New | Zhou Yongkang won't easily escape the net of Xi's corruption crackdown
Deng Yuwen andJonathan Sullivan say president must keep his promise of hunting tigers
Whispers surrounding President Xi Jinping's "tiger hunt" - a metaphor for going after corrupt senior government officials - have been circulating ever since he assumed the top positions in party and state in 2012.
In recent days, many Chinese-language media outside mainland China have reported that Xi's tiger hunt is about to pay dividends, with the "capture" of former security tsar Zhou Yongkang .
Until 2012, Zhou was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, with oversight for the police, courts and intelligence services. Although Zhou was widely believed to be guilty of corruption and abuse of power, no current or retired member of the Politburo Standing Committee has ever been prosecuted.
This would be a groundbreaking case.
Whether Xi was motivated to establish his own authority or by the health of the one-party state system, he must make good on the promise he made last year to take down both "flies" (corrupt low-level officials) and "tigers". Otherwise he will fall into the same trap as previous leaders in their half-hearted anti-corruption efforts.
To reduce the intensity of the opposition, the case against Zhou has to be cast iron
Chinese people looked forward to Xi's tiger hunt with ghoulish anticipation, speculating who would be the first to fall.