Beijing human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang has publicly denounced the Communist Party’s recently-retired security chief Zhou Yongkang, calling him a “poison” of society.
Pu wrote on several of his Weibo accounts last week that Zhou is a “traitor of the people” who “has brought huge disasters to the country.” The posts were widely circulated and discussed on the Internet, but were soon deleted by authorities; his accounts were also disabled.
Zhou’s approach to “stability maintenance” is the major cause of China’s social instability, Pu said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA). To prevent further social conflict, the regime has to stop cracking down on people who speak their minds, he said.
Over the last 10 years, with Zhou heading security—first as Minister of Public Security, then as Secretary of the powerful and secretive Political and Legislative Affairs Committee— “none of the social conflicts in China were truly resolved,” which include incidents such as the June 4th Tiananmen massacre, the Falun Gong persecution, forced demolitions, and environmental destruction, Pu said. “He has, directly or indirectly, created countless tragedies.”
Jiang Zhuo, a netizen, wrote on his own Weibo that, “Whenever great political changes occur, people will need to pay back their debts to history. I support the brave intellectuals’ courage and patriotism. I support attorney Pu Zhiqiang!”
Many netizens were worried about his safety but he told The Epoch Times that he has not received pressure from the authorities.
Current affairs commentator Jin Zhentao told The Epoch Times that the fact that Pu didn’t quickly suffer violent retaliation indicates that Zhou Yongkang is not in favor with new leader Xi Jinping. He went further to suggest that Zhou will likely “be the next to be hunted down,” after former Politburo member Bo Xilai, a die-hard ally of Zhou, is put on trial.
In other cases people who have written against officials have been sent to forced labor camps, or worse. A few months ago, before Xi Jinping took power, “the attorney would likely have ended up missing, or there would be a staged suicide, or he would be tortured,” Jin Zhentao said.
The conflicts between Jiang Zemin’s faction and the new leadership group headed by Xi Jinping have intensified, and will become clearer as time goes on, according to Wu Baozhang, former director of Radio France Internationale’s Chinese program, speaking to The Epoch Times.
Wu has been closely observing the new leadership in Beijing and said “The key questions are whether they can break away from the government’s wrong deeds committed over the past 30 to 60 years and cut ties with the people who committed crimes, and in particular, with those systems.”
If they can, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will naturally disintegrate; and they will be able to move forward. If not, he said, China might have “its own version of the Arab Spring.”
Read the original Chinese article.
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