State news agency Xinhua made a rare acknowledgement of factions within the Chinese Communist Party over the weekend, naming ousted officials as being connected to groups it called the Shanxi Gang, Secretary Gang and Petroleum Gang, South China Morning Post reported. Zhang Ming, a professor of political science at Renmin University, said mainland media had long reported the existence of the three factions, but the Xinhua article meant the party was willing to admit their existence. However the report made no mention of other such “gangs” commonly held to exist, such as the “princeling”, “Shanghai” and “Youth League” gangs, Zhang said.
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