Zoucheng City, Shandong Province, October 15, 2004, female television broadcaster Ma Xiao died suddenly in bed at the home of Vice Mayor Liu Bo (Photo credit: Web screenshot)
Wang Zhonglin, who was parachuted from Jinan to Wuhan as the city’s party secretary during the pandemic outbreak in March last year, became deputy secretary of the Hubei provincial party committee and secretary of the provincial government on May 1, and will replace Wang Xiaodong as governor of Hubei province in accordance with Chinese Communist Party practice. Some commentators have unearthed a dark history of Wang Zhonglin’s official career, persecuting a mainland media personality who published a story about a “female announcer dying in the mayor’s bed”.
Wang Zhonglin, 59, is a native of Fei County, Shandong Province, and studied criminal law at the East China University of Political Science and Law from September 1980 to July 1984, which means he started out as an official in the stability maintenance department. Detective at full section level, Director and Party Secretary of Shanting District Branch of Zaozhuang Municipal Public Security Bureau, Branch Chief and Political Commissar of Traffic Police Detachment of Zaozhuang Municipal Public Security Bureau, Deputy Procurator General of Zaozhuang Municipal Procuratorate, Deputy Secretary of Yicheng District Committee of CPC Zaozhuang City, President of Party School, and Mayor of Yicheng District Government. Secretary of Tengzhou Municipal Party Committee and President of Party School under Zaozhuang City, Standing Committee of Zaozhuang Municipal Party Committee, Deputy Secretary of Liaocheng Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Liaocheng, Director of Development and Reform Commission of Shandong Province, Deputy Secretary of Jinan Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Jinan, Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of Jinan Municipal Party Committee. Until February 13 last year to take over the Standing Committee of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee.
On May 3, senior commentator Yue Shan wrote that Wang Zhonglin was involved in the persecution of former well-known mainland journalist Qi Chonghuai, who exposed corruption during his tenure as secretary of the Tengzhou Municipal Committee.
On Dec. 26, 2004, Qi broke through layers of blockades and wrote an in-depth report on the death of a female broadcaster in the mayor’s bed, which caused great discontent among the Communist Party’s Shandong Provincial Committee and led to a complaint to the Central Propaganda Department. From this point on, Qi offended a large number of high-ranking officials in Shandong, including a group of high-ranking officials such as Wu Guanzheng (later a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Political Bureau), who was once the secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee, and Wang Zhonglin, then secretary of the Tengzhou Municipal Committee.
Qi Chonghuai touched on the corruption of Wang Zhonglin, who was then secretary of the municipal party committee, during his investigation in Tengzhou. On June 4, 2007, these pictures appeared on the official media anti-corruption forum and were quickly reprinted on many forums and websites, and the corruption of senior officials in Tengzhou City became famous nationwide, after which the Tengzhou Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government became infuriated and the Tengzhou Public Security Bureau State Security Brigade and the Tengzhou Public Security Bureau Criminal Police Brigade arrested Qi Chonghuai across the region. The police force went to Jinan to arrest him.
In May 2008, Qi was sentenced to four years in prison for “extortion and blackmail. When Qi’s case came to trial on May 13, 2008, the Tengzhou police deployed more than 120 officers on alert, as if they were the enemy. Wang Zhonglin, secretary of the Tengzhou Municipal Party Committee, the Tengzhou Municipal Publicity Department, the Public Security Bureau, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the court’s main officials were all present, all concentrated in the next room of the courtroom to watch the video broadcast. The trial ended at 11 p.m. and lasted 16 hours.
In 2011, near the end of his sentence, Qi Chonghuai was suddenly sentenced to an additional eight years in prison for disclosing his experience of torture and even near silencing. According to Zhang Min’s book “The Mothers, Wives and Daughters of Prisoners of Conscience,” Qi’s wife, Jiao Xia, said in an interview that Wang Zhonglin had said he would not let Qi out alive!
After 10 years and 8 months of unjust imprisonment, Qi Chonghuai was released from prison on March 24, 2018 with a head full of white hair.
Qi Chonghuai (small photo) before his arrest on March 24, 2018, compared to his recent release from prison, 10 years in prison left him with a head full of white hair. (Photo credit: Free Asia)
Wang Zhonglin, the secretary of the Tengzhou Municipal Party Committee who was involved in the framing of Qi Chonghuai, has since risen through the ranks to become secretary of the Jinan Municipal Party Committee, and was appointed to the post of secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee last year, and now has risen even higher.
The article analyzed that Wang Zhonglin had no connection with Xi’s army in the official faction, and he belonged to the camping faction like Li Hongzhong, the Tianjin Party Secretary, who rose through the ranks by doing dirty work and showing loyalty.
Wang Zhonglin arrived in Wuhan last year at the height of the epidemic, when the people were in dire straits. When Xi Jinping was due to visit Wuhan in mid-March, Wang Zhonglin made an early statement asking Wuhaners to “give thanks to the Party and Xi Jinping,” which led to a storm of public scorn and the authorities had to urgently “put out the fire” by pulling the report, and Wang Zhonglin changed his tone to say Wang Zhonglin changed his tone and said: “Thank you to the people”.
Wang Zhonglin, then secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, in March 2020 (Photo source: Internet)
According to Yue Shan, Wang Zhonglin’s change of tone was just for show and had no effect on the public. And although Wang Zhonglin’s method of expressing his loyalty was seen as a failure at the time, and even seen by some as digging a hole for Xi Jinping, who was preparing for his visit.
Yue Shan also believes that once Wang Zhonglin has the power in his hands, his persecution of human rights will not be limited to one conscientious journalist, Qi Chonghuai, including Falun Gong practitioners, other human rights defenders, and so on. The fact that such a human rights villain, whose hands are stained with the blood of righteous people and whose corruption scandals are circulating on the Internet, has been promoted only shows that the system is a reverse elimination, and that the villain is in power. The application of this unspoken rule is analogous to the reappointment of Chen Guanguo, a cool official in Xinjiang. Now this subterfuge has evolved into an explicit rule without any fear, and it has become widespread, which is in fact the scene of the decline of all dynasties and generations.
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