Ren Zhiqiang, a retired businessman and public figure who once insinuated that Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping was a “clown,” will be tried in court at 9:30 a.m. on Friday (Nov. 11) in the Ninth Court of the Beijing Municipal No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court for speech crimes.
The charges against Ren include “corruption,” “bribery,” “misappropriation of public funds,” and “abuse of power by personnel of state-owned enterprises,” among other four counts, but it is more widely believed that Ren’s troubles stemmed from an article he wrote insinuating that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping was a “clown.
In early March, an article purportedly written by Ren was circulated on WeChat and later posted on the Internet, saying, “A clown who insists on becoming emperor even though he is naked, even though he holds up pieces of cloth to hide the fact that he is not wearing any clothes at all, does not hide his ambition to become emperor, and who won’t let me be emperor. and let you perish with determination!” The remarks were interpreted as a bombardment of Xi Jinping, and soon after, news broke that Ren was out of touch.
By April 7 of this year, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Discipline Inspection and the Beijing Municipal Supervision Commission released news that Ren Zhiqiang was suspected of serious disciplinary violations, and was undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation by the Beijing Xicheng District Commission of Discipline Inspection and District Supervision.
Ren Zhiqiang is a second-generation Red Chinese whose father, Ren Quansheng, served as China’s vice minister of commerce. He is also a mentor and friend of Vice President Wang Qishan. Born on March 8, 1951, Ren Zhiqiang, nicknamed Ren Da Cannon and originally from Laizhou, Shandong Province, has served as chairman of the board of directors of Beijing Huayuan Real Estate, deputy secretary of the party committee and chairman of the board of directors of Huayuan Group, supervisor of Beijing Commercial Bank (the predecessor of the Bank of Beijing), and director of New China Insurance Company. He retired afterwards. Ren holds a master’s degree in law from Renmin University of China. He was a member of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Recent Comments