2012-03-16

China's political realignment; Chongqing TV station can show commercials again

First, a look at the fallout from Bo Xilai's firing. This whole episode, possibly including the Wang Lijun incident, is exactly as I said from the outset—a political battle for control of China. The liberal reformers have won this day, along with the princelings.

Bo's exit a setback for leftists
His exit greatly boosts the prospects of his perceived arch rival, Guangdong party chief Wang Yang , and Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang , who replaced Bo while retaining his current position.

Dr Kerry Brown, a senior fellow with the London-based Chatham House, said: "Wang Yang has come out of this a real winner." However, analysts say that Bo, who comes from a privileged political family, may not fall further and may still keep his position in the party's 25-member Politburo until the 18th party congress.

Bo's downfall also spelled the end to the once-hyped "Chongqing model" and signalled a major setback for the conservative forces within the party, for whom Bo was regarded as a poster boy, according to analysts. Two major leftist websites on the mainland were apparently blocked yesterday following Bo's removal.

...o has earned notoriety for his crusade against organised crime. But his programme was widely criticised by intellectuals for allegedly riding roughshod over the rule of law. His controversial red-song-singing campaign and his ultra-orthodox championing of hardcore socialist ideology, such as the pursuit of common prosperity, also drew critics.
Bo Xilai was ambitious as well, as I discussed in previous posts. Furthermore, he was not popular with citizens who feared a turning back of the clock in China, exactly the area criticized by Wen Jiabao when he discusses the Cultural Revolution in his comments to the press. On that score, there's already a big winner from Bo Xilai's exit: Chongqing television. Inquiring minds are reading 重庆卫视一年来首次出现商业广告 (Chongqing Satellite TV broadcasts first commercial in over a year). Below is the BBC's summary.
Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald reports that local broadcaster Chongqing Satellite Television has transmitted its first commercial in a year right after the evening news bulletin that reported Mr Bo's sacking.

The channel was re-branded by the government as a "red channel" one year ago to promote ideologies originating from the Chinese communist revolution, the paper says, with commercials cancelled and leftist "red song" shows being added to the broadcasts.
The original Chinese article says the station derived 45% of its revenue from commercials, average worker salaries fell 10% during the ban and job postings declined 40%. The station was supported with government subsidies.

From the above, you can see why average Chinese who pay attention to politics are happy that Bo Xilai has been knocked from power. There were some concerns that he could take his show to Beijing and spread it nationally.

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