Why Is CCP So Evasive About the Murder of Its Party Secretary at Chinese University?

Why Is CCP So Evasive About the Murder of Its Party Secretary at Chinese University?
Protesters hold placards reading in Hungarian 'we will not be a colony' (L), and 'no Fudan' as they gather in downtown Budapest, Hungary, on June 5, 2021. (Laszlo Balogh/AP Photo)
Li Zhengkuan
6/10/2021
Updated:
6/11/2021
Commentary
On June 7, Wang Yongzhen, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) secretary of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Fudan University in Shanghai, was stabbed to death at work by Jiang Wenhua, one of Wang’s colleagues in the same department.

However, the statement about the murder case issued by the local police and circulated online was evasive. It didn’t disclose Wang’s university post as a Party secretary, or even the name of the university involved—Fudan University.

So why have these two names—“Fudan University” and “Party secretary”—suddenly become taboo to the CCP when talking about this vicious murder case?

One apparent answer—it coincided with two critical points in time.

First, in an effort to expand its influence in Hungary and the European Union, the CCP just signed a strategic deal in April, between Fudan University and the Hungarian government to build a campus in Budapest by 2024. Once the campus is completed, it will be the first Chinese university campus to be established by the CCP in one of the 27 member states of the EU.
The Hungarian government agreed to use a loan from the CCP, based on the investment mode of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road), to pay for the construction of the $1.9 billion campus, but the decision met with strong opposition from Hungarian dignitaries and the public.

It is worth mentioning that at the end of 2019, Fudan University revised its own university regulations, where “freedom of thought” was removed from the preamble while “academic independence” was placed after the new term “patriotic dedication.” In addition, the CCP’s socialist ideological content was significantly added.

On June 5, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Budapest to protest against the planned Fudan University campus, accusing the government of cozying up to Beijing. Opponents of Prime Minister Viktor Orban fear that the planned Chinese campus will undercut the quality of higher education and help promote Beijing’s influence in Hungary and the EU.

Immediately afterward, on June 7, a malicious murder case involving a Party secretary took place at Fudan University. Naturally, the CCP fears that if it becomes known to the outside world, the “regulations” and “philosophy” of the university, which is run by the CCP itself, will be more strongly opposed by the Hungarian public, making its attempt to penetrate the EU through the university even more challenging.

Secondly, the CCP has been busy preparing for its centennial Party celebration in recent months amidst boiling public discontent.

While the celebration day (July 1) is approaching, vicious incidents are becoming more frequent across mainland China. Here are just a few cases that took place over the last couple of weeks, according to Chinese news outlets.

On May 22, a young man of Liaoning Province drove his car into pedestrians at an intersection near a park, killing four people and injuring three others.

On May 24, another man of Liaoning Province set off a bomb in front of a government compound, leaving one dead and five injured.

On May 25, a 66-year-old man of Henan Province beat students with a stick, injuring 14.

On May 29, a 41-year-old man of Jiangsu Province randomly injured seven people with a knife then drove off and ran over his ex-wife.

On June 3, a 42-year-old male of Guangxi, a region in southern China, wielded a knife and severely wounded two people in a residential community.

On June 5, a 25-year-old male of Anhui Province randomly killed six people and injured 14 others with a knife.

On June 7, another murder case popped up on the campus of Fudan University in Shanghai. Regardless of who it is, the loss of a life in such a violent way is truly sad. But because this murder was targeted at a Party secretary, social media posts were overwhelmingly supportive of and sympathetic toward Jiang—the killer. One netizen said, “Taking down a Party secretary—what a nice job!” Another internet user wrote, “Justice is done!” according to Chinese news portal China Gate. Regardless of whether these comments are right or not, the flood of public responses is what the CCP is most fearful of, as it knows it has already lost all credibility with the people due to its tyranny. If the masses of long depressed citizens were to follow suit and begin killing Party secretaries, it would become the CCP’s worst nightmare.

It seems that the murder of a Party secretary of Fudan University not only makes the chances of the CCP building a Chinese campus in Hungary even slimmer but also casts a thick layer of gloom on the “centennial Party celebration” that the CCP has been deliberately concocting. The CCP is deeply concerned.

Li Zhengkuan is a freelance writer who covers China’s affairs. He started contributing to The Epoch Times in 2020.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Li Zhengkuan is a freelance writer who covers China’s affairs. He started contributing to The Epoch Times in 2020.
Related Topics