In the early stages of the pandemic, not everyone fanatically threw themselves into the ‘popular war against the coronavirus’. Some party bosses obscured the number of infections, others did not intervene when hospitals refused deathly ill corona patients. These ‘deserters’ got into a fight with Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan. “Deserters are forever pilloried by history,” said Sun. Harsh words from the mouth of a motherly-looking type: when corona troubleshooter Sun comes for an inspection, every official fears for his job.
Risky job
On behalf of the Politburo, she put things in order for a month and a half in Wuhan, the first city where the then unknown virus was at home. That risky job could have cost Sun not only her health, but her career. She then spent two years as the figurehead of the central party leadership from one outbreak to another. Last week she was in northeastern Jilin province, a northeastern province where the virus is hitting hard. 1,542 of the 2,027 new cases China registered on Sunday are in Jilin. There this weekend, for the first time in a year, some Chinese again died of Covid-19.
For China, which is clinging to a zero-covid policy, these are worrisome developments, especially now that the more contagious omikron variant is breaking out in several provinces and mega-cities simultaneously. The division of roles is clear: Sun is pressuring the authorities with tough measures to stifle outbreaks, while Xi is taking on the discussion about the feasibility of strict lockdowns, aggressive source and contact investigations and lengthy quarantines.
Nothing is known about Sun’s childhood in Raoyan, a rural area south of the capital Beijing. After all, personal details about high-ranking politicians are secret. From her official biography it can be concluded that the girl named Lenteorchidee must have noticed the local party leadership around the age of fifteen. Perhaps also because of the impeccable class background of her factory worker father, she was then selected for technical training in the northeastern industrial province of Liaoning.
Job in clock factory
It is noteworthy that Sun was allowed to study until 1969, when many schools were closing because millions of urban youth were exiled to the countryside to “learn from the farmers.” Her first job, in a clock factory, doesn’t sound exciting, but in the politically Puritan 1970s, a position as a laborer was highly desirable and status-enhancing.
As soon as Sun joined the communist party in 1973, she took a party position in the factory. Employed by the Municipal Bureau of Light Industry in Anshan, she headed the communist youth organization and joined the party leadership as a manager of a textile factory. She rose in this way, until as head of the Women’s Federation Liaoning in 1993 she led at the provincial level for the first time.
Sun did not stay long in this typically feminine position. She trained as a state union leader in the era of economic reforms, which necessitated mass layoffs in state industry. That in Liaoning, where the economy is based on state factories, there were no significant uprisings among the unemployed argued for Sun’s political talents. She advanced to state organs reporting directly to the central government: her rural career was crowned by joining the Central Committee in 1997.
Administrative mess
In that porch of hundreds of apparatchiks and party bosses hoping to get through to the Politburo, she belonged to the faction of Hu Jintao, a colorless and at times paralyzed party leader who ruled until 2012. Discreetly she cleared the administrative rubble left behind by disgraced male colleagues due to corruption.
In 2012, Sun came into the Politburo led by Xi, whose backing is made up of elite revolutionary families, rather than politicians of humble origins like Sun, who dominate Hu’s faction. With her unerring political adaptability, she leaned seamlessly towards the new strongman. Xi recognized her political nerves of steel and gave her tricky jobs, such as setting up a department that strengthens the Communist Party’s grip on the global Chinese diaspora.
Despite her good results, Sun did not break through the ultimate glass ceiling – otherwise she would have become the first-ever woman to sit on the Politburo’s daily committee. Sun spends her last years of service before retiring this fall in places where Covid-19 threatens to become more powerful than the state, while Xi and cronies meet in disinfected offices about the virus.
– As party secretary of the port city of Dalian, Sun cleared the civil service of the influence of her controversial predecessor Bo Xilai from 2001 to 2005, long before Bo’s final fall in 2012.
– “Terribly heartbreaking, I am deeply ashamed,” was Sun’s response when a heavily pregnant woman lost her baby during the lockdown of the city of Xian late last year. The pregnant woman was refused entry to the hospital because her covid test result had expired for several hours.
Sun is likely to find a place in Chinese textbooks as the Ministry of Education orders schools to use coronavirus policies as teaching materials to teach children that China’s one-party system is superior.