The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

by Richard McGregor

When Xinhua announced a few days later that Ms Tian had been sacked, the official news agency made no bones about who had taken the decision. The large headline said her sacking was ‘an organizational matter’ for the Hebei provincial party committee. Almost as an afterthought, at the end of the 500-character dispatch, Xinhua noted that Ms Tian had also been removed by the company’s board in ‘accordance with regulations and procedures’. The board had in fact had no role in her removal. After the party body had sacked Ms Tian and announced her removal, company executives said the board had been hastily convened in a late-night telephone hook-up to rubber-stamp the decision. One Fonterra executive commented later: ‘They were always making decisions, but then asking themselves: “How do we make this legal?”’