The Chinese Writers Association reportedly issued an announcement last week that 38 military writers had quit the CWA en masse at the request of their troops. This is the first time in 70 years that such a collective withdrawal from the association has occurred, thus raising concerns.
According to Hong Kong media reports on Dec. 21, the China Writers’ Association issued an announcement on Dec. 16 that 38 military writers had submitted applications to resign from the association according to the requirements of relevant army documents, and the association’s secretariat confirmed the termination of the 38 people’s membership. This is the first time in the 71-year history of the Chinese Writers’ Association that a large number of writers have resigned en masse.
The report said there was speculation that the Chinese military writers had resigned en masse to protest the association’s “shielding” of Fang Fang, but a senior member of the association denied any connection.
Qiu Huadong, secretary of the Chinese Writers’ Association, told the Hong Kong media that he did not want to talk about the matter, but only “the army’s request in the process of military reform, there is no special meaning.”
According to sources, the army has been cleaning up the issue of military participation in associations in recent years, and in the first half of this year, the military commission stipulated that officers in higher positions must clear out of all kinds of associations and retain at most one association related to their careers.
38 military writers submitted a notice of withdrawal application. (Photo source: Web screenshot)
It is reported that the Chinese Writers Association website issued an announcement that “38 military writers have submitted applications to me to withdraw from the association” and listed 38 people, including retired generals, including the former deputy political commissar of the General Armament Department, Lieutenant General Zhu Zengquan, the former deputy political commissar of the Naval Aviation Corps, Ma Guochao, the former director of the Army Art College Lu Wenhu, the former commander of the Zhejiang Military Region Wang Hewen, etc., as well as Zhou Tao, vice chairman of the Xinjiang Writers’ Association, and Dong Xiaqingqing, a post-80s female army writer. The relevant announcement has been deleted.
In May this year, the CPC Central Inspection Team stationed at the Chinese Writers’ Association and demanded that “writers must establish correct public opinion guidance. The official media reported that some writers and authors, with distorted values, have taken advantage of the epidemic to collude internally and externally, echoing the international “anti-China” countries. They have presented themselves as “modern-day Lu Xun”, satirizing the Chinese political system in the fight against the epidemic, and even attacking and blaming the government for the epidemic without meaning to. They have turned a natural disaster into a “man-made disaster”.
It is widely believed that this was aimed at Fang Fang, the former president of the Hubei Writers’ Association, whose diary, which was published in Europe and the United States during the epidemic, was heavily criticized by the official media on the mainland, although a group of writers also supported Fang Fang at the time. Chinese writer Yan Lianke also expressed his support for Fang Fang: “We have Fang Fang to thank for picking up the face of writers and literature that fell on the ground.”
The military writers quit the Writers’ Association en masse, causing widespread concern. Some netizens left a message saying that military writers and other literary and creative personnel join various civil associations, one is to mix themselves with ordinary civilians; the second is to take double pay, compete with the people for profits, the nature of the same as the troops in business. It is indeed a violation of taboos and discipline.
Lu Tianming, a writer, quoted the news on Weibo, saying that this is the first time in 70 years that such a collective withdrawal has occurred, and the official did not give any explanation, which inevitably led to various speculations. He said, “The military not only asked its own writers to withdraw from the Writers’ Association, but also asked the military people who participate in the associations of the Cultural Federation to withdraw from these associations, with the aim of preparing for war without fear.”
It is worth noting that Xi has held several meetings to emphasize the comprehensive strengthening of actual combat-oriented military training at a time of tensions in Sino-U.S. relations as well as in the Taiwan Strait. In less than a month, the Communist Party’s top brass has mentioned “preparing for war” three times.
At the end of October, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened to set the goal of completing the 100-year military build-up by 2027, while mentioning “the basic modernization of the national defense and military by 2035”. On November 13, the CPC Central Military Commission issued a pilot version of the military’s joint warfare outline, which provides direction for joint warfare training for the three armies, and on November 25, Xi Jinping attended a military training conference of the CPC Central Military Commission and delivered a speech emphasizing the need to accelerate the enhancement of integrated joint warfare capabilities.
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