Recently, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Party School published an article to once again call for vigilance against the so-called “political swindlers” within the Party. The CCP’s revival of such a Cultural Revolution term comes amid China’s economic downturn.
The Past and Present of ‘Political Swindler’
Guo Jun, editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times, explained on the show that “political swindler” is a term from the CCP’s Cultural Revolution era between 1966 and 1976. During that time, the CCP used such terms to label individuals within the Party as “disloyal” or “counter-revolutionaries.”“I believe that when the CCP recently raised the issue of ‘political swindlers,’ they were certainly not referring to ordinary [Party] officials,” she said. “At the very least, they were targeting officials at the level of the Politburo Standing Committee, if not those who ranked second or third in the Standing Committee,” referring to the body of senior CCP leaders.
Yuan Hongbing, the former head of the law school at Peking University and renowned Chinese dissident based in Australia, said on “Pinnacle View” that in the era of CCP head Xi Jinping, especially in recent years, the CCP has once again revived the term “political swindlers.”
He said he believes that the 5th ranked member of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee Cai Qi is responsible for reviving the term.
“The key reason why Cai Qi has gained Xi Jinping’s favor is that he first proposed and consistently insisted on equating Xi Jinping’s status with Mao Zedong’s, wanting Xi Jinping to be revered as a ‘deity’ of the Communist Party, just like Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong led the CCP to establish a communist dictatorship, and according to the CCP, he made great contributions to the founding of the country. Cai Qi’s narrative is that Xi Jinping saved the CCP, saved the military, and saved the country,” he said.
Mr. Yuan further explained that Mr. Cai is willing to resort to open struggles within the CCP to target high-ranking officials in the regime who may hold some reservations against Mr. Xi. Therefore, the term “political swindlers” is being used to label anyone who may doubt or question Mr. Xi’s leadership.
Xi’s Unpopularity Among the CCP Elites
Mr. Yuan believes that Mr. Xi is currently extremely isolated within the CCP. Although Mr. Xi has, through a decade of falsely posing as an anti-corruption fighter, defeated former CCP leader Jiang Zemin’s faction within the Party and purged many of those individuals, such elite CCP officials who doubt Mr. Xi’s leadership still continue to exist.“Moreover, in the process of returning to Mao Zedong’s [communist] orthodoxy, Xi Jinping has thoroughly offended China’s wealthy private entrepreneurs,” he said. “So Xi Jinping’s series of political and economic actions have made him a tyrant. In the history of the CCP, there has never been a dictator as isolated as Xi Jinping. Back then, Mao Zedong still had a group of enthusiastic supporters, such as the so-called Red Guards who were fanatical supporters of Mao. Xi Jinping now has no support from any class or social stratum, which is his biggest crisis.”
Anti-Xi Ideals
Mr. Yuan explained in “Pinnacle View” that there are two mainstream anti-Xi ideals in China and even within the CCP. One is the so-called return to former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping’s path of reform and opening up, which led to an economic boom in China.The other ideology is more progressive than the first, which is nostalgia for the pro-reform leader Hu Yaobang within the Party. Back in the 1980s, Mr. Hu went beyond economic reform and favored political reform for China. His death in 1989 directly led to massive student protests for democracy which tragically resulted in the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Mr. Yuan said.
The Tiananmen Square Massacre was an “empire-strikes-back” moment that marked an end to Mr. Hu’s reforms, he continued. Discussions about his legacy were censored for years as the hard-line authoritarians within the Party killed the hope for democratization in China. Nevertheless, Mr. Yuan believes that there are some within the CCP today who are preparing to raise the banner of Mr. Hu again to challenge Mr. Xi’s tyranny.
He said, “This is what Xi Jinping is most worried about, or rather, what he is most afraid of, and in my opinion, this trend of history is unstoppable.”
Regarding Mr. Xi’s insecurities, Ms. Guo said that in an authoritarian system, the greater the power, the more insecure he becomes. The major problem the CCP faces now is economic stagnation or even regression, which may threaten the stability of the regime.
“For a short-sighted dictator who is desperate to prevent the collapse [of his rule], he must prevent internal opposition, prevent the emergence of ‘political swindlers,’ or immediately eliminate them whenever they appear. Such [internal power] struggles within the CCP will never stop, and ‘political swindlers’ will always emerge under his rule,” she said.
