"It's even more difficult now for Bo Xilai to enter the Politburo Standing Committee," a second source with leadership ties said, adding the waves could upset a consensus among the leaders after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping to avoid infighting that could threaten the Party's ship of state.
"Bo Xilai also wants to get on the boat. But the biggest worry is he could sink the boat whether he makes it or not," said the source who asked not to be identified.
In the days before Bo's political future dimmed, another battle was unfolding in the People's Liberation Army, this one to the benefit of General Liu, the ambitious political commissar of the Logistics Department and whose father was the late President Liu Shaoqi. Like Bo, Liu is a "princeling" son of revolutionary leaders.
AT ALL COSTS
During a talk to about 600 military generals before the Lunar New Year holidays in January, Liu declared war on corruption in the PLA. He did not name names at the time, but Gu was recently relieved of his duties as deputy director of the Logistics Department.
A source with ties to the PLA told Reuters Gu was under investigation for corruption, echoing media reports and microblog postings that he had been detained for economic crimes. Gu oversaw construction of barracks and other military infrastructure as director of the Bureau of Capital Construction and Barracks under the Logistics Department before he was promoted to his current post.
As in the Bo case, Internet postings flew. A common one said Zhang Musheng, a Liu confidante, late last year accused Gu of buying a plot of military-owned land in central Shanghai, selling it for a tidy profit and pocketing the difference.
The Defence Ministry has declined to comment.
This weekend, however, Gu was dropped off the organization chart of the Logistics Department on the Defence Ministry web site. The high-tech airbrushing hearkened back to the practice of wiping Communist leaders out of photos when they fell out of favor.
"This is a victory for Liu Yuan who has said he would fight corruption to the end, even if it means losing his job," the source with ties to the PLA said.
Liu is a candidate for promotion to the decision-making military commission, which is expected to see a sharp exodus of ageing military brass. All but three generals are expected to retire, forced out by retirement age limits at the congress late this year.
The common thread in political and military cases is the hint of official malfeasance. Corruption among the leadership grew like a weed alongside China's economic boom that started with Deng Xiaoping's reform era. Even in 1989, the nepotism of China's top leaders was one of the grievances of students who were demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square.
Former President Jiang Zemin frequently warned that corruption in the Communist Party would bring its downfall. In practice, it often brings about the political deaths of enemies.
