One hundred years ago, the Great Qing Empire came to an end. I was heartened while  browsed bookstores in Beijing last summer by the growing body of work on Qing history and efforts to move away from the trite politically correct discourse that the dynasty was nothing but a calamity.  We will see whether 2011 can bring about civilized and reflective debate about the relevance of the dynasty to contemporary China.  In the 1960s, Mao responded to André Malraux that was still too early to fully judge the impact of the French Revolution. Hopefully,  a century gives us enough distance to think seriously about the 辛亥革命 revolution.

China: From Famine to Oslo by Perry Link | The New York Review of Books

A fitting review, which I read on Liu Xiaobo's birthday.

China: From Famine to Oslo by Perry Link | The New York Review of Books

Shi Tianjian (1952-2010)

I am in shock about the news that Shi Tianjian has passed away. TJ was a wonderful person to have around and a hero in my field, a pioneer in bringing survey research to the study of contemporary China.

We will all miss him enormously. Not unlike Leslie Kish (another of my survey research heroes), Shi Tianjian's amazing life experience made him an exceptional social scientist. As a teenager, he was asked to clean the village jiapu （家谱） in Henan during the cultural revolution, performed over 200 appendix surgeries in the local county hospital (fulfilling in a way his childhood dream of becoming a doctor)--a dream that the Mao regime denied him because of his social origins, drove trucks around China in the early 70s before passing the university entrance examination than finally gave him the chance to study at Peking University. At Columbia in New York, he put his trucking skills to use by driving a cab several nights a week in order to help him make ends meet during his graduate studies.

I met TJ in the 1990s, and was privileged to work with him on the China Survey in 2008. I will miss our spirited discussions about sampling, and will always cherish the memories of traveling with him in Tianjin (his 老家）and Sichuan a few years back. Farewell TJ, your friends miss you already!

Luo Zhijun (罗志军) replaces Liang Baohua as Jiangsu Party Secretary

He gets the plum job. Barring a disaster, the will be made a full member of the 18th CC. Unlike governor Li Xueyong, he has a reasonably strong experience in Jiangsu (not only as governor until now, but also as former Mayor and Party Secretary of Nanjing), though he never held a job outside Nanjing. He has roots in the Youth League and close ties to Li Yuanchao, which is supposed to tie him to Hu Jintao.

Professor Bo Zhiyue wrote an interesting analysis of Jiangsu county leaders, in which he notes that only one county level leader (Fu Cheng, former Mayor of Xuanwu District in Nanjing) has been dismissed for corruption in recent years. This either makes Jiangsu a relatively clean province--or if you are more cynical, one where leaders just take better care each other... Ah, the delights of observational equivalence! Regardless, a cleaner-than-average record should help boost the career prospects of the new team at the helm.

Liang Baohua (梁保华) replaced as governor of Jiangsu, almost certainly bringing his long carrrer to a close.

Unlike the new governor of Jiangsu, Liang (who held the job from 2002 to 2008, when he became Party Secretary in the Province) spent virtually his entire career in Jiangsu. He calls from Jiangxi province, but after his studies in journalism at Fudan University in Shanghai, he was sent to Taicang County during the Cultural Revolution. He had a short CR though, thanks to a stint at the Provincial party school in 1972/1973 that landed him the job of Deputy director of the General Office of Taicang county. Liang worked for four years in Beijing in the ministry of Light industry, before coming back to Jiangsu in November of 1981. He has not left Jiangsu since, holding a vast number of jobs in the Party and the bureaucracy at the provincial level. He was CCP Party Secretary of Suzhou from June 1998 to September 2000, when he was appointed deputy provincial governor. He made it to the job of governor in December 2002, and then Provincial Secretary in January of 2008.

Liang Baohua will probably end up at the CPPCC, perhaps as a vice-Chairman. He may also play a role at the NPC, but given his age (born in 1945), his is unlikely to get a spot on the 18th Central Committee.

Here is my Chinese version of  his bio:

梁保华，1945年11月生，江西宜春人。1965年11月入党。1968年8月工作。大学学历。
1963年9月复旦大学新闻系新闻专业学习。
1968年8月毕业，江苏省太仓县新湖公社劳动锻炼，借调苏州地委报社工作。
1969年12月任太仓县委、革委报道组、办事组工作人员
(1972年10月－1973 年1月省委党校学习)。
1975年8月任太仓县委办公室副主任。
1975年12月到江苏省委办公室综合组工作。
1977年11月在轻工业部政策研究室、办 公厅，轻工业部驻上海市轻工局工作组工作。
1981年11月任江苏省委办公厅、省政府办公厅秘书处秘书。
1982年5月任江苏省委办公厅副处级秘书。
1983年10月任省委办公厅副主任。
1985年12月任省委办公厅主任。
1991年9月任省委副秘书长，省委办公厅主任。
1993年6月任省委秘书长，省委办公厅主任。
1994年7月任省委秘书长。
1994年12月任省委常委，省委秘书长。
1998年6月任省委常委，苏州市委书记，省委秘书长。
1998年8月任省委常委，苏州市委书记。
2000年9月任省委副书记，苏州市委书记。
2000年12月任省委副书记，副省长。
2001年2月任省委副书记，常务副省长，党组副书记。
2002年12月任江苏省委副书记、江苏省代省长。
2003年2月任省委副书记，江苏省省长，党组书记。
2007年10月任中共江苏省委书记，江苏省省长。
2008年1月任中共江苏省委书记、人大常委会主任。
2010年12月不再担任江苏省委书记。
第10届全国人大代表。
中共15大代表，
16届中央候补委员，
十七届中央委员。

Li Xueyong (李学勇) appointed governor of Jiangsu

Li Xueyong is an outsider to the province, having served as vice-minister of Science & Technology since 1998. He is remarkable for his lack of experience outside of Beijing, having only served as vice-mayor of Xi'an from 1995 to 1997. The South China Morning Post reports the famous incident he had with a Mainland journalist as well as his close ties to Li Tieying (whom he served as secretary--or 秘书) and Li Changchun, the man who does not like to see negative coverage of himself when he types his own name in the Google search bar. The cablegate memos suggest that Li Changchun was involved in the hack against Google, which of course raises the question of the role of the Ministry Science and Technology in the whole debacle. Bottom line: Don't hold your breadth for a wave of liberalism in Jiangsu, at least emanating from the Governor's office!

Li Qun (李群) Appointed CCP Party Secretary of Qingdao (Nov. 2010)

Li Qun was Party Secretary in Linyi from 2002 to 2007. After a brief stint at the Department of Propaganda of Shandong, he gets the plum prize of Qingdao. Li replaces Yan Qijun  (阎启俊) whose entire career took place in Shandong (Boxing, Binzhou, Huimin, Dongying, Zibo, and finally Qingdao in December of 2006).

This promotion makes Li Qun a virtual shoe in for a seat on the 18th Central Committee, since Qingdao has the rank of "deputy provincial level municipality", a mouthful that denotes its importance as a municipality whose top leaders are appointed by the Central Organization department in Beijing.

Sun Shougang (孙守刚) appointed director of the Propaganda of Shandong Province

Sun Shougang has been Party Secretary of Jining City since 2006.  So far, I have identified  42 changes of prefecture-level CCP Party Secretaries since the beginning of the 2010. The great chess game of elite appointments and promotions ahead of the 18th Party Congress is under way, as reflected in the current turnover of sub-provincial and provincial elites.