It is always dangerous when the No. 2 tries to fix the No.1's policies

 

Premier Li's economic rebuild has a dangerous precedent

 

 

Last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hosted a massive video conference with 100,000 officials across China, urging them to do everything they can to secure "reasonable economic growth" in the April-June quarter.
 
The scale of the event reflects just how serious the economic slowdown is. But rumors started circulating when the evening news on state TV on May 25 only reported the event fifth in its lineup, and never mentioned the 100,000 number.
 
For some, it brought back memories of the "Seven Thousand Cadres Conference" of 1962, when 7,000 senior officials discussed ways to abandon the failed Great Leap Forward of Mao Zedong. That gathering too went unreported by state media.
 
Mao's No. 2, Liu Shaoqi, led the economic reconstruction launched after the 1962 conference and fixed Mao's leftist economic policies. But when Mao regained power through the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, Liu became Target No. 1. He was expelled from the party, labeled a traitor, repeatedly tortured and eventually lost his life.
 
Economic policy and power struggles are two sides of the same coin. It is always dangerous when the No. 2 tries to fix the top leader's policies, however well intended the efforts may be.