China’s state media chose a strange time to announce the indictment of former security czar Zhou Yongkang: just after midnight in Beijing last Friday night. Zhou is the most senior Chinese official ever to face corruption charges, and given how keen the government has been to trumpet the other trophies taken during Xi Jinping’s ongoing anti-graft crackdown, one might have expected more fanfare. In 2013, former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, a lesser figure, was indicted on a Thursday, and his case was hyped both online and in the state media for days afterward. By contrast, state organs continued to downplay news of Zhou’s downfall well into Monday.
The contrast to Bo Xilai’s treatment can partly be explained by their relative standing. Despite the spectacular nature of Bo’s crimes — including the cover-up of a murder committed by his wife — he was the Communist Party secretary of China’s largest municipality. Zhou was the ninth-ranking member of the ruling Politburo, where he had oversight over intelligence services, law enforcement, and the courts.
Bo’s crimes were embarrassing to China’s rulers. Zhou’s — which allegedly include bribery, leaking of state secrets, and general abuses of power — threaten to undermine the Party’s very legitimacy. “There is one question that troubles me,” tweeted a Beijing lawyer on Monday morning, using China’s Sina Weibo system. “If Zhou Yongkang is so bad, aren’t the courts and judicial officers who were under his control even worse?”
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