Bo Xilai

Huang is certainly an interesting character.

He survived the purges of other former Chongqing mayors, Bo Xilai and Sun Zhongcai, both while serving as their right-hand man, their deputy mayor.

As a result, he's been described by some as a bu dao weng, the sort of roly poly doll that kind of rolls back over when you push it, that stands back up.

So he has a reputation for being something of an economic technocrat when he was mayor who delivered strong double digit percentage GDP growth.

He survived five party chiefs in Chongqing.

Chongqing is a place full of really dark politics.

In the last five party chiefs, Sun Zhengcai and Bo Xilai, both of them party members, very high-ranked party CCP officials, they are purged, and both of them actually are serving a life-term imprisonment right now.

Huang Qifan was the mayor.

Huang had earned a reputation as a political survivor.

He worked alongside former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, whose spectacular downfall in 2012 shook China's leadership, and Sun Zhengcai, who was removed in 2017.

Both subsequently received life sentences.

Huang's ability to emerge relatively unscathed distinguished him from many officials associated with those disgraced leaders.

The young buy his merchandise ironically without knowing what he did, or perhaps knowing and not caring.

Bo Xilai tried to resurrect his ghost before they imprisoned him for corruption.

The New Left quotes him against inequality.

Nationalists invoke him against America.

The CCP has long been concerned about local power bases.

The political influence that developed around figures such as Zhou Yongkang in Sichuan and Bo Xilai in Chongqing exemplifies local fiefdoms and the central authorities fear of such forces.

But there is another side to this strategy.

Rapid personnel rotation may strengthen central control, but it can also lead to policy fragmentation, encourage officials to prioritize short-term gains, and weaken incentives to address problems that take years to solve, such as massive local government debt.

Xi Jinping was not the chosen successor by either Jiang Zemin or Hu Jintao.

He was the compromise, 'cause Jiang Zemin wanted Bo Xilai, who's now locked up in prison.

Uh, Hu Jintao wanted Li Keqiang, who is now dead, the former premier.

Hmm.

So physically, of course, like, uh, Frank gave a wonderful overview of all the prisons, and there's one I, I think that I would like to mention as well, the Qincheng Prison, where all the pr- political prisoners, uh, was kept, right, from, from the Cultural Revolution, the leaders, Mao's wife, Jiang Qing.

Bo Xilai.

[chuckles]

Yeah.

So people often said there is an opposition party in China, right? They're all in Qincheng Prison, right? The chief of the police, uh, Bo Xilai, everybody, uh, you can name, they are now in Qincheng Prison.

So if some one day the current regime just collapse, they can immediately have opposition party take over.

Just teasing.