EDUARD FERNÁNDEZ
JESUS GÁMIZ
(Beijing)
He 4 March, A letter calling for the resignation of President Xi Jinping appeared on a Chinese website. Authorities are trying to find out who wrote it: could be an internal challenge
(learn original and: The Confidential)
The morning of the past 4 March, It's likely that someone within the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Department choked on their breakfast.. The previous day the political event known as “two sessions” had begun.: the annual meetings of the Chinese Parliament and its main advisory body. With the entire Chinese political elite concentrated in Beijing and the security bodies on high alert for the slightest sign of dissent, something unthinkable happened. An obscure news portal called Wujie News, owned by SEEC Media Group and the Xinjiang regional government, published an explosive letter calling for the resignation of the country's president, Xi Jinping. It was signed by a group of “loyal members of the Communist Party”.
During the last days, and with the usual secrecy, Chinese authorities have arrested more than twenty people, according to various sources. Of all of them, only Chinese columnist Jia Jia has been released, as his lawyer confirmed on Saturday. While, Various journalists and executives of Wujie and a dozen employees of a technology firm related to it remain missing..
La carta acusa a Xi Jinping de "excesiva concentración de poder" y de "debilitar los órganos de estado"
The letter recognizes some achievements of Xi Jinping's administration: fight against corruption, personal leadership in various reform initiatives, measures to boost economic development. “Those efforts”, the signatories admit, “they don't go unnoticed”. However, Immediately afterwards he embarks on an extensive litany of serious errors, arbitrariness and abuse of power. Those responsible call for Xi's resignation, not only “in consideration of the cause of the Party, to the nation and the people", but also, in a more or less open threat, “in consideration of your personal safety and that of your family”.
These supposedly loyal Party members accuse Xi Jinping of accumulating an “excessive concentration of power”, to “weaken the independent power of all state organs” and “creating a new system that has sown confusion in the decision-making process”. They criticize the lack of toughness with North Korea, that would have allowed “the achievement of successful nuclear tests”, as well as the permissiveness with “the return of the United States to Asia” and the progressive distancing of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The attack continues on the economic front, where they regret “the enormous number of layoffs in state companies” and the “placement of a huge amount of currency in chaotic countries and regions”. And for the ideological sphere, perhaps the most dangerous, they reserve a devastating verdict: “His condonation of a cult of personality, His rejection of what he calls inappropriate criticism of the central government and his method of a Party with one voice fill all of us who lived through the Cultural Revolution with concern.. Our Party, “Our country and our people cannot afford another decade of calamities.”.
Chinese journalist Jia Jia
Family arrests
The immediate reaction was as expected.: deletion of the text and cessation of Wujie's independent activity, which since then only publishes texts from the official Xinhua news agency. The alleged wave of arrests (of which the authorities have not said a word) would also constitute a common response to a public challenge of this type. Chinese activist Wen Yunchao, who currently lives in New York, revealed last Friday that his parents and brother, residents in China, They were also detained. “Neither I nor my sister-in-law know where they are., and the authorities have not offered us any explanation as to why they have arrested them.”, email complaint. The dissident published a link to the text on his Twitter account last 12 March, and affirms that since then the government has pressured him through his family to provide information about the origin of the letter.. However, Wen assures that he does not know the identity of the authors, and denies any connection with them.
on sunday, Chang Ping, a Chinese journalist exiled in Germany, He also reported that his two brothers and a sister were detained when they were traveling to their hometown to celebrate their father's birthday.. He 19, Chang had published an article in Deutsche Welle criticizing the arrest of activist Jia Jia. He also believes that authorities are trying to pressure him through his family to reveal information he says he does not have.. “I have no connection with this open letter”, said in a statement, “I have not gotten involved in the internal disputes of the Party nor do I have any interest in doing so”. The journalist adds that “every citizen has the freedom to comment or criticize the political activities of state leaders.”.
La carta 'refleja la insatisfacción respecto a algunas políticas de Xi Jinping, like the cult of his personality' according to Chinese activist Wen Yunchao
Echoing the news, William Nee, China specialist at Amnesty International, has asked Beijing to “stop the political persecution against those suspected of writing the open letter and release all those detained in connection with it”. For your part, Wen describes as “disproportionate, illegal and inhumane” the measures taken by the government, and believes that the appearance of the petition highlights the leadership crisis of Xi Jinping and the Chinese political system itself. “It clearly reflects the dissatisfaction within the country regarding some of Xi Jinping's policies.”, including the cult of his personality and the excessive concentration of powers [by Xi]”, explains to El Confidencial.
The letter is extremely unique for several reasons.: the crudeness with which he attacks, pointing with name and surname, to the highest authority of the country; its publication during a period as sensitive as the two sessions and the fact that it appeared on a website linked to a regional government. Steve Tsang, director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, believes that “it is likely that whoever hung her would not have dared without at least some support from some high-ranking official within the system.”. Of course, there is an alternative, What is the fact that the website was hacked?, but in any case, The episode reflects that there is significant resistance to Xi Jinping's approach to governing and controlling China.”
Posters of the bowed President Xi Jinping in Shanghai, he 26 March 2016 (Reuters)
"Lealtad absoluta"
As if that were not enough, This was not the only incident related to censorship and freedom of expression that the international media reported during the two sessions.. The last day 11, An employee of the Xinhua agency published on the Internet, signing with your first and last name, a text in which he criticized “that debate on the internet has been massively suppressed and freedom of expression has been violated to an extreme degree”. It didn't last long hanging either..
In an even more bizarre episode, the day 3 Caixin magazine, famous for playing to the limit in the songs she plays, uploaded to its website an interview with a delegate of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a kind of senate, in which he complained about the lack of tolerance for criticism from the central bodies. two days later, The Cyberspace Administration of China deleted the article. Caixin immediately counterattacked with another text, on their page in English, in which he denounced the episode, and in which the same delegate, Jiang Hong, He described the censorship as “amazing and terrible”. The article was also deleted a few hours later..
in 2017 will take place on the 19thº National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, where the real power that Xi Jinping has will be seen
These incidents come less than a month after Xi Jinping's highly publicized tour by China's three main state media outlets.: Xinhua agency, the People's Daily and CCTV television. On said tour, Xi openly called for “absolute loyalty”” from the state media to the Party, a direct formulation of a doctrine, increasingly evident, zero tolerance for criticism. David Bandurski, researcher at the University of Hong Kong specializing in Chinese media, tells El Confidencial that “there has always been tension within the system between those who ask for more freedom of expression and those who believe that propaganda controls are essential for stability.”. The difference now, con Xi Jinping, "We are seeing an erosion of the limited space that existed for dissenting opinions.". Bandurski concludes that “there was a time when journalists could, despite the controls, publish certain stories and touch on certain topics, But in recent months it has become virtually impossible.”.
in 2017, The Chinese Communist Party will hold its nineteenth National Congress, in which there will be a partial replacement of its leadership. Even taking into account the opacity that characterizes the tectonic movements of the Chinese political elites, It is likely that the maneuvers to rise to the top positions will have been underway for some time. The Congress will be a useful thermometer to assess the real control that Xi Jinping has of the Party apparatus. “There is resistance”, notes Steve Tsang, “but we don't know if they will crystallize in Congress, something that will depend largely on the behavior of the economy”. According to the academic, Chinese president's media tour and increasing control of public discourse are signs of insecurity: “if you knew your position was safe, that the media is following his directives, who are loyal, I shouldn't have to say these things. It's not at that point. His control is not as strong as he would like.”.
