Tianjin’s new party chief, known for seizing reporter’s recorder, among front runners in Politburo race
Li Hongzhong repeatedly stresses his loyalty to party general secretary Xi Jinping
When Li Hongzhong was announced as Tianjin’s new Communist Party boss earlier this month, mainland journalists’ began recirculating jokes about his infamous seizure of a reporter’s voice recorder six years ago after she confronted him with a sensitive question.
But political analysts speculate the posting could signal the 60-year-old is the among first front runners for promotion to the party’s key decision-making Politburo in a leadership reshuffle scheduled for late next year.
The harder he tried to show open allegiance to Xi, the clearer that he’s not close to him
In March 2010, when Li was attending the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing as governor of Hubei Province, a mainland journalist asked him about a case in which a waitress in Hubei killed a civil servant who sexually harassed her.
Li, caught by surprise, lost his temper in front of the journalists surrounding him, seized the reporter’s recorder and said: “Which media are you with? … Why are you always dwelling on this case?”
The controversy did not derail Li’s rise through the party ranks and he was promoted to Hubei party secretary a year after the incident.
