Chitchat Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter

Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’, says Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter

The daughter of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew appears to have weighed in on the debate over President Xi Jinping’s much touted anti-corruption campaign in China, describing it as “a game” designed to tighten his grip on power.

“Xi is playing a game where he appears to weed out ‘corrupts’” while replacing them with “his own people”, said Dr Lee Wei Ling, a neurosurgeon and the younger sister of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on her Facebook account on January 1.

She was commenting on a report by The Guardian newspaper, which cited mainland authorities as saying Beijing had recovered 2.3 billion yuan (HK2.56 billion) from losses to corruption and arrested 122 government officials who were on the run last year.

Her criticism came as diplomatic and economic relations between Beijing and Singapore have been strained over a series of spats in recent weeks including territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the seizure of nine combat vehicles by Hong Kong customs in November as they were shipped back to the city state from Taiwan.

While Xi openly warns that the Communist Party’s legitimacy hinges on the fight against rampant official corruption, his critics have long argued the anti-graft drive he launched after taking office in late 2012 was largely aimed at tearing down or silencing his opponents.

But it is rare for foreign dignitaries or their relatives, especially those in Beijing-friendly Southeast Asian nations, to openly rebuke top Chinese leaders.

While her brother Lee Hsien Loong has been critical of Beijing’s assertiveness in pressing its claims in the South China Sea, he has seldom pointed the finger at Xi.

Dr Lee grabbed the headlines early last year over a rare feud with her brother over the first anniversary of their father’s death.

She accused the incumbent Singapore leader on her Facebook account of “abusing his power” by conducting elaborate anniversary events and trying to establish a political dynasty.

“Lee Kuan Yew would have cringed at the hero worship just one year after his death,” she said.

The family feud escalated in September when she lashed out at her brother for media censorship.

She said the Singapore media dare not disobey her brother and sister-in-law Ho Ching.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/dipl.../xis-anti-corruption-campaign-weed-out-rivals

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

The cliqued Chinese saying 'May you live in interesting times' for 2017!

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Did her father's anti-communist / Marxist campaign 'to weed out rivals' ???

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

This is an unpresidented and unwarranted attack on the integrity of Party and Uncle Eleven ....... we must weed out all these kaypoh princelings and princesslings with 'olier than thou attitudes ........ click below link to know more ........ bwahahahaha ........

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-hollywood-sign-hollyweed-20170101-htmlstory.html

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Monkey see, monkey do.

Big Bro talked big, give opinions on China.

Small sister, bored. Also want to give comments.

That Mr Eleven has been using the corruption campaign to weed out rivals has been
written upteen times by US and UK media, and here is a little girl trying to impress
elders on her "knowledge" of international affairs. At least this time she did not
extract wholesale paragraphs from Daily Mail etc.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

She is having old cunt hot flush.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

tanwahtiu said:

She is having old cunt hot flush.

Click to expand...

She should learn from Ah Tiong slut Wendi Deng. Go find a Tua Lampa angmo lover boy to lubricate her cunt. See how happy Wendi look in the paparazzi photos with her new 21 year old Hungarian toyboy.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Pinkieslut said:

She should learn from Ah Tiong slut Wendi Deng. Go find a Tua Lampa angmo lover boy to lubricate her cunt. See how happy Wendi look in the paparazzi photos with her new 21 year old Hungarian toyboy.

Click to expand...

Too much frustrations coupled with dull and monotonous job,she can only vent her discontentments on the media.Her so-called lover boy will run away as fast as a deer on first sight of her.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Ah Gong's daughter inherited Ah Gong's trait of intolerance towards dishonesty. She's calling a spade a spade. 11 Jinping isn' interested in just rooting out corruption. He's using it to root out his rivals. Probably planning to stay in power beyond the usual two terms and eliminating possible factions that would oppose his third term in power.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

JohnTan said:

Ah Gong's daughter inherited Ah Gong's trait of intolerance towards dishonesty. She's calling a spade a spade. 11 Jinping isn' interested in just rooting out corruption. He's using it to root out his rivals. Probably planning to stay in power beyond the usual two terms and eliminating possible factions that would oppose his third term in power.

Click to expand...

Eh she is just repeating the obvious as well as what 1001 media outlets and experts' opinions back several years ago. Can you tell me if the princess provided any new insights?

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

can the pot stop calling the kettle black?

or ima ask PJ thum and Snowden to email CCTV and cmpd the entire dossier on operation coldstore and other adventures of Lee Kuan Yew to do an entire article and series on.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Puteri Lee wants to stir more shit to make CB Loong even more busy.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

she succeeded where the entire Oppo failed to screw FAP, i would b first to spread some reputation points to her

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

The Coming Chinese Crackup

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

On Thursday, the National People’s Congress convened in Beijing in what has become a familiar annual ritual. Some 3,000 “elected” delegates from all over the country—ranging from colorfully clad ethnic minorities to urbane billionaires—will meet for a week to discuss the state of the nation and to engage in the pretense of political participation.

Some see this impressive gathering as a sign of the strength of the Chinese political system—but it masks serious weaknesses. Chinese politics has always had a theatrical veneer, with staged events like the congress intended to project the power and stability of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. Officials and citizens alike know that they are supposed to conform to these rituals, participating cheerfully and parroting back official slogans. This behavior is known in Chinese as biaotai, “declaring where one stands,” but it is little more than an act of symbolic compliance.

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. He is determined to avoid becoming the Mikhail Gorbachev of China, presiding over the party’s collapse. But instead of being the antithesis of Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Xi may well wind up having the same effect. His despotism is severely stressing China’s system and society—and bringing it closer to a breaking point.

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. The post-Soviet “color revolutions” in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan from 2003 to 2005, as well as the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, all burst forth unanticipated.

China-watchers have been on high alert for telltale signs of regime decay and decline ever since the regime’s near-death experience in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Since then, several seasoned Sinologists have risked their professional reputations by asserting that the collapse of CCP rule was inevitable. Others were more cautious—myself included. But times change in China, and so must our analyses.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

The endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun, I believe, and it has progressed further than many think. We don’t know what the pathway from now until the end will look like, of course. It will probably be highly unstable and unsettled. But until the system begins to unravel in some obvious way, those inside of it will play along—thus contributing to the facade of stability.

Communist rule in China is unlikely to end quietly. A single event is unlikely to trigger a peaceful implosion of the regime. Its demise is likely to be protracted, messy and violent. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Mr. Xi will be deposed in a power struggle or coup d’état. With his aggressive anticorruption campaign—a focus of this week’s National People’s Congress—he is overplaying a weak hand and deeply aggravating key party, state, military and commercial constituencies.

The Chinese have a proverb, waiying, neiruan—hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Mr. Xi is a genuinely tough ruler. He exudes conviction and personal confidence. But this hard personality belies a party and political system that is extremely fragile on the inside.

Consider five telling indications of the regime’s vulnerability and the party’s systemic weaknesses.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

First, 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. In 2014, Shanghai’s Hurun Research Institute, which studies China’s wealthy, found that 64% of the “high net worth individuals” whom it polled—393 millionaires and billionaires—were either emigrating or planning to do so. Rich Chinese are sending their children to study abroad in record numbers (in itself, an indictment of the quality of the Chinese higher-education system).

Just this week, the Journal reported, federal agents searched several Southern California locations that U.S. authorities allege are linked to “multimillion-dollar birth-tourism businesses that enabled thousands of Chinese women to travel here and return home with infants born as U.S. citizens.” Wealthy Chinese are also buying property abroad at record levels and prices, and they are parking their financial assets overseas, often in well-shielded tax havens and shell companies.

Meanwhile, Beijing is trying to extradite back to China a large number of alleged financial fugitives living abroad. When a country’s elites—many of them party members—flee in such large numbers, it is a telling sign of lack of confidence in the regime and the country’s future.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Second, since taking office in 2012, Mr. Xi has greatly intensified the political repression that has blanketed China since 2009. The targets include the press, social media, film, arts and literature, religious groups, the Internet, intellectuals, Tibetans and Uighurs, dissidents, lawyers, NGOs, university students and textbooks. The Central Committee sent a draconian order known as Document No. 9 down through the party hierarchy in 2013, ordering all units to ferret out any seeming endorsement of the West’s “universal values”—including constitutional democracy, civil society, a free press and neoliberal economics.

A more secure and confident government would not institute such a severe crackdown. It is a symptom of the party leadership’s deep anxiety and insecurity.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Third, even many regime loyalists are just going through the motions. It is hard to miss the theater of false pretense that has permeated the Chinese body politic for the past few years. Last summer, I was one of a handful of foreigners (and the only American) who attended a conference about the “China Dream,” Mr. Xi’s signature concept, at a party-affiliated think tank in Beijing. We sat through two days of mind-numbing, nonstop presentations by two dozen party scholars—but their faces were frozen, their body language was wooden, and their boredom was palpable. They feigned compliance with the party and their leader’s latest mantra. But it was evident that the propaganda had lost its power, and the emperor had no clothes.

In December, I was back in Beijing for a conference at the Central Party School, the party’s highest institution of doctrinal instruction, and once again, the country’s top officials and foreign policy experts recited their stock slogans verbatim. During lunch one day, I went to the campus bookstore—always an important stop so that I can update myself on what China’s leading cadres are being taught. Tomes on the store’s shelves ranged from Lenin’s “Selected Works” to Condoleezza Rice’s memoirs, and a table at the entrance was piled high with copies of a pamphlet by Mr. Xi on his campaign to promote the “mass line”—that is, the party’s connection to the masses. “How is this selling?” I asked the clerk. “Oh, it’s not,” she replied. “We give it away.” The size of the stack suggested it was hardly a hot item.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Fourth, the corruption that riddles the party-state and the military also pervades Chinese society as a whole. Mr. Xi’s anticorruption campaign is more sustained and severe than any previous one, but no campaign can eliminate the problem. It is stubbornly rooted in the single-party system, patron-client networks, an economy utterly lacking in transparency, a state-controlled media and the absence of the rule of law.

Moreover, Mr. Xi’s campaign is turning out to be at least as much a selective purge as an antigraft campaign. Many of its targets to date have been political clients and allies of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Now 88, Mr. Jiang is still the godfather figure of Chinese politics. Going after Mr. Jiang’s patronage network while he is still alive is highly risky for Mr. Xi, particularly since Mr. Xi doesn’t seem to have brought along his own coterie of loyal clients to promote into positions of power. Another problem: Mr. Xi, a child of China’s first-generation revolutionary elites, is one of the party’s “princelings,” and his political ties largely extend to other princelings. This silver-spoon generation is widely reviled in Chinese society at large.

Re: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign ‘to weed out rivals’ - Lee Kuan Yew’s daugh

Finally, China’s economy—for all the Western views of it as an unstoppable juggernaut—is stuck in a series of systemic traps from which there is no easy exit. In November 2013, Mr. Xi presided over the party’s Third Plenum, which unveiled a huge package of proposed economic reforms, but so far, they are sputtering on the launchpad. Yes, consumer spending has been rising, red tape has been reduced, and some fiscal reforms have been introduced, but overall, Mr. Xi’s ambitious goals have been stillborn. The reform package challenges powerful, deeply entrenched interest groups—such as state-owned enterprises and local party cadres—and they are plainly blocking its implementation.

These five increasingly evident cracks in the regime’s control can be fixed only through political reform. Until and unless China relaxes its draconian political controls, it will never become an innovative society and a “knowledge economy”—a main goal of the Third Plenum reforms. The political system has become the primary impediment to China’s needed social and economic reforms. If Mr. Xi and party leaders don’t relax their grip, they may be summoning precisely the fate they hope to avoid.

In the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the upper reaches of China’s leadership have been obsessed with the fall of its fellow communist giant. Hundreds of Chinese postmortem analyses have dissected the causes of the Soviet disintegration.

Mr. Xi’s real “China Dream” has been to avoid the Soviet nightmare. Just a few months into his tenure, he gave a telling internal speech ruing the Soviet Union’s demise and bemoaning Mr. Gorbachev’s betrayals, arguing that Moscow had lacked a “real man” to stand up to its reformist last leader. Mr. Xi’s wave of repression today is meant to be the opposite of Mr. Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost. Instead of opening up, Mr. Xi is doubling down on controls over dissenters, the economy and even rivals within the party.

But reaction and repression aren’t Mr. Xi’s only option. His predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, drew very different lessons from the Soviet collapse. From 2000 to 2008, they instituted policies intended to open up the system with carefully limited political reforms.