SO, JUST where is Wang Lijun?

This is the question I asked in The Irish Times today (you can see the piece on http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0213/1224311683143.html) and it’s one that many in China are asking after the crusading official, who oversaw a crackdown on triads in southwestern city of Chongqing, disappeared after trying to defect at the US consulate in the Sichuan capital, Chengdu.

Mr Wang was removed from his post as gang-busting police chief earlier this month. The Chongqing government said he was suffering from “immense mental stress and serious physical discomfort” and was receiving “vacation-style therapy”. He was instead put in charge of the section dealing with sanitation and libraries, which was read as a sign that he had been ousted.

The plight of the former police official has prompted speculation about the political future of his patron, Chongqing Communist Party Chief Bo Xilai, who covets a seat on the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the hub of power in China.

The workings of power in China, which is run by the Communist Party, are murky and all kinds of machinations and manoeuvrings go on ahead of a leadership change, which is set to take place later this year.

Mr Wang, whose official title is deputy mayor, became a legend in China after the 52-year-old implemented a crackdown on gangs in Chongqing. More than 1,500 were arrested, including gangsters, prominent businessmen and 14 high-ranking officials, and the accusations included murder over singing karaoke too loudly and machete attacks. Several were executed, including the former head of the city’s judicial authorities.

He was working at the behest of Mr Bo, a former trade tsar and regional boss who has used his anti-crime plan, plus a campaign of Maoist propaganda, to boost his profile.

The incident has been widely covered in China and the sight of his former star protégé seking asylum at the US embassy marks a major setback for Mr Bo’s ambitions. He is one of the “princelings” – the children of the 1949 Maoist revolutionaries – who are gaining more political traction in the Chinese power structure.

By not granting Mr Wang asylum the US government ensures that Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao in October as Party head,  will go ahead with his plan to visit the US, Ireland and Turkey this week.

Had the consulate accepted his defection, it could have forced Mr Xi to cancel the trip. Mr Xi is also a “princeling” but his career has taken a less high-profile path.

THE WORLD’S largest human migration got under way in China yesterday as millions of migrant workers and students took to air, road and rail for their annual trek home for the lunar new year holiday.

Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival as it is known here, falls on January 23rd and this year is the Year of the Dragon, an especially auspicious period. It is the most important traditional Chinese festival for family reunions and is often the only time each year that most people go back to their ancestral homes.

The train stations, airports and bus depots are crammed these days with labourers, factory workers, waitresses and waiters and college students, all carrying large quantities of luggage and supplies of instant noodles and jars of tea to keep them going on the often arduous routes home.

Once they get back to their homes they will eat dumplings and clean their parents’ houses, per tradition, and often they will see their children for the only time that year.

“After a whole year of hard work away from home, I can finally go back home to see my child,” said migrant worker Luo Lirong at the railway station in Xining, capital of Qinghai province in the west of the country. “I cannot pretend that I am not in a hurry,” she told local media.

A total of 3.16 billion passenger trips are expected during the rush, which starts on January 8th and runs for a week.

Incomes have risen in China in recent years and more people will fly than ever before. The civil aviation administration estimates that 34.88 million passenger trips will be made, a seven per cent increase from last year.

The regulator has given domestic airlines the go-ahead to add 14,000 flights to meet the expected demand.

However, rail travel is still the best value for most to get back to their families. China’s railways will carry 235 million passengers during the period, the ministry of railways said, warning that services might not be able to meet demand. The ministry is putting on 2,064 temporary trains daily to meet the increasing demand, and the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will run for a longer time each day.

However, a new online system designed to make it easier for people to buy train tickets for the holiday this year crashed with the number of requests for tickets.

When they do make it home, the migrants are in for an unusual spectacle, when 81-year-old US billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett sings and plays guitar at a gala broadcast on the Internet to mark the Year of the Dragon.

This is also on:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0109/1224310004646.html

The Oracle of Omaha’s performance will air on the website of China’s state television, CCTV, from January 23.

Mr Buffett is currently working on a project with Microsoft founder and fellow philanthropist Bill Gates to develop the concept of philanthropic donations in China, which is the world’s second-largest economy and which had 146 dollar billionaires last year.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0109/1224310004646.html