Hongkong's South China Morning Post quoted China's official news agency on January 5, 2015, as making a rare acknowledgment of factions within the Communist Party, and named key members who are tied to disgraced top cadres Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua. Xinhua named several fallen senior officials as connected to the so-called Shanxi Gang, Secretary Gang and Petroleum Gang.
The article said members of the Secretary Gang included several top aides and former personal secretaries of Zhou Yogkang, including former Sichuan vice-governor Guo Yongxiang, former chairman of the Sichuan political advisory committee Li Chongxi, and former deputy governor of Hainan province Ji Wenlin. The Petroleum Gang included Jiang Jiemin, another aide to Zhou and a former chairman of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, as well as his subordinates, while Ling was a member of the Shanxi Gang, Xinhua said. Xinhua said there were often open or shadowy factions behind the disgraced "tigers" and posed a great danger to the party.
In a separate article, Xinhua said only the "brave" could withstand the risks and challenges to "declare war" on vested interests and tackle deeply rooted problems within the party. It said the investigations into the fallen officials had convinced the public that the authorities were determined to eradicate corruption. Xi had gone after the "tigers" "not without weighing [the consequences]". "But we have identified the mission and purpose of the party, as well as what people expected [of us]," Xinhua quoted him as saying, without detailing when or where the comments were made.
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