Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
China's Xi deals knockout blow to once-powerful Youth League faction
Wed, October 26, 2022 at 5:19 p.m.
By Martin Quin Pollard
Premier Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Wang Yang, both 67 and young enough to be re-appointed to the elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, were left off even the wider Central Committee, as Xi installed loyalists in top party posts during the recent twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle.
Fellow vice premier and one-time high-flyer Hu Chunhua, who, at 59, had been seen by some party watchers as a candidate for premier and once even a possible future president, did not make it to the 24-man Politburo.
The omissions show Xi has succeeded in a years-long effort to eradicate the faction, analysts said.
"On Hu Chunhua, I think this has been Xi Jinping's main tactic of shutting down the youth league faction," said Victor Shih, an expert on elite politics in China and a professor at the University of California, San Diego.
"He has stifled the careers of quite a few cadres in that faction."
In a dramatic incident widely viewed as symbolic of the faction's demise, Xi's predecessor, Hu Jintao, who is 79 and a Youth League veteran, was unexpectedly escorted from the stage at Saturday's closing ceremony of the party congress.
Exactly what happened remains unclear, but state news agency Xinhua said in two English posts on Twitter that it was related to Hu's health. The social network is blocked in China.
"They are completely defeated," said Cheng Li, a specialist on the transformation of political leaders in China, referring to the sidelining of the Youth League faction.
"It means Xi can do many things he wants to, and opposing forces have got weaker," added Li, who is with the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"It can be read as, he didn't want the Western-style balance of power and wanted to show more of the centralisation of his power."
As Xi kicks off his third leadership term with more power than any leader since Mao Zedong, he faces a mountain of problems, from a dismal economy to his own COVID-19 policy that has backed China into a corner, and souring ties with the West.
TRAINING GROUND
The Youth League's budget has been cut from nearly 700 million yuan ($96 million) in 2012, the year Xi assumed power, to about 260 million yuan in 2021, official data shows.
Membership has dropped to about 74 million over the same period from around 90 million.
China's Communist Party has about 97 million members.
"As a party-led organization, the CYL has lost its clout as the place for grooming leaders," said Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago.
"But it has already been working hard to adapt to the changing political circumstances," he said, adding that the Youth League had built a social media presence, appealing to nationalistic pride, and engaged in civic functions.
Last year, Western journalists said they received death threats after its branch in the central province of Henan asked social media followers to report the whereabouts of a BBC reporter covering major floods there.
The Youth League did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Its political image lost some sheen in 2012, when Ling Jihua, a top aide to Hu Jintao, tried to cover up the circumstances around the death of his son, killed while driving a Ferrari that crashed in Beijing.
Ling was later charged with corruption and jailed for life.
XI'S 'ZHIJIANG NEW ARMY'
Factions, cliques and power bases have existed, with varying levels of influence, since the party's founding a century ago.
They famously included the so-called "Shanghai Gang" of former leader Jiang Zemin, who is now 96.
Xi's faction, the so-called "Zhijiang New Army", was forged during his years as party chief of the eastern province of Zhejiang between 2002 and 2007.
John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies at Seoul's Yonsei University, said the new leadership reflects Xi's predominance.
"But history would remind us that no political system on earth has eradicated the existence of internal disagreement, rivalry, and power struggles," he said.
"It can take time, but after one particular faction is eliminated, another faction eventually emerges."
Translation
北京，10 月 26 日（路透社）- 中國共產黨新領導層最明顯的三個人事遺漏有一個共同特點：他們都是從共青團中崛起的，並被認為是曾經強大的派系的成員，現習近平現在已經有效地粉碎了其影響力。
67 歲的李克強總理和汪洋副總理都足夠年輕，可以再次被任命為精銳的七人政治局常委，甚至連更廣泛的中央委員會都被排除在外，因為習近平在最近十年兩次領導層改組,
任命忠誠者擔任黨的高層職務-。
59 歲的副總理胡春華、曾經被視為有能力的人物, 並曾被一些黨內觀察人士視為總理候選人，甚至一度可能成為未來的主席，未能進入 24 人的政治局。
分析人士說，這些遺漏表明習近平多年來剷除該派系的努力取得了成果。
中國精英政治專家、加州大學聖地亞哥分校教授Victor Shih說: “關於胡春華，我認為這是習近平關閉共青團派的主要策略” 。
“他扼殺了那個派係不少干部的事業。”
在一個被廣泛視為該派滅亡象徵的戲劇性事件中，習近平的前任、79歲的共青團老兵胡錦濤在周六的黨代會閉幕式上出人意料地被護送下台。
究竟發生了什麼仍不清楚，但官方通訊社新華社在推特上的兩篇英文帖子中表示，這與胡的健康有關。在中國社交網絡這被封鎖。
中國政治領導人轉型問題專家Cheng Li在談到團派的邊緣化時說: “他們完全被打敗了” 。
在華盛頓布魯金斯學會工作的Li補充道: “這意味著習近平可以做很多他想做的事情，而反對力量變得更弱了” 。
“這可以理解為，他不想要西方式的權力平衡，而是想表現出更多的權力集中。”
隨著習近平以比毛澤東以來任何一位領導人有更大的權力去開始他的第三個領導任期，他面臨著一大堆問題，從低迷的經濟到他自己的 COVID-19 政策將中國逼入絕境，以及與西方的關係惡化.
訓練場
“派” 是指在共青團中擔任領導職務的官員，該團招募和培養一些中國最聰明的人，主要是高中生和大學生，傳統上充當黨的支線組織。
官方數據顯示，共青團的預算已從習近平上台的 2012 年的近 7 億元人民幣（9600
萬美元）削減至
2021 年的約
2.6 億元人民幣。
同期，會員人數已從約 9,000 萬降至約 7,400 萬。
中國共產黨約有9,700萬黨員。
芝加哥大學政治學家 Dali Yang 說: “作為一個以黨為主導的組織，共青團已經失去了培養領導者的影響力” 。
他說: “但它已經在努力適應不斷變化的政治環境” ，並補充說，共青團已經建立了社交媒體形象，呼籲民族主義自豪感，並參與公民活動。
共青團一直在積極打擊被指控在中國存在不當行為的外國品牌，例如虛假廣告。
去年，西方記者表示，位於中部省份河南的共青團分部要求社交媒體追隨者,去報告一名曾報導當地大洪水的 BBC 記者的下落後，之後記者收到了死亡威脅。
共青團沒有立即回應週三的置評請求。
它的政治形像在 2012 年失去了一些光彩，當時胡錦濤的高級助手Ling Jihua試圖掩蓋其兒子在北京的法拉利車撞毀身亡的情況。
Ling後來被指控貪污並被判終身監禁。
習近平的 “浙江新軍”
自一個世紀前建黨以來，派系、集團和權力基地一直存在，影響程度各不相同。
其中著名的包括現年96歲的前領導人江澤民所謂的 “上海幫” 。
習的派系，即所謂的 “浙江新軍” ，是他在 2002 年至 2007 年擔任東部省份浙江省委書記期間打造的。
首爾延世大學中國研究教授 John Delury 表示，新領導層反映了習近平的主導地位。
他說: “但歷史會提醒我們，地球上沒有任何政治制度能夠根除內部分歧、競爭和權力鬥爭的存在” 。
“這可能需要時間，但在一個特定派係被淘汰後，另一個派系最終會出現。”
So, the Youth League faction has
completely been defeated and displaced to the sideline. It means Xi can do many
things he wants and has a free hand to lead China in dealing with internal troubles
and challenges from the West. In China, the party’s and government’s ruling efficiency
come first at all times. Different voices will be suppressed, as always.
Note:
1. Communist Youth
League of China (中國共產主義青年團) also
known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth
League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth
between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). (Wikipedia)
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