Recently, a lengthy serial article written by former Chinese Communist Party premier Wen Jiabao in memory of his mother was blocked by Beijing authorities, causing widespread concern. Some analysts believe that Wen Jiabao has expressed his dissatisfaction with the CCP’s top policies in different ways on several events during his tenure.
Wen Jiabao published four articles memorializing his mother in the Macau Herald from late March to early April this year. In the articles, he again referred to the “Cultural Revolution” and his comments on the Chinese Communist Party’s officialdom, as well as his sarcastic comments on the current situation. However, the articles were quickly blocked and banned from WeChat and the media.
Previously, Wen Jiabao also expressed his views on several events in different ways.
On May 7, an article by Gao Xin, a special commentator for Radio Free Asia, pointed out that the background behind Wen Jiabao’s constant public advocacy for political reform, especially for the reform of the CPC leadership system, since 2011, was the first clear signal of a shift to the left after Xi Jinping, then a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and president of the Central Party School, took charge of ideological work.
The article refers to the consequences of Wen Jiabao’s “unauthorized” “private meeting” with prominent Hong Kong politician Wu Kangmin in Zhongnanhai a decade ago.
In April 2011, then-Premier Wen Jiabao received Wu Hongmin, a former Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), in a private meeting in Beijing. Wu is a veteran of Hong Kong’s leftist movement who has often written articles critical of Hong Kong’s governance and has been urging the Communist Party to speed up the pace of political reform.
According to Gao Xin’s article, after Wen Jiabao published an article reminiscing about his mother in the Macau media, many commentators recalled the aforementioned meeting, in which Wen Jiabao, in his capacity as premier, talked about his concerns about the resurgence of the Cultural Revolution.
For this meeting, the Hong Kong media revealed at the time that the “top” suddenly gave instructions not to make a big deal of it. In his article, Gao Xin said, “Who is the “above” that was mentioned here? The commentary of a prominent Hong Kong politician and legislator at the time, Leung Kwok Hung, was right on target: It was because Wen Jiabao’s meeting with Wu Kangmin did not meet the specifications of the Chinese Communist Party. He said that the CPC now has a working group of the CPC Central Committee on Hong Kong and Macau, and the director (head) of the group is Xi Jinping.
In fact, Wen Jiabao said publicly before he left office as premier that the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution had not been completely removed and that without the success of the political reform, the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution could happen again.
Gao Xin said the earliest media analysis that there was a “line struggle” between Wen Jiabao and Xi Jinping was by the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
On March 6, 2013, the day after Wen delivered his last government work report, the Sankei Shimbun reported that Wen was “the biggest reformist in the Communist Party. In his government work report, Wen proposed a systemic reform initiative to “correct the over-centralized and unchecked situation of power in the system” in response to the conservative and nationalist line pursued by new leader Xi Jinping.
The report cited sources within the Communist Party as disclosing that the government work report was drafted by a team of government bureaucrats close to Wen Jiabao.
In addition, Wen was also unhappy with the hard line of Xi-led diplomacy with Japan. Gao Xin’s article mentions that in January 2013, Wen Jiabao told a gathering that the good neighbor diplomacy promoted by the Communist Party over the past decades was ruined. Therefore, in his last government work report, Wen Jiabao summarized that the Chinese Communist Party’s diplomacy in the past five years “actively promoted relations with major countries and strengthened mutually beneficial and cooperative relations with neighboring countries,” without touching on the Diaoyu Islands issue, which is also a sign of displeasure with the hard-line diplomacy led by Xi Jinping.
In another article, Gao Xin describes how the feud between Xi and Wen began in fact during the five years when Wen was still premier of the State Council and Xi was still in charge of party affairs as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, waiting to take over, the five years between the 17th and 18th Communist Party Congresses.
Chinese political scientist Kai Bo (pseudonym) told the BBC that Wen chose this time to publish the article as a public expression of his dissatisfaction with those currently in power, as the Communist Party strengthens its authority for the centennial of its founding and prepares for the 20th National Congress.
Wen Jiabao retired in 2012 after 28 years of service in Zhongnanhai, including 10 years as Premier of the Communist Party.
After former CPC leader Jiang Zemin stepped down as chairman of the military commission in 2004, he has been holding military power through his inner circle, including military vice chairman Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, and hollowing out Hu Jintao, resulting in an awkward situation where Hu’s administration did not leave Zhongnanhai for a decade.
In recent years, the Communist Party has been seriously divided within Zhongnanhai due to internal and external concerns.
Wen Jiabao said at the end of his article, “The China I have in mind should be a country full of fairness and justice …….” According to some commentators, the “fair and just China” described by Wen here, a China “with respect for the human heart, humanity and the essence of human beings,” is very different from the style of Xi Jinping and others, and is also very different from the current reality.
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