Xi Jinping claims an “overwhelming victory”
against corruption.
But that...is a lie.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by PC-Doctor Toolbox.
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So, some people think the Chinese Communist
Party is a little bit corrupt.
And I get it,
a regime that kills people for
their organs and uses rape as form of torture
might not seem like it’s made up of upstanding,
honest citizens.
But this month, there seems to be some good
news:
Xi Jinping says China has won an “overwhelming victory” against corruption!
But while “overwhelming victory” sounds
like some kind of...overwhelming victory...
it’s not that simple.
Xi Jinping had declared something like this
before.
In 2018, he declared an “overwhelming victory”
against graft
—so basically one type of corruption.
But obviously that victory wasn’t very
overwhelming,
because he’s clearly been struggling against corruption
in the four
years since then as well.
And even now, Xi Jinping says more work is
needed to tackle the problem.
He says that from now on, there should be
zero tolerance toward corruption.
And there should be “policies to make sure
officials are not involved in corruption
because they ‘do not dare to, are not able to and
do not want to.’”
That’s a weird threat.
It’s like if you wanted to go on YouTube
to talk about
alien pedophile vaccine conspiracy theories.
YouTube would immediately shut down your channel,
so you don’t dare to.
And therefore...don’t want to?
At any rate, Xi Jinping is moving quickly.
Earlier this month, he announced a new rule
to further rein in corruption:
Monitoring the business activities of officials’ families.
“Officials must report business activities
of their spouses and children
and those who fail to do so or seek to skirt the rules
will
be ‘dealt with seriously in accordance with
regulations and laws.’”
And officials now need to either get their
families to withdraw from these business activities,
or they have to step down from their posts
as communist officials.
This could affect dozens of high-ranking Party
officials,
and potentially millions of lower officials.
For decades, Party members have installed
family members in all sorts of positions,
from state-owned companies, to foreign joint
ventures,
to private equity, and more.
This anti-corruption push is a big deal.
But it’s also not about fighting corruption.
I’ll explain after the break.
Welcome back.
Xi Jinping is talking big about fighting corruption
within the Chinese Communist Party.
He claims to have won an “overwhelming victory.”
But that’s just not true.
From the very founding of the Chinese Communist
Party in 1921,
it was based on corruption.
Essentially, you had a group of thugs whose
plan
was to kill rich people and take their stuff,
and then take over the country.
Mao Zedong talked about using the “lumpenproletariat”
for his revolution.
That refers to the social outcasts—
especially
criminals,
including members of triads and secret criminal societies.
Mao wrote in 1926 that the lumpenproletariat
“can become a revolutionary force if given proper guidance.”
And guidance, he gave.
Mao specifically used the lumpenproletariat
to fight his communist revolution.
Who else but criminals would be more willing
to kill rich people and take their stuff?
And when the Communist Party finally came
to power in 1949,
guess what kind of people were high ranking Party members?
A lot of them were criminals.
Even today, there’s a tight affiliation
between the Communist Party and triads.
Check out our interview today on our China
Unscripted podcast—
where our guest Sam Cooper talks about Party-linked triads
running drugs and money laundering in Canada.
The Chinese Communist Party is basically what
you get
when a group of gangsters to take over an entire country:
They control gang members
they lock away so-called enemies,
they take over other people’s territory,
and they fight constant internal power struggles.
Violence and corruption are how the Communist
Party stays in power!
That’s why I said Xi Jinping can never truly
eliminate corruption
in the Chinese Communist Party.
But that’s not his real goal, anyway.
His real motive behind winning a victory over
corruption
is winning a victory over his political enemies.
For example, former leader Jiang Zemin.
Jiang Zemin’s son, Jiang Mianheng, is a
powerful businessman.
He has his fingers in everything from state-owned
enterprises to joint ventures.
In 2012, the Hollywood company DreamWorks
Animation began a joint venture in China,
called Oriental Dreamworks,
to create animated
and live-action entertainment for the China market.
DreamWorks partnered with two Chinese companies
plus Shanghai Alliance Investment—
which is an investment arm of the Shanghai municipal
government.
Jiang Mianheng was chairman and CEO of Shanghai
Alliance Investment.
Meaning, the son of Xi Jinping’s biggest
rival
had a stake in a 300-plus-million dollar
company controlling media and entertainment
in China.
Side note: That American joint venture
was
eventually bought out completely by a Chinese company
—once it was no longer useful to
have the Americans on board.
Anyway, the list goes on.
The son of former President Hu Jintao, Hu
Haifeng,
“once managed a state-controlled firm that held a monopoly on security scanners
used in China’s airports, shipping ports
and subway stations.”
Former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai,
who
got taken down by an internal power struggle in 2012,
had his own network of family corruption,
with at least $160 million in assets held
by his close relatives.
Basically, communist officials from top to
bottom are out to make money.
And they often do it through corruption.
That includes installing their relatives in
companies poised to make money,
with the help of their Party contacts.
The brilliant thing about Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption
campaign is,
it’s actually a powerful weapon he can use to go after his political enemies—
while
having the plus side of making it look like
he’s going after corruption.
But it’s selective.
Xi Jinping never sought corruption charges
against his ally,
former premier Wen Jiabao.
Wen’s family members were worth hundreds
of millions of dollars, often through corruption—
as you can see from this New York Times graphic.
But with his friend Wen Jiabao, that’s a-ok.
So for all my viewers in the West reading
these glowing articles about Xi Jinping fighting corruption
—don’t be fooled.
Xi Jinping is not really targeting corruption.
He’s just struggling against his political
enemies.
Like a good communist.
But because the entire Communist Party is
based on corruption,
Xi Jinping will never actually win an “overwhelming victory.”
Just wait a few more years, and president-for-life
Xi Jinping
will once again make an announcement
declaring victory over corruption.
Don’t be fooled that time, either.
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I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.