The front page of today’s People’s Daily features the headline, “Use practical acts to maintain reform, development and stability.” The article says the majority of party members, cadres and the masses strongly support the CPC Central Committee’s decision to discipline Bo Xilai and launch and investigation against him.
The article says that rumors continue to interfere with the overall situation of reform, development and stability. Yet the Party has effectively reigned in popular opinion. The article explains that everybody must toe the party line and use real acts to maintain reform and stability. It does not actually list any practical steps that should be taken.
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The next headline reads, “Xi Jinping met with the chief representatives of the Security Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the head of the seventh .” The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization that was founded in Shanghai in 2001 and includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Xi congratulated the member-states on successful law enforcement and security cooperation and said they could continue to work towards combating the “three forces,” drug trafficking and transnational organized crime. They made preparations for the Beijing summit that will take place in June this year.
Interestingly, the story on the left of the page underneath the feature story has a headline almost identical to the above, except that the person who meets the Shanghai Security Council is public security chief and politburo member Zhou Yongkang (see People’s Daily bio). Zhou was rumored to associate with Bo Xilai, but then put on a very public display to show his continued allegiance to and good favor with the CPC Central Committee with a CCTV appearance last week.
The only difference between the headlines is that Xi Jinping is said to meet the SCO delegation in a group (集体会见) and Zhou Yongkang is said to simply meet (会见) them. A Zhongnanhaiologist could speculate on the significance of this difference as well as the position of the articles on the page.
Links and Sources
People’s Daily: 以实际行动维护改革发展稳定良好局面， 习近平集体会见上海合作组织， 周永康会见上海合作组织
The Economist: article about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization