Commentary
Many readers reported reading that strange things were happening in China. For example, Twitter and Newsweek reported that China mysteriously canceled thousands of commercial flights and trains. Some bloggers wrote that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was under house arrest, and others reported seeing hundreds of military vehicles heading toward Beijing.
Others said these rumors were fake news.
What’s Really Going On?
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hasn’t confirmed or denied the rumors. The CCP wants people to wonder what’s going on.Xi is conducting a “palace coup” to flush out his opponents and remove them before the 20th National Congress begins on Oct. 16.
Many dictators and autocratic rulers conduct these actions to ensure they stay in power. In 2016, Turkish President Erdogan acted similarly and subsequently “declared a state of emergency, imprisoning opposition politicians, arresting tens of thousands of perceived opponents, journalists, and civil society leaders, confiscating opponents’ businesses and bank accounts, and cracking down on the remnants of the free press,” according to think tank American Enterprise Institute.
The Print, an Indian online newspaper, observed that when Xi returned from the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting on Sept. 17, the following six senior CCP members were “arrested or sentenced to prison under corruption charges”:
- “Sun Lijun, former vice minister of public security, who has been accused of leading a ‘political clique,’ was sentenced to death, which could be commuted to life in prison without parole after two years.
- “Fu Zhenghua, the former justice minister, was imprisoned for accepting bribes.
- “Liu Xinyun, former vice governor and head of the public security department in Shanxi province, was sentenced to 14 years for bribery and abuse.
- “Gong Daoan, former deputy mayor of Shanghai and the city’s public security bureau, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes worth 73.43 million yuan ($10.4 million).
- “The former police chief of Chongqing, Deng Huilin, was given a 15-year sentence.
- “Wang Like, former secretary of Jiangsu provincial political and legal affairs commission, was also sentenced to death with a potential life sentence after two years.”
Sun Lijun, then a vice minister of public security, attends a meeting in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province on April 7, 2020. Chinatopix via AP
CCP leaders have a tradition of purging those who disagree with them. Below are some previous examples and how they relate to Xi.
Mao’s Yan’an Rectification Movement (1942–45)
Mao Zedong conducted many purges during his rule. According to the Asia Society Policy Institute, from 1942 to 1945, Mao killed those who had questionable loyalty to “establish his unquestioned position as party leader.” According to a U.S. Senate Resolution from 2021, the CCP ordered the murder of at least 10,000 people “as the Chinese Communist Party attempted to attack and replace intellectuals with people who supported the Communist ideology.”Xi is following in Mao’s footsteps by using the legal system to murder or incarcerate his opponents.
Mao’s Purges During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976)
According to a study by the French think tank SciencesPo, most experts estimate that during the Cultural Revolution, Mao caused the death of 1 to 8 million people and “inflicted cruel and inhuman treatments on hundreds of million people.”The University of Washington published that the Cultural Revolution’s purpose was to destroy the “Four Olds—old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits—in order to bring the areas of education, art and literature in line with Communist ideology. Anything that was suspected of being feudal or bourgeois was to be destroyed.”
Xi is no stranger to these purges. When he was a young teenager, his father, Xi Zhongxun, was “publicly humiliated, beaten and sent into exile. President Xi’s half-sister, Xi Heping, is said to have taken her own life after being persecuted,” according to the UK Guardian newspaper.
October 1976 Coup
Mao died on Sept. 9, 1976. Hua Guofeng became the chairman of the CCP on Oct. 7, 1976. Hua conducted a fake coup against four members of the senior CCP committee (the Gang of Four), who were responsible for carrying out Mao’s Cultural Revolution and were designated by Mao to continue his legacy.As part of his consolidation of power and to prevent others from removing him, Hua ordered the arrest of Jiang Qing (Mao’s last wife), Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. Hua sent forces to Shanghai to prevent protests against the arrests; Shanghai was the Gang of Four’s main base of support.
Xi also purged many of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin’s supporters, who were also mainly from Shanghai. Xi replaced most of his competition with his loyalists.
After removing his competition, Hua became the first CCP leader to hold the titles of party leader, premier, and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Mao did not hold the title of chairman of the CMC. Xi is the second CCP leader to have these titles.
Xi’s Anti-Corruption Campaign
Just as Xi promotes a “zero COVID“ policy, he also initiated a “zero corruption” policy when he came into office, which conveniently removed many opponents. Between 2013 and 2016, the first three years of Xi’s “zero corruption” rule, the CCP’s Central Committee for Discipline Inspection reported that more than 1 million people were punished. During Xi’s tenure, six senior CCP leaders were prosecuted and sentenced: Bo Xilai (2013), General Xu Caihou (2014), Zhou Yongkang (2015), Guo Boxiong (2016), Ling Jihua (2016), and Sun Zhengcai (2017).
Zhou Yongkang, the former Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member in charge of security, sits in a courtroom at the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin in Tianjin, China, on June 11, 2015. CCTV via AP Video
CCP’s 20th National Congress
A famous quote from Ecclesiastes states that “there is nothing new under the Sun.” As Mao did, Xi’s false coup sets the stage for his dramatic coronation as the CCP general secretary (for life) when the 20th congress convenes in October.All is not perfect in the Land of Xi. The CCP has several internal disputes. CCP internal squabbles include how to proceed with China’s relations with Russia, how to repair the economy, whether the newly appointed CCP persons who replaced formerly pro-Jiang Zemin’s supporters are still reliably pro-Xi, and whether the CCP should strategically focus its efforts on taking over Taiwan or Russia.
We hope to receive information from leaks and indicators before, during, and after the CCP’s 20th National Congress. In previous national meetings, the proceedings were predetermined and choreographed, and no one questioned the revised CCP platform once published for its goals and objectives for the following five years.
A Brighter Future?
Even though we can pray for the demise of the CCP, the coup rumors are false. A false coup occurred in preparation for another culling round of CCP officials who have run afoul of Xi Jinping. Many people hope for the end of the CCP’s totalitarian control over the Chinese population that will lead to a democratic China without communist or socialist characteristics.A quote from Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925)—known as the “Father of the Nation” in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the “Forerunner of the Revolution” in China—shows that democracy was on his mind even as the Qing Dynasty fell over a hundred years ago:
“Which, autocracy or democracy, is really better suited to modern China? If we base our judgment upon the intelligence and the ability of the Chinese people, we come to the conclusion that the sovereignty of the people would be far more suitable for us.”
(Sun Yat-sen—“The Principle of Democracy,” lecture one, delivered on March 9, 1924.)
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
