Ye-Xi Clique – The Next Generation
2nd in a series of 4 articles on the Ye-Xi Clique – Ye-Xi Clique II has part ‘a’ and ‘b’
Marshal Ye Jianying is known to have personally spoken up for the rehabilitation of Xi Zhongxun in 1978. Ye’s advocacy of Xi Zhongxun was credited with helping him to be appointed Party Secretary in Guangdong by Deng Xiaoping. Marshal Ye also took a personal interest in young Xi Jinping, helping to make sure he had opportunities after being ‘sent down’ to Yan’an, securing his membership in the CCP, helping him get admitted to Qinghua University, and using his influence to get Xi Jinping appointed executive assistant to Geng Biao, the Minister of Defense (1979-82). After Marshal Ye passed away in 1986, the Ye brothers continued to look after Xi Jinping and invested their considerable talents and resources in a campaign that propelled Xi Jinping to the pinnacle of power in the CCP.
Ye Jianying’s three known biological sons, Ye Xuanping, Ye Xuanning, and Ye Xuanlian all participated in CCP politics to varying degrees, the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian were their base of power. Deng Xiaoping’s Open Door Policy was being tested in these southern provinces and the Ye Family played an important role in its success. The two oldest boys, Ye Xuanping and Ye Xuanning, contributed most to what became known as the Ye Family Dynasty the most potent force in the southern China.
Ye Xuanping: ‘The Emperor of the South’
In 1980, Ye Xuanping, the older brother by fourteen years, was appointed Mayor of Guangzhou and Vice Governor of Guangdong, positions he held concurrently. He worked alongside two family friends, Xi Zhongxun and Yang Shangkun (on far right in the photo in previous post) to advance Deng Xiaoping’s new Open Door Policy. Guangdong, which bordered Hong Kong and Macao to the south was launching Special Economic Zones (SEZs) adjacent to these capitalist hot spots (Xiamen, Fujian SEZ was across from Taiwan). Ye Xuanping’s wife was vice-mayor of Shenzhen, China’s largest SEZ. Ye amassed so much power in Guangdong that the CCP sought to remove him from office in the late 1980s. In heated negotiations Ye set his terms: control over his successor as governor, maintenance of his power base in Guangdong, and appointment to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Ye threatened to withhold Guangdong’s remittances to Beijing if his terms were not met and in a rare display of compromise, Beijing agreed to Ye’s terms in 1991. Ye Xuanping joined the CPPCC as Vice Chairman under Li Xiannian, an old Ye family friend. Li and Marshal Ye were both involved in the February Countercurrent and worked together to defeat the Gang of Four.
Ye Xuanning: ‘The King Maker’
Ye Xuanning graduated from college in Beijing in 1965, then spent two years in jail during the Cultural Revolution. He suffered a serious injury to his right arm while working in a radio parts factory after being released from prison, Zhou Enlai personally arranged for his treatment. Despite the injury which rendered his right arm useless, Ye Xuanning became an accomplished calligrapher, no small task given that the brush-stroke order of Chinese characters was designed to be performed with the right hand. He then joined the Overseas Chinese Office a United Front organ under the State Council (this was rumored to have begun his long career in intelligence); after two years he was promoted to serve as assistant to Kang Shi’en, a CCP Vice Premier and Director of the State Economic Commission. Kang Shi’en and Yu Qiuli were part of China’s “Petroleum Faction,” a group of senior oil industry officials considered the founders of China’s oil industry.
Ye Xuanning was