes worth about 600 million yuan (US $ 100 million) in return for his part in a scam involving a total of 30 billion yuan.”
General Gu was apparently obsessed with gold, especially gold statues of Buddha. The magazine found out that when he wanted to offer a gift, Gu would load up a Mercedes with gold bars and then simply send the car keys to the beneficiary; up to 100kg of gold could be ‘offered’ that way.
If some generals have contributed to Xu’s and Gu’s schemes, it means that they had ways to recover their ‘investment’.
According to the Chinese press, Gu’s and Xu’s cases are closely connected.
Another general under investigation is Maj. Gen, Dai Weimin, vice-president of the PLA Nanjing Institute of Politics. Caixin, the Beijing-based financial publicationsaid that Dai was detained around mid-November for allegations related to land and infrastructure projects at the institute’s Shanghai campus. According to the same publication, housing and infrastructure contracts are the most common areas where ‘gifts’ take place.
While recently inspecting the Nanjing Military Area Command, Xi Jinping, who is also CMC’s Chairman, warned that the PLA should ‘fully clear up the bad influence left [by Xu] in the army’s ideological, political and organizational work as well as the style of work.”
Can China defend its borders with this style of work?
That is why President Xi will do everything to change the current state of affairs. While naming Xu and Gu, Xi said: “officers and soldiers should firmly follow the command of the CMC at any time and under any circumstances”. Follow the Party is the recurrent motto! But will the Party survive? It is too early to say.
The same Caixin.com announced that the first female ‘tiger’ was under investigation on suspicion of bribery. Maj. Gen. Gao Xiaoyan used to be political commissar and CCDI’s representative in the PLA Information Engineering University before her arrest.
She is suspected of taking big amounts while serving as political commissar at the PLA’s 309th Hospital from 2005 to 2012. Some rumors said that she was also intimately close to Gu Junshan.
A native of Shanxi, the province which is topping arrests for corruption, Gao joined the army when she was 17. She had been responsible for major construction projects at the hospital. It included building 15 dormitories and a garage, which could accommodate 1,000 vehicles.
If many of the senior posts have been ‘purchased’, this does not speak well for the level of preparedness of the Chinese Armed Forces.
Closer to us in India, is Lt. Gen. Yang Jinshan, who for years commanded the Tibet Military District, opposite the Indian troops posted in Arunachal. He ‘did’ so well that he reached the ‘Marxist’ heaven, the Central Committee of the CCP.
In 2005, Yang (a Han, like all the senior PLA officers) was promoted to the rank of major general and in July 2011, he became a lieutenant general. He took over the Command of the Tibet Military District in 2009 and 3 years later, he was elected as a member of the powerful Central Committee.
In June 2013, General Yang was transferred on promotion to Chengdu as a Deputy Commander of the Chengdu Military Region, from where he oversaw the operations in Tibet.
In October 2014, he was suddenly expelled from the Central Committee ‘for serious disciplinary violations’.
Apparently, General Yang’s arrest is also linked to Xu Caihou’s wrongdoings.
In the meantime, the CMC warned that ideological struggles within the PLA were ‘acute and complicated’. The Global Times asserted: “Military reform has entered ‘uncharted waters’ with concerns growing that reform could be impeded by ‘structural problems’.”
Quite worrying!
One should not be surprised if some disgruntled generals try to enter into Indian Territory in Ladakh or Arunachal, just to divert the attention of the leadership.

Take a leaf out of the mighty dragon’s book

My article on the French Revolution and China appeared today in The Pioneer.

The new rulers of China have been quick and unambiguous in acknowledging the spread of corruption in Government. In India, the UPA regime remains in denial mode even after being hit by many huge scams

Everyone knows that in terms of infrastructure development, China is today far in advance compared to India. Most observers will say that it is due to the authoritarian nature of the regime in Beijing: Decisions are taken and implemented, and that is it. India has the excuse of being the ‘largest democracy in the world’, with its pluses, but also with its impediments and negative collaterals.
There is another field in which Beijing is more serious than Delhi: It is corruption awareness. I am not talking about combating the plague, but simply being aware of it and not brushing it under the carpet, as it is done in India where the Government does not even acknowledge that thousands of rich Indian have accounts in Switzerland and other tax paradises.
Not many in India may have heard of Wang Qishan, one of China’s seven new bosses. The official ‘profile’ of this member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo says: “He can do it”. Xinhua website commented, “Wang Qishan took up a challenging new mission last month to lead China’s top discipline watchdog [known as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection], amid rising calls for crackdown on corruption”. It added: “Simply more than a month into his new role, Wang has demonstrated the same style that previously won his fame as a troubleshooter in the economic field: Tough, resolute and confident in front of difficulties.”
Can you imagine a senior Cabinet Minister of India, responsible for tackling corruption at the highest level of the Indian State? Unfortunately for India, the senior politicians are mostly in denial mode: There is no 2G Spectrum scam, no Coalgate affair, etc. It is only an invention of the journalists (or the CAG), they say!
At the end of November, soon after his election, Mr Wang told a symposium: “Ethics of the Party determines its survival or demise... In the fight against corruption, we must convince the public that we are making more and more concrete efforts and delivering more and more powerful blows.” Is it because the disease in a terminal stage than China takes more seriously this critical issue?
One of the blows suggested by Mr Wang is to recommend the 19th-century classic on the French revolution (The Old Regime and the Revolution) written by the French historian, Alexis de Tocqueville.
An article on the website Global Voices says that this has attracted thousands of comments on the Chinese blogosphere. Mr Wang seems to believe that China could witness a ‘French’ Revolution, if it does not manage to rein corruption. Seventy well-known Chinese academics and lawyers recently signed a proposal urging the new leadership to start political reforms, including the separation of the Party from the State.
Professor Zhang Qianfan of Peking University Law School prepared the ‘proposal’ calling on the Party to manage the State according to its Constitution, protect freedom of speech, encourage private enterprise, foster judicial independence, and allow the people to elect their own representatives. It asked Beijing to take head-on issues such as social injustice, corruption, and the abuse of Government authority; otherwise, it concludes, “China runs the risk of revolution or chaos if it does not change.” Is the possibility of a Revolution à la French looming over China’s ancient Communist regime?
By recommending Tocqu- eville’s book, Mr Wang probably wanted to highlight the dark sides of the French Revolution, which nonetheless helped Europe to come out of the ‘regime of privileges’.
I wonder if Mr Wang read this speech of Danton, the great French revolutionary: “We ended the monopoly of birth and wealth in all important offices of State, in our churches, in our Armed Forces, in all parts of this beautiful country, France. We declared that the most humble man in this country is equal to the greatest. The freedom that we have gained for ourselves, we have offered it to all the slaves in the world”. In the case of China, the tyranny of privileges is born with the Party. Was not the end the monopoly of birth and wealth the first objective of the Chinese Revolution in 1949?
This has abysmally failed; it is certain that the leaders are today aware of this failure. Are Indian politicians ready to acknowledge that they failed since Independence?
In China, the question remains: Will Xi Jinping and his colleagues manage to return to the basics, and offer a ‘peaceful’ revolution to the people? The problem is that they themselves have their roots in the system which has not succeeded.
The reaction of the Chinese bloggers is interesting. They quote Tocqueville: “Great revolutions that have happened historically, such as violent revolutions, did not occur during a time of poverty. They occurred when economic situations brought polarisation to society. This is because at times like these, conflict between social classes is incited. It is easy for those in the bottom classes of the society to turn the flames of their anger into flames of war.” Many scholars believe that the conditions in China are not different from the situation in France before the 1789 Revolution.
One netizen wrote: “Tocqueville’s description of the social conflict in France before the revolution and its development is a lot similar to today’s China. If they remove the word ‘France’, it’s like a high resolution picture of Chinese society. Due to the improvement of material life and increase in wealth, the amount of ignorance, arrogance, greediness, dissolution, shamelessness and depravity compared to the old days before the revolution in France is simply greater.” But another microblog wisely advised: “It’s better to watch what they actually do than to listen to what they say and try to guess what it means.”
In a recent report about the Chinese contemporary society, website Chinascope argues that the people have lost confidence in the Government. It quotes Xun Zi (313 BC-238 BC), the famous philosopher: “The Emperor is the boat and the people are the water. Water can carry the boat, but also capsize the boat.”
The report concludes: “If the Chinese people continue to distrust their Government and actions against the Government intensify, it may be inevitable for the Party-boat to capsize.”
During his first speech as CCP General Secretary,  Mr Xi quoted an ancient Chinese proverb which stated, “Things must have gone rotten before insects can grow”. He asked his partymen to stay clean and self-disciplined.
Former Peking University professor Zhang Weiying has an interesting theory on the subject. He told a public forum in China that corruption poses a serious threat to the Communist Party and not the nation. Mr Zhang admitted that corruption in the Chinese Communist Party has been worsening; he even said that few officials would be found free of corrupt behavior if they were all put under investigation.
The question seems to be, will China or the Party alone capsize, if corruption is not reined. The year 2013 should bring us some elements of answer. China’s present leaders are not followers of Mao any more. The Great Helmsman had written: “Revolution is not a tea party. It is not like writing an essay, painting or embroidering flowers; revolution is an act of violence, it is the violent overthrow of one class by another.”
The new Emperors would prefer a gentler method. Will they succeed? India may soon face the same predicament, if burning issues are not acknowledged and acted upon in a timely manner. One solution is to have a ‘non-partisan’ Cabinet Minister to tackle the issue of corruption.
Is the Union Government interested?

French Revolution in China?

Wang Qishan

The official 'profile' of Wang Qishan, the new member of the Standing Committee of the CCP's Politburo says: "He can do it". 
This comment was posted on Xinhua website "after Wang Qishan took up a challenging new mission last month to lead China's top discipline watchdog [Central Commission for Discipline Inspection], amid rising calls for crackdown on corruption".
Xinhua added: "Simply more than a month into his new role, Wang has demonstrated the same style that previously won his fame as a troubleshooter in the economic field: tough, resolute and confident in front of difficulties."
Wang told a symposium at the end of November: "Ethics of the Party determines its survival or demise... In the fight against corruption, we can not attain our goal at one stroke. We must convince the public that we are making more and more concrete efforts and delivering more and more powerful blows."
One of these blows is to recommend the 19th-century classic on the French revolution (“The Old Regime and the Revolution”) written by Tocqueville.
As the article of Global Voices posted-below shows, this has attracted thousands of comments on the Chinese blogosphere. 
Does Mr. Wang mean that China could go through a French Revolution?
By recommending Tocqueville's book, Wang probably wants to highlight the dark sides of the French Revolution, which helped Europe to come out of the 'regime of privileges', Old Regime in Tocqueville's words.
This reminds me of one the last speeches of Danton, the great French revolutionary:

We broke the tyranny of the privileges by abolishing them and offer men the powers to which they are entitled.
We ended the monopoly of birth and wealth in all important offices of State, in our churches, in our armed forces, in all parts of this beautiful country, France.
We declared that the most humble man in this country is equal to the greatest.
The freedom that we have gained for ourselves, we have given it to all the slaves in the world.To the world, we have entrusted the mission to build the future with the hope to which we have given light.
This is more than a victory in a battle, more than swords and guns and all the cavalry of Europe!
And this inspiration, this new breath for all men, everywhere, this appetite, and this thirst for freedom, nobody should ever be allow to stifle it.

By in the case of China, the tyranny of privileges are born with the Party.
To give the common men the powers to which they are entitled, was the first objective of the Chinese Revolution in 1949. Isn't it?
This has abysmally failed; it is good that the leaders are today becoming aware of this failure (it does not seem the case in India as yet).
Will Xi Jinping and his colleagues manage to return to the basics, and bring offer a 'true' revolution to China?
It is doubtful, because they themselves belong to the system which has failed.
In any case, the French Revolution itself failed as beautifully explained by the great Indian Rishi, Sri Aurobindo:

Freedom, equality, brotherhood are the three godheads of the soul; they cannot be achieved through the external machinery of society or by man as long as he lives only in the individual and communal ego. When it asserts equality, it arrives at strife, then at an attempt to ignore the variations of nature, and, as the sole way of doing that successfully, it constructs an artificial and machine-made society. A society that pursues liberty as its ideal is unable achieve equality; a society that aims at equality will be obliged to sacrifice liberty. For the ego to speak of fraternity is for it to speak of something contrary to its nature. All that it knows is association for the pursuit of common egoistic ends and the utmost it can arrive at is a closer organization of the equal distribution of labor, production, consumption and enjoyment.

But a small dose of 'equality' and 'freedom', if not of 'brotherhood' could certainly help China to become a Great Power.
The same remarks apply to India.
 
Tocqueville French Revolution Classic on China's Bestsellers List
Abby
Global Voices
December 28, 2012

Thanks to China's top officials, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville’s “The Old Regime and the Revolution”, a 19th-century classic about the French revolution, has become a best seller in China. According to a report on Business Week, after Chinese Communist Party Vice Premier Wang Qishan highly recommended this book, it sold out in many bookstores in Beijing.
Chong Ming, a history professor who studies Alexis de Tocqueville explained:

Many civil servants read it just to follow leaders’ interests. In China, officials have a big influence on the political culture.

Why did Chinese officials suggest this classic on the subject of revolution? Scholars started heated discussions on the Chinese social media and blogosphere.
A search of “The Old Regime and the Revolution” on Weibo yields 235,416 results, crackling with quotes from the book:

Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man, socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Great revolutions that have happened historically, such as violent revolutions, did not occur during a time of poverty. They occurred when economic situations brought polarization to society. This is because at times like these, conflict between social classes is incited. It is easy for those in the bottom classes of the society to turn the flames of their anger into flames of war.

Some scholars think that the social background at the time of French Revolution is very similar to the conditions in today’s China.

Chong Ming said:

Like then in France, China has been through a lot of wars and revolutions in the past, now China is experiencing a transitional period with a centralized power and booming economy. Perhaps this is why the book has touched the nerves of Chinese leaders. I think they are not recommending this book to express their opinions against the reform, because if they thought the book is just about the danger of reform, they would censor it. It is more likely that they try to make people realize the necessity of reform: it is not to be delayed, otherwise, we will face great danger. To some extent, reform is the best way to avoid revolution.

One netizen echoed on Weibo:

银幕街一 号 : 想起《旧制度与大革命》一书，当中对大革命前法国的社会冲突及其发展过程的描写，有太多的地方，如果去掉“法国”两个字，活脱就是中国社会现实的高像素图 片。甚至于，由于物质条件的提升和财富数量的增加，无知、自大、贪欲和荒淫、无耻、堕落，比起昔日大革命前的法国社会来说， 简直有过之而无不及。

银幕街一号 : In the book “The Old Regime and the Revolution,”  the description of the social conflict in France before the revolution and its development is a lot similar to today's China. If they remove the word “France”, it's like a high resolution picture of Chinese society. Due to the improvement of material life and increase in wealth, the amount of ignorance, arrogance, greediness, dissolution, shamelessness and depravity compared to the old days before the revolution in France is simply greater.

Some scholars think that the book foreshadows contemporary China.
Prof. Chu Jianguo from Wu Han University said:

武汉大学教授储建国：其实托克维尔探讨的问题是为什么以自由为目的的革命让人们丧失了更多的自由？读这本书，我们要意识到 行政集权制度对于优良治理的危险性，同时更要意识到腐败的行政集权制度会导致治理溃败。

Tocqueville discusses: why do people lose more freedom after a revolution that is meant to gain more freedom? The book reminds us of the danger of centralized power, it also reminds us that  corruption will lead to failure.

Commentator Cao Yun wrote:

会不会是高层预感到近似玉石俱焚的法国大革命的大规模群体性事件随时都会爆发，借读书发出警示，让全社会早作防备，把托克 维尔的《旧制度与大革命》当做一面镜子，防患于未然呢？即使是这个用意也不算坏，这表明在我们这个社会上下都是清醒的，并没 有被所谓的“黄金十年”的幻象 所迷惑。

Is it because the top officials predict that a similar large-scale incident like the French Revolution will break out in China anytime? So they use the book as a warning to the whole society? Perhaps Tocqueville's “The Old Regime and the Revolution” serves as a mirror? Even so, this is not a bad intention, as it suggests that the leaders are clear-headed and that they are not fooled by the illusion of the so-called “ten golden years” in the past decade.

Commentator Chen Hu explained:

告诫提示一方面是针对各级官员的，如果缺乏危机感，“中国式大革命”同样会在不经意中存在爆发可能性，其针革命的对象会是 各级官员。因此，不让民众革官员的命，就必须统一思想，回到坚定推进市场化的经济改革和法治化。告诫提示另一方面是针对全社 会的，对于自由和民主的追求， 不能一蹴而就，法国大革命后雅各宾专政时期实行的“激进的人民民主”在中国的 “文化大革命”中已有过充分的表现。中国所要选择的民主，应是在中国共产党领导下逐步实行宪政民主。
On the one hand the warning is for officials at all levels: without a sense of crisis, “the Chinese Revolution” might take place. The only way to prevent this is to promote market-oriented economic reform and the rule of law. On the other hand, the warning is for the society as a whole: the pursuit of freedom and democracy can not be done overnight. After the French Revolution the Jacobin dictatorship of “radical people's democracy” can be found in China's “Cultural Revolution”. China's democracy should be realized step by step under the Chinese Communist Party.

Another commentator Nan Manzi concludes::

其实，与其听其言，不如观其行。

It's better to watch what they actually do than to listen to what they say and try to guess what it means.