CHINA-INTERNAL: LEADERSHIP/ZHOU YONGKANG
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A front page article published on July 31, 2014, by the CCP's official newspaper 'People's Daily', described the investigation into Zhou Yongkang as one of the "biggest tests" of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the commencement of reforms and opening up. It charged "senior Party and state leaders occupying high positions, like Zhou Yongkang", of serious violations of party discipline, tangled interests, and collusion of power and money, to block reforms and cause enormous harm to the Party, the entire country and normal development of the market economy. Quoting CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping, it urged that to promote sustainable development of the country and achieve the great rejuvenation of the Party, this case must be seriously addressed and handled according to law. The People's Daily article confirmed that a meeting of the Politburo meeting presided over by Party General Secretary Xi Jinping on July 28, had decided to initiate the review of Zhou Yongkang, and to study major issues comprehensively to promote the rule of law. Asserting that governance and corruption are closely linked to reform and opening, it added that the decision would help create a new pattern of implementing the rule of law. The article pointed out that the CCP was not seeking merely the interests of the ruling political establishment but was committed to improving public welfare.
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