Wen Jiabao published a long article “In Memory of My Mother” in an “overseas publication”, which is still under debate.
In the context of the Chinese Communist Party, the term “foreign publications” refers mainly to Hong Kong and Macau publications, which are taboo under Xi Jinping’s regime, and circulating or bringing back foreign publications is severely punished by expulsion from the Party, dismissal from office, and even conviction. Why did Wen Jiabao publish an article in an overseas publication “without permission,” in violation of Xi Jinping’s “political discipline and political rules”?
Wang Dan, a leader of the June Fourth Movement, also thinks it is strange that Wen Jiabao wrote an article that he did not publish in a domestic newspaper, but in the unknown ‘Macau Herald’, a move that Wang Dan believes is “of a whiny nature, expressing his discontent to Xi Jinping.”
According to another analysis, the current political environment in China, as evidenced by the trembling performance of Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, is afraid of Xi Jinping. The more Xi Jinping has a sense of insecurity, the more officials around him are afraid of him. Wang Qishan’s case is typical.
He was instrumental in helping Xi purge dissidents with his anti-corruption efforts and in helping him plan for a “constitutional amendment” that would eliminate the term of office of the president. But Wang Qishan, the vice president who has perpetuated Xi’s rule, had a very mixed performance at the Boao Conference recently.
Wang Qishan was once known as a shrewd and powerful “fire-fighting chief”. As a teenager, he and Xi Jinping worked together in the Yan’an area, where they are said to have shared a quilt. That day at the opening ceremony of Boao, he forced a smile and trembled.
He humbly referred to himself as the “temporary host” to warm up for President Xi Jinping, adding, “In our country, we do this because it’s our respect for President Xi Jinping.” Wang Qishan has been described as “nodding his head and humbling his back.”
Before that show at Boao, Wang Qishan took the lead in praising Xi Jinping at a panel meeting of the National People’s Congress in May this year, but given his “merits”, does he really need to do that? I don’t think he’s thinking of staying on next year, is he? In short, he is behaving very differently from former Premier Wen Jiabao.
Since Wen Jiabao published a long article “My Mother” in the Australian Herald, there have been endless debates about Wen’s character. But one very important detail is that Wen’s article was banned from WeChat. What does this mean? It means that Wen Jiabao is still expressing his opinion in some way, which means he is not too afraid, and banning him means that someone is afraid of him? This is also not the same as Wang Qishan.
In the controversy about Wen Jiabao, there is an argument that senior CCP officials are a potpourri and you can hardly distinguish them from each other it seems. But it has been pointed out that even in the CCP group, there have been enlightened leaders like Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang, and Gorbachev and Yeltsin came from the Soviet Communist Party, which means that the possibility of an enlightened figure in an authoritarian party exists.
Wen Jiabao may not be comparable to Hu and Zhao, but he also represents such a possibility, or rather, Wen Jiabao’s people represent such a possibility. Some people criticize that when he was on stage, he said more than he did and his words were not consistent with his actions, which is undoubtedly true. If he had done everything he said, there would not have been the later constitutional amendment by Xi Jinping.
The power of words has long been confirmed by history, some words did not work at the time, but later may work, which is why people always admire people who dare to speak. That is why people always admire those who speak up. Wen Jiabao was in a high position to say those words, but he was the only one who said that at the top of the Communist Party. Today, the environment for such words does not exist in the top echelons of the CCP.
Wen Jiabao’s closing remarks in honor of his mother are considered by many to carry a lot of weight, as he said on the eve of Xi Jinping’s upcoming tenure, when he announced China’s overall victory in poverty eradication and was preparing for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party, with no room for sand in his eyes, that his ideal China should be a “country full of justice “where there is always respect for the human heart, humanity and the essence of human beings. Such words would not have seemed excessive in a slightly more normal era, such as the Hu-Wen years, but such statements are problematic under Xi Jinping’s rule.
In this critical moment, when Xi Jinping asked not to divide the first 30 years of the Cultural Revolution from the second 30 years of the Cultural Revolution, Wen Jiabao’s words have an unusual meaning, as he specifically mentions the inhuman treatment of his father during the Cultural Revolution. He said in front of Chinese and foreign journalists at the closing press conference of the last session of the National People’s Congress that if China did not reform its political system, the Cultural Revolution would be revived, and that the Cultural Revolution was a sin in his eyes, and that the history of that sin was very closely related to his family and the families of millions of Chinese people. The history of that evil is very closely related to his family and to the families of millions of Chinese people.
Under Xi Jinping’s intention that the two 30 years should not be viewed separately, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Internet Information Office of the CPC declared at the just-concluded conference on studying the history of the socialist revolution and construction period that the 27 years from 1949 to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 were the 27 years of “hard struggle, hard work, active exploration and great achievements of the CPC “. The Cultural Revolution was not only diluted, but also submerged in the “27 years of great achievements”.
Wen Jiabao’s article has caused many Chinese to reminisce about the Hu-Wen era, which is perhaps more of a fantasy now, as some say, “That era was not good either, but this one is even scarier. But Wen Jiabao is the only senior Communist Party official who has spoken out about democracy, human rights, universal values, constitutionalism, concepts that the current top leaders hate. In that era, there were many people who said these words, such as Liu Xiaobo, but mostly among the people, and at the highest level of the party, it was one Wen Jiabao.
Some people say Wen Jiabao is just a movie star just to get a good name. Hu Ping asks: Are the other CCP heads not movie stars and do not want to get a good name? Why is Wen Jiabao different from them? Why is Wen the only one who sings this tune? Why doesn’t anyone else sing this tune?
Think about Wen Jiabao, an article on the memory of his mother, when he said a few words with conscience, he was blocked, which in itself means a lot, at this time today, he still has the heart to dance, unlike Wang Qishan who is trembling and nodding, which means a lot. He is still sticking to his words today, and this persistence is a testament to his sincerity,” said Xiaoshu. This sincerity is so scarce in China nowadays that it is absurd to blame it with moral perfectionism”.
How to evaluate Wen Jiabao is a different matter. Interestingly, today, even Wen Jiabao, a retired senior official who has long been off the stage, said a few words are so sensitive and have to be banned, with Wen Jiabao’s experience in Zhongnanhai, he is afraid that he knows very well, why he still does it?
Recent Comments