"Senior officials and members of their immediate families would also be barred from setting up accounts with overseas financial institutions unless they have legitimate reasons for doing so—such as study or work—the people said," the paper reported further.
“Leading cadres, especially senior cadres, must pay attention to family discipline and ethics,” Xi told the party’s top disciplinary agency in January. He added that officials must “lead by example in managing their spouses and children properly, being a dutiful person and doing things in a clean way."
Senior officials are required to sign pledges declaring that they are complying with the new rules, which would ostensibly give Xi more leverage over the country's ChiCom elite ahead of the party's 20th Congress, which is scheduled for late this year.
Xi is expected to win a third five-year term as head of the party while also stacking his leadership roster with people he can trust so that he can bolster his status as the most powerful leader in China over decades. The compliance pledges will give Xi leverage over any official who is found to be in violation of the overseas assets rules, making them liable for serious offenses including being disloyal and dishonest to the party.
"Since taking power in 2012, Mr. Xi has waged a high-profile campaign to fight corruption and curb displays of extravagance among officials, saying that the party faced an existential battle against moral decay within its ranks," the WSJ noted further.
The new rules on overseas assets may be framed as an anti-corruption tool by Xi, but the real meaning behind them is clear: Once war with Taiwan begins -- now that Joe Biden has pledged to defend the island -- the Chinese leader knows assets will be frozen and sanctions will economically cripple the ChiCom elite, which could also lead to rebellion at home.
War drums are beating in Asia.
Sources include:
Germany’s birth rate improbably falls by 11% in the first quarter of 2022
By Lance D Johnson // Share
Port of Los Angeles director: US supply chain at risk if rail service does not improve
By Mary Villareal // Share
Massive uprising erupts in Panama over inflation and deteriorating economic conditions
By Arsenio Toledo // Share
Fact check: No, RFK, Jr. did not say COVID was an ethnically targeted bioweapon that spared Jews
By healthranger // Share
Top 10 signs you might be an obedience idiot
By healthranger // Share
By newseditors // Share
Dangerous heat wave expected to set record highs throughout US South and Southwest
By isabelle // Share
Secret Service admits it found marijuana twice at the White House in 2022
By arseniotoledo // Share