Crown Prince Party

Categories: Mainland China

"Crown Prince Party" (太子党 Pinyin: Tàizǐ Dǎng), or The Princelings, are the descendants (usually in the second-generation) of prominent and influential senior communists of the People's Republic of China. It is not a political party, but an informal, and often derogatory, categorization to signify those benefiting from nepotism and cronyism, by analogy with Crown Princes in hereditary monarchies.

The term was coined in early 20th century, meaning the son of Yuan Shikai and his cronies. It later pointed to the relatives of the top four nationalist families(Chiang Kai-shek’s kin,Soong May-ling’s kin. Chen Lifu’s kin, Kong Xiangxi’s kin) After 1950s, the term pointed to Chiang Ching-kuo and his friends in Taiwan.

The latest crown princes are in mainland China. As a party governed by collective dictatorship, Chinese Communist Party would not advocate free election and speech. Those senor leaders think they have made contributions to the establishment of this government, thus it is legal for them and their families to enjoy the fruit of governance without any saying. Furthermore, it is naturally for them to pick up their own children to succeed this kingdom , so as to make sure it wouldn’t be overthrown by peace transition launched by western countries. As a result, the "Crown Princes" are often having important offices or big fortunes much faster and more convenient than other ordinary people or cadres, regardless of their possible incompetence .

Although some of them are good citizens and keep in low profile, it is fair to say many of them are arrogant and domineering, or at least undeserving the fortune or prominence they holding. By utilizing their fathers’ privileges, they often make themselves above the law and foster the contagion of corruption, among which some of them held senior position of vice minister or above in their thirties for which other ordinary cadres would struggle for decades, and some of them ran companies involved in large scale of corruption and even smuggle, which were called Official Speculator(or Guandao in Chinese). All these misdeeds raised widespread sentiments of resentment and jealousy, and some "Crown Princes" have fallen victim to the envious trend that is apparent in China. Most political observers see the Crown Prince Party as having the most power in the 1980s and that their power was reduced after 1989 by a number of factors:

  1. First, not only did the Crown Prince Party cause some resentment among the general public, but they caused resentment within the party among the vast major of members who did not have a powerful relative; for example, Chen Yuan, son of Chen Yun; and Chen Haosu, son of Chen Yi lost their election in Beijing and had to be transferred to another positions as comfort.
  2. Second, the booming Chinese economy made a new class of rich emerging, which are in great demand of fair play and protection of their properties..
  3. Third, as public are unsatisfied with the plague of corruption and cronyism, with the resentment and discontent mounting to a degree that could wreak havoc on CCP’s reign, CCP had to take some measures to appease these strong feelings.

One watershed event occurred during the 15th National Congress of CCP in 1997, some prominent figures of Crown Prince Party as candidates had suffered great loss. Xi Jinping(习近平 in Chinese), son of Xi Zhongxun(习仲勋 in Chinese)；and Deng Pufang, eldest son of Deng Xiaoping, narrowly got election as the alternate member of Central Commission of CCP, but listed as the tailender and the next one; and Bo Xilai(薄熙来 in Chinese)，son of Bo Yibo even couldn’t got elected for a alternate member albeit his old father lobbied for his son’s poll by all means.

However, with Jiang Zemin was close to the end of his reign for his age, he put lots members of Crown Prince Party into important positions to appeal to senior leaders of CCP as a way to win their support for maintenance of his influence. Furthermore, with the quest for democracy and liberty being insurmountable, CCP leaders still strongly resist this historic trend and would like their own children or relatives to succeed their reign so as to keep the life of totalitarianism forever young. There is a trend of members of Crown Prince Party are taking over the power step by step. Among which , Yu Zhengsheng(俞正声 in Chinese), son of Huang Jing(黄敬 in Chinese, used to mayor of Tianjin and ex-husband of Jiang Qing), already member of powerful politburo of CCP; Wang Qishan(王歧山 in Chinese), son in law of Yao Yilin(姚依林 in Chinese, used to be vice premier and member of politburo ), mayor of Beijing; Xi, Bo , Zhou Xiaochuan, son of Zhou Jiannan(周建南 in Chinese, used to be minister of First Machinery Ministry and Jiang Zemin’s boss), governor of PBOC, would play more active roles in the central stage of China politics in the near future, which could be soon proved in the 17th National Congress of CCP.

It is without any doubt as CCP governance goes on for another day, the Crown Prince Party will go on for another day too.

The following are some of the most famous "crown princes":

  • Son and daughters of Deng Xiaoping: Deng Pufang(邓朴方 in Chinese)，chairman of Handicapped Association ;Deng Nan(邓楠 in Chinese) ，former vice minister of Ministry of Science
  • Son of Chen Yun :Chen Yuan(陈元 in Chinese), governor of State Development Bank of China
  • Son of Bo Yibo :Bo Xilai , minister of MOFCOM
  • Son of Xi Zhongxun: Xi Jinping, secretary of CCP Zhejiang division
  • Son of Huang Jing: Yu Zhengsheng, secretary of CCP Hubei division, member of politburo
  • Son in law of Yao Yilin: Wang Qishan, mayor of Beijing
  • Son and daughter of Li Peng(as son of a martyr and adopted by Zhou Enlai ,himself was a member of Crown Prince Party too): Li Xiaopeng(李小鹏 in Chinese)，chairman of Huaneng Power Group; Li Xiaolin(李小林 in Chinese)，president of China Power International
  • Sons of Jiang Zemin: Jiang Mianheng(江绵恒 in Chinese), vice dean of Chinese Academy of Science,director of several major SOEs such as Shanghai Auto, and the real controller of China Netcom; Jiang Miankang(江绵康 in Chinese), a major general of PLA
  • Son of Wang Zhen , Wang Jun(王军 in Chinese) chairman of CITIC; Wang Zhi(王之 in Chinese)，former chairman of Great Wall Group
  • Son of Liu Shaoqi :Liu Yuan(刘源 in Chinese)，lieutenant general of military police
  • Son of He Long , He Pengfei(贺鹏飞 in Chinese)，vice commander of Chinese Navy, lieutenant general
  • Former Son in Law of Liu Huaqing(刘华清 in Chinese): Pan Yue(潘岳 in Chinese)，vice director of State Environmental Protection Administration
  • Son of Chen Yi: Chen Haosu(陈昊苏 in Chinese), former vice minister of Ministry of Culture

In a publication, 226 "crown princes" were listed (see link below). 

Yu Zhengsheng

Xi Jinping

Bo Xilai

Wang Qishan

Zhou Xiaochuan


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External links

zh:太子党