Zhou Yongkang
| Zhou Yongkang 周永康 |
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|---|---|
 |
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| 6th Secretary of CPC Central Political and Legislative Committee | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 October 2007 |
|
| Deputy | Meng Jianzhu |
| General Secretary | Hu Jintao |
| Preceded by | Luo Gan |
| Member of the 17th CPC Politburo Standing Committee | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 October 2007 |
|
| General Secretary | Hu Jintao |
| Member of the National People's Congress |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 5 March 1998 |
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| Constituency | Sichuan At-large (98-08) Heilongjiang At-large (08-) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 1942 Wuxi, Jiangsu Province |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party |
Zhou Yongkang (Chinese: 周永康; pinyin: Zhōu Yǒngkāng; born December 1942) is a senior leader of the Communist Party of China who is currently serving as the 9th ranked member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, and the head of the Central Political and Legislative Committee, an organ directing central government legal policy and the legislative agenda.
He was a State Councillor until March 2008 and is a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He was mayor of Panjin in Liaoning Province from 1983 until 1985, served prominently as the Minister of Public Security of the People's Republic of China and thus chief of the Ministry of Public Security from 2002 to 2007.
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[edit] Biography
Born in December 1942, Zhou Yongkang is a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. In November 1964 he joined the CPC and entered the workforce in September 1966. He graduated from the Survey and Exploration Department of Beijing Petroleum Institute majoring in geophysical survey and exploration. As a university graduate he holds the title Senior Engineer with a rank equivalent to that of Professor.[1]
During the 1960s and 70s he spent most of his career in the petroleum (oil) sector and by the mid-1980s he was vice minister of the Petroleum Industry and from 1996 General Manager of China National Petroleum Corporation.[2] In 1998 he was Minister of Land and Resources and in 1999, secretary of the Communist Party of China Sichuan Provincial Committee. During his tenure as Minister of Public Security, he was a reformer of China's policing system, aiming to create a more professional police force, even going as far as to fire several hundred police officers for drinking problems.[3] His time in Sichuan and as Public Security Minister made him noticed by the party's central authority, and in 2007 he was transferred to fill the vacancy of Luo Gan who retired in the party's political and legislative affairs committee, having ultimate authority with state security forces. As a result, even though he is ranked last in the PSC's hierarchy, it is not an indication of his actual power.
[edit] Controversy from leaked diplomatic cables by Wikileaks
In December 2010, one of the leaked United States diplomatic cables quoted a contact that claimed Zhou Yongkang and fellow Politburo Standing Committee member Li Changchun oversaw Beijing's cyber attack against Google.[4] However, such claim has been called into question, as according to The New York Times, the person who was cited in the cable denied knowing who had directed the hacking attack.[5] According to The New York Times, the person who was cited in the cable described a campaign coordinated by the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China’s director, Liu Yunshan, and, in several occasions, Mr. Li and Mr. Zhou issued approvals. But he said he "had no direct knowledge linking them to the hacking attack aimed at securing commercial secrets or dissidents’ e-mail accounts".[4] James Fallows of The Atlantic questioned the accuracy of such claim. He noted "[e]ven the author of the State Department cable is careful to say that the U.S. government cannot confirm the report".[5]
Other cables also cite the source as saying it was "well known" that Zhou Yongkang controlled the state monopoly of the oil sector.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.chinavitae.com/biography/Zhou_Yongkang/bio
- ^ http://www.chinatoday.com/who/z/zhouyongkang.htm
- ^ BBC: China's New Leaders
- ^ a b Glanz, James (2010-12-04). "China's Battle with Google: Vast Hacking by a China Fearful of the Web". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/asia/05wikileaks-china.html. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
- ^ a b James Fallows (2010-12-04). "'Too Good to Check': Google and the Chinese Propaganda Boss". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/12/too-good-to-check-google-and-the-chinese-propaganda-boss/67509/. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
- ^ Foster, Peter (2010-12-06). "WikiLeaks: China's Politburo a cabal of business empires". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8184216/WikiLeaks-Chinas-Politburo-a-cabal-of-business-empires.html. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
[edit] External links
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Position created |
Minister of Land and Resources of the People's Republic of China 1998 – 1999 |
Succeeded by Tian Fengshan |
| Preceded by Jia Chunwang |
Minister of Public Security of the People's Republic of China 2002 – 2007 |
Succeeded by Meng Jianzhu |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Xie Shijie |
CPC Sichuan Committee Secretary 1999 – 2002 |
Succeeded by Zhang Xuezhong |
| Preceded by Luo Gan |
Secretary of CPC Central Political and Legislative Committee since 2007 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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