“I agree with Comrade Da Kang’s statement. Comrade Guo Fu, have you considered that perhaps Secretary Qi was moved by the scene and thought of one of his relatives?”
“Or maybe one of his relatives had just passed away at that time. I think it’s entirely possible, Comrade Guo Fu. Haven’t you looked into this thoroughly?”
With Li Da Kang’s forceful argument, Gao Yu Liang couldn’t afford to be weak. While he would still be polite to Secretary Sha, he wouldn’t show any deference to Tian Guo Fu.
Tian Guo Fu was speechless. He didn’t expect Li Da Kang to defend Qi Tong Wei, and he didn’t expect Gao Yu Liang to be as strong as Li Da Kang.
Tian Guo Fu had only heard rumors about Qi Tong Wei’s visit to Zhao Li Chun’s grave. After all, so much time had passed, and Tian Guo Fu hadn’t really bothered to investigate the situation back then.
However, Tian Guo Fu was quick-witted. He immediately changed the subject, “Comrade Yu Liang, did Secretary Qi also go to the nursing home to dig because he has relatives there?”
“Hahaha…” Secretary Sha laughed loudly and exaggeratedly. He had to be demonstrably supportive of Tian Guo Fu. Right now, Tian Guo Fu was his closest ally in Han Dong.
The other members of the Standing Committee joined in the laughter. Li Da Kang didn’t. He could understand Qi Tong Wei, but understanding was one thing, and stance was another.
If Qi Tong Wei hadn’t already committed a crime, Li Da Kang would have given him a helping hand. But now that Qi Tong Wei was deeply entangled, Li Da Kang couldn’t possibly pull him out.
Gao Yu Liang retorted, “What does that matter? Which Party Statute, which law, or which regulation governing personnel appointments has Secretary Qi violated?”
Tian Guo Fu mocked, “That’s a good question, Comrade Yu Liang. It has a touch of dark humor.”
Li Da Kang suddenly felt that Tian Guo Fu was gloating a bit. He couldn’t help but say, “I don’t think it’s dark humor. Secretary Qi dug for Chen Yan Shi because there was a reason.”
He said this also because he couldn’t stand Secretary Sha. There was no reason to speak about the head of the Public Security Bureau in this way. If there were problems, they should be handled, instead of launching moral attacks from a position of moral high ground.
Li Da Kang hated those who attacked others from a position of moral high ground. If someone did that to him, he would retaliate. Who wasn’t capable of launching moral attacks from a position of moral high ground, anyway?
Gao Yu Liang paused for a moment. He had to admire Li Da Kang’s quick wit. The previous “moved by the scene” had solved the problem of Qi Tong Wei’s visit to the grave, and now “there was a reason” had once again solved Qi Tong Wei’s dilemma.
He turned to look at Tian Guo Fu and gave a mocking smile, “Comrade Guo Fu, don’t be hasty. I haven’t finished speaking yet. I think you didn’t investigate Secretary Qi’s situation thoroughly this time.”
Tian Guo Fu sensed something was amiss but still tried to hold his ground, “Comrade Yu Liang, I really did investigate. Old Man Chen Yan Shi isn’t related to Secretary Qi.”
The mockery on Gao Yu Liang’s face became even more apparent, “Comrade Guo Fu, you might not know this, but Secretary Qi and Chen Yan Shi’s daughter, Chen Yang, were lovers during their university years. Secretary Qi came from a rural family and was struggling financially. Chen Yan Shi and his family gave him a lot of help. Don’t you think it’s right for him to visit Chen Yan Shi and dig for him?”
Tian Guo Fu was dumbfounded. Even if he was an old fox and never lacked wit, he didn’t know how to answer now.
If he answered “yes,” he would be slapping himself in the face. If he answered “no,” everyone would point fingers at him.
Secretary Sha was also dumbfounded. He didn’t know that Qi Tong Wei had such a history with Chen Yan Shi.
It seemed that the idea of using Qi Tong Wei to test Gao Yu Liang had failed.
“Comrade Da Kang and Comrade Yu Liang’s speeches have given me a lot of new information.”
“We may have misunderstood some comrades, and some comrades do have serious problems.”
“Comrade Guo Fu and I have been investigating and doing research. We’ve discovered many problems within the Han Dong cadre team.”
“The problems are so serious that they must be addressed. How do we solve them?”
“It’s actually simple, follow the Party discipline and laws!”
The pressure test had failed, so Secretary Sha could only skip Qi Tong Wei and lay the groundwork for freezing personnel appointments.
This was the primary goal that Secretary Sha had to achieve at today’s Standing Committee meeting.
Secretary Sha wouldn’t help promote anyone that Zhao Li Chun had wanted to promote but couldn’t.
Zhao Li Chun’s people had taken all the positions. What about Secretary Sha’s own people?
Tian Guo Fu said, “I’ve said these things countless times as the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, but I couldn’t get anything done.”
Secretary Sha was unconcerned, “Why couldn’t you get things done? It’s simply a question of whether you want to do it, whether you dare to do it, and whether you have a sense of responsibility. For example, we just mentioned the Municipal Party Committee’s organization minister. This woman can get promoted just by having her arm around his shoulder. Is that fair to those who have worked diligently and been stuck in the same position for ten or twenty years?”
After a pause, Secretary Sha continued, “It’s obviously unfair! If we don’t handle this, won’t the Party style, government style, and social atmosphere of Han Dong all deteriorate? Therefore, I propose that the promotion of 125 cadres be temporarily frozen.”
After all this, Secretary Sha finally got to the point: freezing the list of cadre promotions left over from Zhao Li Chun’s era.
No one responded or expressed their opinions. No one objected, and no one agreed.
To object would be to oppose Secretary Sha. To agree would be to oppose themselves.
The 125 cadres, to a greater or lesser extent, had some connection to the members of the Standing Committee.
Li Da Kang was expressionless. He didn’t care about whether the promotions of those 125 people were frozen.
He was a time traveler, and his ideas were different from the original owner. The people the original owner wanted to promote were not the ones Li Da Kang wanted to promote.
However, even though Li Da Kang didn’t care about freezing these 125 promotions, he didn’t want to agree.
Li Da Kang didn’t approve of Secretary Sha’s indiscriminate approach, which didn’t differentiate between good and bad.
Could it be that all 125 cadres who were nominated for promotion were bad people and none of them should be promoted?
That was obviously impossible!
No matter who it was, whether it was Zhao Li Chun or anyone else, they needed cadres who could actually get things done.
Just because there were some bad people among those nominated for promotion, should all promotions be frozen?
Li Da Kang really didn’t agree with Secretary Sha’s approach.
At least make a distinction and analyze specific situations individually.
“Since no one has any objections, I declare: whether it’s the nominations for promotion to the vice-ministerial level that will be recommended upwards or the nominations for promotion to the bureau level that will be used, all of them will be re-examined thoroughly in accordance with the personnel appointment procedures. After we have widely solicited public opinions, we will make a decision.”
“Today, we will only vote on the appointment of one comrade, and this comrade is called Hou Liang Ping. He is nominated to be a member of the Party Committee of our province’s procuratorate and the acting director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. I have already spoken with Comrade Gao Yu Liang, who is in charge of political and legal affairs, before the meeting. Minister Wu, please introduce Hou Liang Ping’s situation.”
Secretary Sha secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, no one was willing to be the first bird and jump out to oppose the freezing of the promotions of 125 cadres.
If someone had been willing to take the lead and other members of the Standing Committee had agreed, freezing the promotions of those 125 cadres wouldn’t have been so smooth.
At the very least, Secretary Sha would have had to use his veto power as the top leader.
Veto power was very effective, but it shouldn’t be used too often. It was a double-edged sword.
If he always used his veto power, the higher-ups would have the impression that “this person is incompetent and can’t even manage his own team.”
Li Da Kang couldn’t help but secretly admire Secretary Sha’s cunning. “Re-examine thoroughly, widely solicit public opinions” – these buzzwords gave people hope and prevented them from strongly opposing it.
In reality, how thorough the re-examination should be, and how widely opinions should be solicited, were not standardized. There was no time limit either. Ultimately, it would still be up to Secretary Sha.
The cadres Secretary Sha wanted to promote would be re-examined thoroughly, and opinions from many people would be solicited. The cadres that Secretary Sha didn’t want to promote would still be undergoing thorough re-examination and widespread opinion collection.
For example, had Secretary Sha really re-examined Hou Liang Ping thoroughly, and had he widely solicited opinions from anyone?
Did he just get a phone call from Qin Si Yuan and think that Qin Si Yuan recommended him?
Secretary Sha was so hypocritical!
Li Da Kang listened with a smile as the provincial party organization minister, Wu Chun Lin, introduced Hou Liang Ping’s situation, without voicing any opinions.
Hypocrisy was normal. Who wasn’t hypocritical?
No one was exempt.
Li Da Kang himself would inevitably be hypocritical sometimes.
Without a doubt, no one was willing to be the first bird and oppose Hou Liang Ping becoming the acting director of the Han Dong Anti-Corruption Bureau.
In fact, the vote on Hou Liang Ping’s appointment was just a formality.
Even before the vote, it was already decided.
Hou Liang Ping had already arrived at Jing Zhou airport.
…