The political atmosphere in mainland China has become increasingly stern and sullen, as well as eerily mysterious, in recent days. The latest development is a 6,000-word essay by Wen Jiabao reminiscing about his mother. As a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the State Council, Wen Jiabao’s article, which does not involve any political inside story, political history, or even his work in the government, could not be published in the domestic media in mainland China, but was published in a street newspaper in Macau, which was then blocked by the mainland authorities, and even reposting and discussion on WeChat was not permitted, which is extremely rare. This is extremely rare.
Although Wen Jiabao is a technocrat, he is in a sensitive moment of political change in the Chinese Communist Party, and his name itself has become a sensitive issue. The complex and sensitive nature of Chinese politics today, coupled with Wen’s involvement in the battle between left and right and his political history of feuding, makes it impossible for him to escape the political whirlwind of the CCP.
First of all, Wen’s “My Mother” was published by Macau’s little-known Macau Herald, which is not only a weekly newspaper, but not even officially distributed. The Hong Kong media asked the editor of the paper whether the article was a contract or a submission, but the paper refused to answer. Wen Jiabao’s 6,000-word article, which was published four times, was written with careful deliberation, such as not mentioning the universal values he spoke of when he was in office, and not even mentioning words like democracy and freedom. The only incident involving his political career was the shoe being thrown during his visit to Britain, and that was because his mother had a stroke because of the excitement.
But the text is still blocked from the entire Internet. Of course, some of Wen’s writings may be evocative, such as talking about the suffering of his parents during the Cultural Revolution, and his negative remarks about the Cultural Revolution. The most talked about part of the article is the last part of the article.
Wen Jiabao said: “There are many things that people can imitate each other, or even make painstaking efforts to do so. But the only thing that cannot be faked is the sincerity, simplicity and kindness of emotion and heart. Just look at his eyes, look at his compassion, look at his courage in distress, look at his spirit of commitment at the critical moment of the country’s future and destiny, and you can see his true nature. I sympathize with the poor and the weak, and oppose bullying and oppression. The China I have in mind should be a country full of fairness and justice, where there is always respect for the human heart, humanity and the essence of human beings, and where there is always an air of youth, freedom and struggle. I have shouted and fought for this. This is the truth that life has taught me and that my mother has given me.”
After Wen’s article came out, both Phoenix and NetEase used to spin it, but after the last article, all related contents were all deleted, and related contents on WeChat were also blocked. So some people say that the authorities’ measures have something to do with this last paragraph of Wen Jiabao’s text. Of course, it is not necessarily so, and perhaps it is not necessarily the case that Beijing found out at the end.
Wen Jiabao’s article also contains many texts that are seen as clearing himself. For example, “I am retired, having worked in Zhongnanhai for 28 years, including 10 years as premier. For a person of my background, ‘being an official’ is supposed to be a matter of chance. I was ordered to be discreet, like walking on thin ice, like facing the abyss, the beginning of my appointment, that is, I always do return to the plan.” Also, “I was transferred to the central government in 1985, and my mother never made any request to the organization for my promotion, much less did she do anything for the family under my banner. Mom and Dad spent their lives in the sacred business of education, living on their meager salaries and leaving no property or savings after their deaths.”
This text, which originated about a decade ago in the white-hot power struggle of the Chinese Communist Party, accusations of corruption concerning Wen’s family. On the eve of the 18th Communist Party Congress, as the battle at the top of the Communist Party heated up, the New York Times published a lengthy investigative report on Oct. 26, 2012, related to the Wen family, which reported that the family of China’s outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao, had amassed at least $2.7 billion in assets over the past 20 years. Wen’s mother, wife, children, brother and brother-in-law became very wealthy during Wen’s administration, especially after 1998.
In response to the New York Times report, on October 27, 2012, two Beijing lawyers issued a six-point statement on behalf of the Wen family: that the so-called “secret assets” of Wen’s family did not exist; that the Wen family “did not conduct any illegal business activities”; that Wen’s mother, in addition to her salary and pension, did not have any money. Wen’s mother does not own any property other than her salary and pension; Wen himself has “never participated” in his relatives’ business activities; Wen’s relatives are “responsible for their own business activities”; and will continue to clarify the New York Times’ inaccurate report and reserve the right to pursue legal responsibility for it. The New York Times will continue to clarify the false reports and reserve the right to pursue legal action against them.
On October 30, 2012, several overseas Chinese media reported that Wen Jiabao was willing to “take the lead in disclosing his personal assets” and that he wanted the CPC Central Committee to conduct a special investigation into him and his family. If the CPC Central Committee did not investigate, he hoped to have a professional organization conduct an independent investigation and audit of his family’s assets, and if illegal, he and his family would be willing to bear the most severe punishment under the law.
A source in Beijing close to the top of the Communist Party told the Epoch Times at the time that Wen Jiabao had written a formal letter to the top of the Communist Party, firmly requesting that “a specialized agency be set up immediately” to “conduct a full and open investigation into the rumors of my embezzlement”. “to give people an account publicly”. In the letter, Wen specifically requested that the investigation into his corruption rumors “invite Chinese and foreign media to send representatives” and that he and his relatives “will unconditionally and absolutely cooperate with such an open investigation.
The sources said this is the fifth time Wen Jiabao has written formally to the Communist Party’s top brass asking for an independent investigation of him. Before that he had repeatedly asked at Politburo meetings for an investigation into rumors of corruption in his family, and said he was willing to resign immediately and accept Party and state discipline if there was any corruption.
The statement of Wen Jiabao’s Beijing lawyer emphasized that Wen Jiabao’s mother does not own the industry, Wen Jiabao himself is not involved in his relatives’ business activities, and all his relatives’ business activities are under their own responsibility, meaning that it has nothing to do with Wen Jiabao. In this statement, there is no mention of Wen Yunsong, his son, because the foreign media reported that Wen Yunsong has made a fortune with the help of Ping An Insurance, one of the largest insurance companies in China. Wen’s statement clearly implies that Wen had nothing to do with him and that Wen was responsible for his own actions.
Of course, the suggestion that the authorities should investigate, and that they will deal with any corruption, has not been and cannot be implemented by Beijing. The reason is simple: Beijing cannot be led by the nose by foreign and civil opinion. The statement by Wen Jiabao’s lawyer, given the CCP’s extremely poor credibility, is not being bought by Chinese folk, and the accusations are not going to go away.
We do not know whether the relevant reports in the overseas mainstream media have involved the CCP’s big foreign propaganda. But the CCP propaganda department hates Wen Jiabao, which I do know.
In 2012, the power struggle at the top of the CCP was in full swing, Wang Lijun ran to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, and Bo Xilai’s wife killed British Haywood, but there was a disagreement within the CCP on how to deal with Bo Xilai, and Xi Jinping’s succession to the highest power was quite hampered.
On March 14, 2012, Wen Jiabao criticized Chongqing over the Wang Lijun incident at a meeting of Chinese and foreign journalists after the conclusion of the National People’s Congress, asking the then Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and municipal government leaders to reflect and learn from the incident. Wen also side-stepped his criticism of Bo Xilai’s Chongqing municipality for going against the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, engaging in the “Cultural Revolution” and turning back the clock on history. This is the first time that the highest level of the Chinese Communist Party has taken a public stance on the Wang Lijun incident, and implied that Bo was to blame. The next day, March 15, 2012, Bo Xilai was removed from his post as Chongqing municipal party secretary and was investigated on April 10.
This is the most political statement Wen Jiabao has made in his ten years as premier. This statement got rid of Bo Xilai and helped Xi Jinping. But it has greatly offended the far-left wing of the Communist Party.
In fact, the extreme left wing of the CCP has been active since the end of 2011. Starting in 2010, a group of far-leftists from the periphery of the CCP began to give speeches in mainland China under the title of “Anti-US Prepare for War, Eliminate Traitors and Save the Party. The title of their speeches was “Anti-American War Preparation”, which is easy to understand; “Eliminate Traitors to Save the Party”, which refers to internal traitors. Most of the extreme leftists in the CCP are Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, who are now in their sixties, and are concentrated in universities, theory, policy and propaganda departments.
They love Chairman Mao and hate capitalists. The first traitor, as they call it, is Deng Xiaoping, then Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang, both of whom are dead. Then there are many traitors, Jiang Zemin is one, Zhu Rongji is also counted, and there is Wen Jiabao.
In 2011 and 2012, Wen Jiabao was the only “traitor” still on the stage, so during that time, the leftist network in mainland China launched the so-called “send the plague” campaign. The “God of Plague” refers to Wen Jiabao.
In 2012, the extreme leftists in Beijing held a big rally of thousands of people, called the “True Communist Party Conference”, at which Zhang Hongliang, a professor at the Chinese University for Nationalities, spoke for more than an hour, publicly saying that they should not be afraid of sacrifice and that they wanted another revolution. Many leftists who attended the meeting were so enthusiastic that they called it a political mobilization report of the “True Chinese Communist Party”.
Earlier, a leading figure of the extreme left went to Wuhan in September 2011 and summoned some former Red Guards to meet with them, claiming that the struggle was about to begin and that they would “kill half a million” class enemies after the victory.
The extreme leftists have existed within the CCP for a long time, but became active after the death of Deng Xiaoping. Behind the ultra-leftists, there are many second-generation Reds, most of whose fathers were ostracized during Deng Xiaoping’s reign, from all walks of life in the Party, government and military. Of course, there is another group of people who were quite powerful during the Cultural Revolution, but after Deng Xiaoping’s comeback, he cleaned up the “three kinds of people”, that is, people who started out as rebels during the Cultural Revolution, people with a serious gang mentality, and smash-and-grab elements, mainly people who were in the process of being killed. The main reason for this is that this group of people are the ones who have been fighting, smashing and robbing. Deng Xiaoping cleaned up the three kinds of people, mainly to prevent them from being promoted, but most of them are still active in various institutions.
I’m afraid it’s not necessarily the case that people think that all extreme leftists are snobs, but some really do it because of ideology, because they firmly believe in Mao Zedong Thought. When I was in college, in the early 1980s, there was a man in the school who committed suicide by lying down on the rail because he was protesting against the trial of Jiang Qing, and left a suicide note.
This group of extreme leftists within the CCP has always existed, never disappeared, and gradually took control of the theoretical, propaganda, and policy departments within the CCP and, later, the universities because of their authentic communist theoretical discourse. Bo Xilai began to systematically embrace this group of leftists in 2009.
Since its reform and opening up, the CCP has actually embarked on power capitalism plus state capitalism, in fact the two are similar and necessarily overlap. The result was a widening gap between the rich and the poor, a slow solidification of social classes, and a deterioration of the living conditions of the lower classes, which led to a very large response from the leftists in the CCP and became a trend after 2008.
In Chongqing, Bo Xilai started a campaign to “sing the red and fight the black” in order to draw in this group of social forces.
After Xi Jinping cleared Bo Xilai’s forces, he slowly began to implement the same strategy, which, according to the extreme left, is called the “Bo Xilai line without Bo Xilai”, which is, to put it bluntly, “singing red and fighting black”. In fact, whether it is singing red or fighting black, the key is to gain absolute unchallenged power. But it is clear that the leftists have regained power. After Xi Jinping came to power, the Southern newspaper system was purged, and Yanhuang Chunqiu, which his father supported, was shut down.
As I mentioned earlier, in the eyes of the ideological leftists in charge, almost all former leaders are “traitors”, so of course they are not allowed to talk and move around. Where can Wen Jiabao be an exception? What’s more, Wen Jiabao wants to be “a person full of fairness and justice” and “respect for the human heart, humanity and human nature”, which is completely irreconcilable with Mao Zedong’s theory of “continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat”. This is completely irreconcilable with Mao’s theory of “continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat,” and even fundamentally opposed.
Left and right are opposites, but under one system, they are the same, just like one’s right and left feet and right and left hands. Once the battle between left and right in the CCP system becomes a battle between you and me, it is not far from collapse. Let’s see how far Xi Jinping’s left foot can go on its own.
Recent Comments