Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong had purged twice his critic Deng Xiaoping during the “Cultural Revolution” in the 1960s. Deng disappeared from public memory until Mao’s death in 1976. Then he was resurrected and became the “Architect of Modern China” (1978-89).
Something similar seems to be happening in China these days.
A Chinese kangaroo court has sentenced a property tycoon, Ren Zhiqiang, to 18 years in prison on trumped-up charges, camouflaging his severe criticism of President Xi Jinping on the COVID-19 issue.
Ren, 69, is no small fry. He is among the 50 wealthiest Chinese with a net worth of USD 5.8 billion. 
He is a former chairman of a state-owned real estate company. In a rare criticism of Xi, the tycoon publicly criticized the President for his mishandling of the pandemic.
Since the Chinese government had no other charges against Ren, it dug out dirt against him, allegations like corruption, bribery, embezzlement of public money, abuse of power, etc.
When China became a global villain early in 2020, Ren took a stand without mentioning the President by name. “Standing there was not an emperor showing off his new clothes but a clown who had stripped off his clothes and insisted on being an emperor”, he thundered in a video circulated widely on social media. He was referring to a February 23 video conference, with 170,000 officials in attendance, in which Xi Jinping announced his government response to the pandemic.
Xi Jinping, who is leading China since 2012, could not stomach this severe criticism and ordered Ren’s purge, the way Mao had once purged the President’s own father as well.
Ren Zhiqiang was known for boldly speaking up against government censorship and other sensitive matters. In March, he published an essay online accusing Xi Jinping of mishandling the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which had begun in December 2019 in Wuhan. After his immediate purge, he disappeared from public view in March.
Ren, a former chairman and deputy party secretary of Huayuan Group, was also expelled from the Communist Party in July.
Xi, who is leading the Communist Party, the nation, and the armed forces since 2012 for a lifetime, has purged his critics en masse, suppressed criticism, tightened censorship, and cracked down on unofficial organizations.
Ren also condemned the government’s propaganda portraying the Xi regime as rescuing China from the pandemic, even though the government had not disclosed the place where it began and its possible mistakes.
A former army official, Ren’s parents were both former high officials in the Communist party. He belongs to the Communist Party’s own elite capitalist class, like the family of Xi Jinping himself.
His conviction and sentence reminisce about the downfall and rise of Deng Xiaoping. It remains to be seen if he can emerge as a fulcrum of anti-Xi forces within China and lead the nation to the next stage.
