Yuan Longping tribute list A large number of senior Chinese Communist Party officials chose to be invisible

After Yuan Longping’s death, the Chinese Communist Party has tightened its speech control, and many mainland netizens have been deleted, blocked and arrested for criticizing Yuan Longping. The picture is a file photo.

Recently, Yuan Longping, known as the “father of hybrid rice” by the Chinese Communist Party, died. Subsequently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been promoting Yuan and bragging about his “contributions”. At the same time, Xi Jinping called on “Party members and cadres” to study Yuan. But Yuan’s memorial list shows that a large number of senior Communist Party officials are “invisible” and did not follow Xi’s request.

Xi Jinping’s Administration Promotes Yuan Longping in High Profile to Suppress Negative Voices

On May 22, Yuan Longping, 91, died in Changsha, Hunan Province. Yuan was a recipient of the Communist Party’s “Order of the Republic” and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

As an agricultural scientist, Yuan’s death has been met with a scale of publicity rarely seen in recent years by the official media.

The official media Xinhua published an article, “It is recommended to lower the flag at half mourning for the death of Yuan Longping”, “Carry Yuan Longping’s “flag” agricultural science and technology research does not stop”; “People’s Daily” published an article memorializing “Yuan Longping: one rice to help the world, ten thousand families have enough food”, “Xinjing News Even if you have never eaten hybrid rice, you should still have respect for Yuan Longping” and other articles.

On May 23, Xi Jinping publicly asked “the majority of Party members, cadres and science and technology workers to learn from Comrade Yuan Longping. At the same time, although Yuan’s identity is not a member of the Communist Party, the official called Yuan Longping a rare “comrade”.

Negative comments about Yuan were suppressed. Within two days of Yuan’s death, at least seven Internet users were detained in Tianjin, Henan and Guangdong for “insulting heroes and martyrs. Meanwhile, 64 accounts were permanently blocked on Sina Weibo on the mainland for insulting Yuan.

With the incitement of the official media, a positive public opinion against Yuan was formed in mainland China. At Yuan’s funeral, the official media said that the streets of Changsha, Hunan, where he lives, were filled with people honking their sirens and braving the rain to see him off, with long lines of mourners lined up for kilometers and chrysanthemums sold out in Changsha for a while.

In contrast, on the 24th Yuan Longping’s memorial list, although the current seven Standing Committee sent a message of condolence or sent a wreath, but there are still a large number of Chinese Communist Party “party and state leaders” chose not to speak out.

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On the morning of May 24, Yuan Longping’s body was sent off at the Mingyang Mountain Funeral Hall in Changsha. The official media reported that Xi Jinping and other seven standing committee members, as well as current and retired Chinese leaders, sent messages of condolence or wreaths of condolence to a total of 111 people.

The reporter checked and found that a large number of current and retired party and state leaders were “invisible” on the list of tributes to Yuan published by the official media, with the political and legal system, the military, Xi faction, and science and technology officials being the main ones.

For example, the top political and legal system officials on the list include Zhao Kezhi, Zhou Qiang and Cao Jianming (who was formerly the prosecutor general of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and is currently the vice chairman of the National People’s Congress). More senior officials in the political and legal system chose not to “punch the clock”: Luo Gan, Guo Shengkun, Zhang Jun, Wang Lequan, Meng Jianzhu, Jia Chunwang, Wang Yongqing, Han Lubin and Zhang Siqing.

Top officials of the cultural and propaganda system not on the list: Huang Kunming and Liu Qibao.

Top military officials who chose to be all absent: Xu Qiliang, Zhang Yuman, Wei Fenghe, Fan Changlong, Liang Guanglie, Chang Wanquan, Chi Haotian.

Those in the diplomatic system who paid tribute or sent wreaths included Dai Bingguo. High-ranking members of the diplomatic system not on the list: Yang Jiechi, Wang Yi and Tang Jiaxuan.

The top brass of the Prince’s Party chose to be all absent: Deng Pufang, Chen Yuan, Zhou Xiaochuan, and Liao Hui.

Xi’s close associates (Xi faction) not on the list: Ding Xuexiang, Li Qiang, Zhang Yuman, Huang Kunming, Cai Qi, He Lifeng.

Current affairs commentator Li Linyi said this is rather ironic. Officially, the private sector is required to have “reverence” for Yuan, and Xi specifically asked “cadres” to learn from Yuan, and the seven standing committee members all took the lead in “punching in” on Yuan’s memorial list, but The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.

According to Li Linyi, although senior officials are free to choose whether or not to mourn Yuan Longping, he has been characterized as a “national hero” by the authorities with such encouragement from Xi and officials. Whether senior officials send wreaths or mourn has actually become a political issue, i.e. whether they respond to Xi’s leadership. The fact that so many senior officials are not on the list of mourners shows that many senior Communist Party officials do not consider Yuan Longping worthy of mourning, and also exposes the fact that the Communist Party under Xi’s leadership is actually scattered within the top echelon.

Top officials in the CCP’s political and legal system mostly choose not to mourn Yuan Longping

Among the current top officials in the political and legal system, only Zhou Qiang, the president of the CCP’s Supreme Court, and Zhao Kezhi, the minister of public security, mourned, while Guo Shengkun, the secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, and Zhang Jun, the procurator general of the Supreme Procuratorate, were not included in the list of mourners. Most of the retired top political and legal officials chose not to pay tribute.

The reporter found that although the political and legal system media such as Chang’an Jian micro signal published many high-profile tribute to Yuan Longping, but the current secretary of the Political and Legal Committee Guo Shengkun himself did not send a condolence message or send a wreath to express his condolences.

The list also shows that among the retired CCP Politburo Standing Committee, former Politics and Law Commission Secretary Luo Gan was absent. The remaining seven patriarchs of the 16th Politburo Standing Committee who were contemporaries with Luo Gan are on the list.

Since the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017, Luo Gan has been absent from many major occasions where the patriarchs appeared en masse, such as the reception for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the CCP in 2019, the military parade on Oct. 1, 2019 and the opening ceremony of the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017. Previously, there were rumors overseas that Luo Gan was in poor health.

The scandal-ridden Meng Jianzhu, former secretary of the CCP’s Political and Legal Committee, also did not mourn Yuan. However, on April 16 this year, Meng appeared at the funeral of former Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong.

The Chinese Communist Party’s scholarly senior officials do not mourn Yuan Longping Analysis: stabbing the Chinese Communist Party to pretend to be this layer of paper

Another anomaly is that retired senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, such as Luo Fuhe, Song Jian, Xu Kuangdi, Qian Zhengying and many other experts, are also not on the list of those mourning Yuan Longping.

And after Yuan’s death, Xi specifically mentioned that he asked “the majority of science and technology workers” to learn from Yuan Longping.

Li Linyi said that this shows that Xi’s request was ignored and that the CCP is propaganda. Those people, including Xi’s cronies, do not take Yuan Longping seriously. The so-called “learning from Yuan Longping” is known inside the Communist Party, but it is only pretending to maintain the rule, but only asking the people to do it. The fact that some senior officials do not mourn is actually a break in the paper.