Chapter 78: Thanks!
Just after the Ministry of Finance and the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced the State Council's policy suspending the "Measures for Reducing State-Owned Shareholdings," another major piece of news arrived amid the uproar in Southwest China's political circles. Long unresolved but now set in stone, it was this: the central "Three Stresses" inspection team, the First Local Inspection Group, was setting out to conduct inspections in Southwest China.
The timing of the Central First Inspection Group's arrival was decidedly delicate, and enough to cause a considerable stir. Although central inspection groups, as a matter of principle, avoided and frowned upon ostentatious receptions when visiting localities, and did not make grand advance announcements, this did not prevent Southwest China's political circles from learning of these troops descending from the sky.
On the day the First Inspection Group finished its inspections in Guangxi and hurried to Southwest China, officials from the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Congress, provincial government, and Provincial Political Consultative Conference, led by Provincial Party Secretary Yang Zhengliang, arrived at the airport ahead of time. Fifty or sixty people lined up to welcome them.
Leading the Central First Inspection Group was Zhou Guotao, former deputy secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and secretary of its Commission for Discipline Inspection. Zhou Guotao was something of a singular figure in Chinese politics: the first provincial discipline inspection commission secretary to serve concurrently as deputy provincial Party secretary. He had even established a political model in his own right, and his example was widely regarded as evidence of the growing local influence of discipline inspection commissions.
Zhou Guotao was a master who had reached the pinnacle of his craft. His record was illustrious. He had supervised several major cases, including the illegal fundraising and economic crimes case involving