Xi Jinping

According to a CCTV prime time news report, there was a gathering to extend Lunar New Year’s greetings to people from non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and those without party affiliations.

Xi Jinping, the new general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pointed out that it was necessary to keep on intensifying democratic supervision. For the CCP, it should be able to put up with sharp criticism, correct mistakes if it has committed them and avoid them if it has not.

For non-CCP personages, they should dare to tell the truth, speak words jarring on the ear, and truthfully reflect public aspirations. Xi hoped that they would conscientiously make forthright admonition and criticism to help the party identify, analyse and resolve the problems and overcome the shortcomings in its work.

Xi urged the party committees at various levels to proactively accept and sincerely welcome the supervision by the non-communist parties and people without party affiliations, earnestly improve their working style and continuously raise their work standards.

Didn’t Xi’s words sound similar to Mao’s words when Mao seduced the non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and those without party affiliations to criticise the CCP in order to help the CCP rectify its working style?

Do you think that those who have criticised the CCP will again be labelled as rightists and persecuted?

SCMP reported some microbloggers response to Xi’s invitation of criticism as follows:

Journalist Chen Jieren believed Xi, but had doubt that the relevant departments would take the initiative to turn Xi’s words into actions and unlock those Weibo accounts of people who were silenced for speaking the truth, let alone criticising the CCP?

China Newsweek senior writer Zhang Wen recommended that all the non-communist parties responded by casting off the “window-dressing” label given them by foreign media, opening their microblog accounts to keep the CCP in check online and being brave by putting its own voice out there.

He believes that there will not be a repetition of the anti-Rightist campaign as games like “drawing the snakes out of the caves” won’t work in today’s China.

I believe that judging by Jiang Zemin’s decision to allow his name to appear behind Politburo Standing Committee member, Jiang wants Xi to succeed him as the core of the CCP leadership, a position equivalent to the emperor of the CCP Dynasty (the current Chinese political system I described in my book “Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements”).

Xi really wants people outside the CCP to help him deal with the large number of corrupt local despots within the party.

However, as the core of the CCP Dynasty, Xi does so for the survival of the CCP as he knows well if he fails to deal with the serious problems of corruption within the CCP, the CCP will be doomed.

This will be a good opportunity for people to fight for the rule of law and human rights, especially the freedoms of press and speech in accordance with the Chinese constitution.

However, knowing well that this is under the restriction of helping the CCP Dynasty to maintain its survival, human rights and rule of law fighters should not be so stupid as to demand multi-party democracy. Doing so could lose the rare opportunity to obtain rule of law and freedoms of press and speech, which are the indispensable foundations of democracy.

Related Articles

• Xi Jinping urges party to be more open to criticism (wantchinatimes.com)
• Chinese Communist Party must tolerate ‘sharp criticism’, says Xi Jinping (telegraph.co.uk)
• China’s media and netizens active in Xi Jinping’s fight against corruption (chinadailymail.com)

Categories: Human Rights & Social Issues

Tags: All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, CCP, China, Communist China, freedom of press, freedom of speech, Human Rights, Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping