China's Communist Party acknowledges factions within its ranks

China's ruling Communist Party in a rare acknowledgement spoke of powerful factions within its ranks as President Xi Jinping undertakes a massive anti-graft drive against powerful disgraced leaders to firmly establish his authority on the 83 million-member-strong party.
The acknowledgement of the factions within the ranks came from the official news agency Xinhua which named key members who are linked up to disgraced top leaders of the former President Hu Jintao administration like Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua.
Emerging as the strongest leader after simultaneously assuming power of Communist Party of China (CPC), the military and the President in 2012, Xi, 61, launched a sweeping anti-graft drive, described by many as a "shock and awe" campaign which also drew allegations that it targeted certain powerful factions owing allegiances to previous leaders.

Xi had weighed the risks in going after such "tigers", the report said referring to the investigations against Zhou, part of the nine member Standing Committee of the CPC headed by Hu which ruled the country for a decade till 2012 in which Xi was also part as Vice President.
Some reports spoke of increased security to Xi as a result of threats he faced due to the sweeping campaign.
Zhou, who headed the internal security, was regarded as the power behind another fallen leader Bo Xilai, who is serving a life sentence for various corruption charges and abuse of power.

Bo was regarded as rival contender to Xi before he fell from grace after a series of scandals against him.

The condemnation of cliques and factions could be considered the latest warning for other officials to avoid the misdeeds of Zhou, Gen Xu Caihou, former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and Ling Jihua, former minister, the report said.
Ling, the latest former official to have fallen from grace was the closest aide to Hu.
Zhou was reported to have formed several networks within the fields he was in charge of, including central and local governments, law enforcement organs and state-owned enterprises, such as China National Petroleum Corp, where a number of corrupt officials investigated for involvement in Zhou's case have been dubbed the "oil clique", the report said.