A screenshot of the front page of Xinjing News from 2014 has been circulating wildly on the Internet (Photo credit: Internet screenshot)
Dai Zigang, who served as the first president and editor-in-chief of Xinjing News, was investigated in June 2019 and recently rumored to be involved in a bribery case quietly sentenced, but details are unknown. A screenshot of the front page of Xinjing News from 2014 has been circulating wildly on the Internet, and netizens say it is suspected of insinuating that Xi Jinping wants to be emperor, which is suspected to be the real reason why Dai Zigeng was pulled down.
Sohu News reported on May 10 that on May 7, the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate Court published an executive verdict in the case of Dai Zicheng, the former president of the Xinjing News, indicating that Dai Zicheng was guilty of accepting bribes, and that the court’s criminal verdict (2020) No. 45 of the Beijing 01 Criminal Court had taken legal effect.
The ruling shows that Dai Zichen’s bribery case was decided last year and his bank deposits of 16.338 million yuan were frozen. But the verdict is not known to the outside world, nor is Dai’s sentence.
In the past few days, a screenshot has been circulating online showing that on Jan. 25, 2014, the front page of the Xinjing Daily was headlined “Xi Jinping appointed chairman of the Central State Security Commission,” but the accompanying picture was a preview of the upcoming Beijing royal temple fair: the emperor was led by a eunuch on his head out on parade, and ministers were kneeling down to pay their respects.
Some netizens said: Is this not an insinuation that Xi Jinping wants to be the emperor?
Some netizens also reminded: this is from 2014, so later Dai Zigang, the owner of Xinjing News, was arrested.
Xi Jinping, the current general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), came to power at the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012. At the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017, Xi Jinping further established his position as the core of the party, and passed a constitutional amendment at the March 2018 session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) to break the limit on the re-election of state presidents and pave the way for permanent rule. But this approach has sparked fierce controversy inside and outside the Communist Party.
Dai Zigui, 59, a native of Ninghai, Zhejiang province, had a long career in the CCP’s propaganda system, working for the Guangming Daily and the New Beijing News before moving on to become deputy secretary of the party committee, vice chairman and general manager of Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group Co. in 2017. He was also one of the founders of the New Beijing News.
According to Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, during Dai Zisheng’s tenure as president, Xinjing News was known as an outspoken media outlet, winning praise for repeatedly resisting official pressure to publish monitoring reports, but was seen as an outlier by the Communist Party’s propaganda and control authorities.
Dai Zigian was known for his support of the outspoken Southern Weekend during the Nan Zhou incident and for defying Liu Yunshan, a former member of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee, and when the Nan Zhou incident occurred in 2013, Xinjing News resisted the official media’s request to republish the report. The Global Times editorial on the Nan Zhou incident was not published. However, the newspaper failed to resist the order.
In addition, Wu Xiaohui, the former son-in-law of Deng Xiaoping’s grandson and chairman of Anbang Group, was seen as standing up for Anbang when the newspaper published a large report defending Wu Xiaohui, the former chairman and general manager of Anbang Group, who was caught in a public opinion maelstrom, before and after Wu Xiaohui’s investigation. In May 2018, Wu Xiaohui was sentenced to 18 years in prison and fined 10.5 billion RMB.
When Dai Zigang was investigated in 2019, he was also speculated to be part of Wu Xiaohui’s case.
In March 2020, Dai Zisheng was double-opened, and the official notification criticized him for irregularly organizing and participating in banquets and high-spending entertainment activities paid with public funds; and for using the convenience of his authority to gain benefits for others and accepting property, which amounted to a particularly large sum; while the notification said “in the Party’s propaganda work, he improperly performed his duties, causing adverse effects”. In April 2020, Dai Zigang was indicted.
Recent Comments