Chen Xitong
Encyclopedia
Chen Xitong was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China
Politburo of the Communist Party of China
The Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China or Political bureau of the CPC Central Committee , formerly as Central Bureau before 1927, is a group of 24 people who oversee the Communist Party of China...

 and the Mayor of Beijing until he was removed from office on charges of corruption in 1995.

Biography

Born on June 10, 1930 in Sichuan Province, China. He was known to be a diligent student and was raised by his widowed mother. Due to stringent family economic conditions, he applied for Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University , colloqiually known as 北师大 or Beishida, is a public research university located in Beijing with strong emphasis on basic disciplines of humanities and sciences...

 due to low tuition fees. However, with outstanding academic achievement, he was accepted by Beijing University with scholarship. He eventually married the daughter of his college professor and has two sons with her. Chen Xiaoxi and Chen Xiaotong.

A graduate of Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...

, he shared close ties to Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...

 and his family. Chen was once considered a possible successor to Deng Xiaoping. During the 1980s, Chen Xitong became a fan of American TV series Hunter when it was first aired in China, and in his speeches, Chen had made various references to the TV series.

Chen Xitong was the mayor of Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...

. Being the Mayor of Beijing during that time and due to many years of Communist background, he followed the direction of China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, and was used as a scape goat to be responsible for the declaration of martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...

 in Beijing which led to the latter scene.

A onetime rival to Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...

, Chen, being the leader of "Beijing clique", over-powered Jiang's newly-obtained authority at the time. Thereforth, led to Chen's downfall in 1995 during an anti-corruption campaign led by Jiang's Shanghai clique
Shanghai clique
The Shanghai clique or Shanghai faction is the name given to an informal group of officials in the Communist Party of China, especially those who serve in the central government of the People's Republic of China or the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, who rose to prominence in...

. Clique members Zeng Qinghong
Zeng Qinghong
Zeng Qinghong was the Vice-President of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2008. He became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee during the 2002 16th Party Congress. Although he was formally ranked fifth in the nine PSC...

 and Jia Qinglin
Jia Qinglin
Jia Qinglin is a senior leader of the People's Republic of China. He is the fourth ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Chairman and Party secretary of the National Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference. Jia's functions as...

 played key roles in the campaign that eventually led to Chen's arrest; some observers view Chen's downfall as a political struggle between Chen and Jiang. It was later revealed that Chen's embezzlement was a relatively low amount in comparison to other corrupted cadres who embezzled much more but were left unscathed in the so-called anti-corruption campaigns.

Chen's Vice Mayor, Wang Baosen, committed suicide during 1994 due to reasons yet to be clairified. However, such incident became the leading fuse of this "Beijing clique" and "Shanghai clique" power struggle. It was later verified internally that the amount of money Chen embezzled was directed to build vacational recreation centers which catered to most top-tier politicians in Beijing at the time. He was also accused of having extramarital affair with lover, He Ping, of 15 years; which, was considered a violation of moral code for being member of communist party. In 1998, Chen Xitong was given a 16 year jail sentence on charges of corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

 and dereliction of duty
Dereliction of duty
Dereliction of duty is a specific offense under United States Code Title 10,892. Article 92 and applies to all branches of the US military. A service member who is derelict has willfully refused to perform his duties or has incapacitated himself in such a way that he cannot perform his duties...

. His son, Chen Xiaotong, was also sentenced. Chen was released early from jail in 2006, officially due to reasons of ill health.

The novel The Wrath of Heaven — the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Action (天怒—反貪局在行動; pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: Tiān nú—Fǎntãnjú zài Xíngdòng) published in 1996 by the Yuanfang Publishing House of Inner Mongolia and quickly banned in China is a fictionalized account of the Chen Xitong case written from the point of a view of an investigator.

External links

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