We use cookies to improve our service for you. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. A new scandal is causing trouble for China's top party members. The risque details have brought to light the power struggle taking place behind closed doors and the luxurious lives of the party elites and their families. At first the story was only about fast cars, money and sex. More precisely it was about an accident involving a black Ferrari last March, about a dead playboy and two heavily injured young women who were either completely naked or scantily clad - no one knows for sure.
However, since word got out a few days ago about who was driving the car, the story has become political. The driver who crashed the car was apparently the son of a high-ranking official named Ling Jihua - one of President Hu Jintao's closest allies.
And that's apparently why it was kept quiet for so long. Now it's out, the party's image, already rocked by scandal is under fire again. And the people have no way of stopping such things from happening.
For example, how did Ling Jihua's playboy son have enough money to be able to afford such an expensive sports car in the first place? It happens all the time. Gu Kailai to Ling Jihua are only the tip of the iceberg. Stories like this are creating resentment both within and outside of the party. Change of leadership And the Ferrari incident has already had political repercussions.
Ling Jihua, who was considered a shooting star, just lost his influential post as head of the Central Committee's General Office and was demoted unexpectedly. Observers say that wiithout his cabinet secretary, President Hu Jintao, who has been reluctant to carry reforms, is much weaker.
