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In July, Xu Zhangrun, a professor at Tsinghua University, one of China’s most prestigious Universities, published an essay sharply criticizing the Xi Jinping government. Points of denunciation included the Party’s cult of personality and its move to abolish presidential term limits.

Professor Xu’s essay “Our Dread now, and Our Hopes” was published on the website belonging to the independent Think Tank Unirule Institute of Economics on 24 July, but was quickly blocked by Beijing authorities, and is now unavailable in China.

In China, those who criticize the government are in danger of immediate arrest regardless of his or her standing. So being a professor at President Xi Jinping’s alma mater, Tsinghua University, does not exempt Professor Xu from the risk. In fact, it is a rare case for a professor of such a prestigious university to openly criticize the government.

Professor Xu risked his safety to present the essay, and this article will look into the message he wanted to convey and the possible future that China will behold.

The Essay

The essay had four parts, each with its own subsections: “Four Bottom Lines”, “Eight Firms if Anxiety”, “Eight Hopes”, and “The Interim”, of which we will discuss the first three below.

Four Bottom Lines:

1. The maintenance of basic social order and a clear direction for the country
2. Allowing limited private property rights and tolerance of citizens’ pursuit of wealth
3. Limited tolerance of personal freedoms
4. Political term limits

Eight Forms of Anxiety:

1. Fear for the safety of personal assets
2. The rise of ‘politics in command’ and the abandonment of economic development as the basis of national policy
3. The re-emergence of class struggle
4. Shutting China off from the world once more; getting into a stalemate with the United States (and the West more generally); and yet warmer ties with North Korea and other ‘evil regimes’
5. Excessive foreign aid, leading Chinese to have to tighten their own belts
6. Increased repression and thought reform of intellectuals
7. Becoming trapped in a new armed race, war, and new cold war
8. The end of opening up and reform, and the comprehensive return of totalitarian politics

Eight Hopes:

1. Stop wasting money abroad
2. Stop wasting money on ‘sportsground diplomacy’
3. Abolish the privilege system for retired high-ranking cadres
4. Abolish the system of Special Needs Provisioning (the enclosed system of food and other supplies for Party officials)
5. Legislation forcing disclosure of official assets
6. Immediately put a stop to the cult of personality around Xi Jinping
7. A return to term limits on the post of state chairman
8. Overturn the political verdict on June 4

 
Additionally, Xu writes that, “People nationwide, including the entire bureaucratic elite, feel once more lost in uncertainty about the direction of the country and about their own personal security, and the rising anxiety has spread into a degree of panic throughout society.”

Critique of Xi’s Cult of Personality and Oppression of Freedom

Professor Xu is especially concerned about the government’s decision, made in March, to abolish the presidential term limit of ‘2 terms 10 years’ and allow Xi Jinping to hold the highest authority over the Party, military and state affairs. He continually refers to the need to reinstate presidential terms at the next National People’s Congress.

“An emergency brake must be applied to the Personality Cult,” he also writes, although he avoids referring to the president by name. “The Party media is going to great lengths to create a new Idol . . . It’s as though hundreds of millions of Chinese are oblivious; people tolerate the New Cult and allow it unfettered freedom.”

“quote”

Professor Xu ended his essay with words reflecting the weight of his deed: “I’m done talking; I leave my own life and death to destiny, the rise and fall of the nation to Heaven.”

Like Liu Xiaobo

The content of professor Xu’s essay is closely linked to “Charter 08”, a manifesto issued by the late Nobel Prize laureate and Chinese human rights activist, Liu Xiaobo.

“Charter 08” was a sharp critique of the Communist Party’s one-party rule and its total control over the people. It also demanded improvements such as democratization and the protection of human rights.

When Liu Xiaobo posted the manifesto on the Internet, the authorities were quick to delete it, but copies of it continued to be re-uploaded and eventually gathered over 10,000 signatures of petition.

Increasing Criticisms of Xi Jinping

U.S. media report that they are currently unable to contact professor Xu, and speculate the possibility that he has already been arrested. The Think Tank Unirule Institute of Economics, to which he belonged, have had their website blocked by authorities. The authorities are also suspected of welding the office doors to trap the researchers inside.

Professor Xu was well aware of these risks when he published the essay, and his resolution reflects just how much the rising qualms about Xi’s dictatorship has spread into the intelligentsia.

The Next Revolution In China

Master Ryuho Okawa, Founder and CEO of Happy Science, recorded the spiritual messages of Hong Xiuquan on 1st December 2017. Hong was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850 – 1854), and after his death, has assisted China’s revolutions from the heavenly realm.

We’ve already started preparations for China’s next revolution . . . Communism with its equality philosophy is acceptable as a temporary measure. But it can’t continue for too long, because it turns into a system where the wealthy elite class exploits the poor and the wealth disparity widens even more. This communism is unacceptable, so there arises a need to destroy it. That’s why we’ll be starting a revolution sometime soon.

 
“You will witness it within your lifetime,” he said with regards to the timing of the next revolution.

There will soon be a battle to decide whether China will become a country where Xi Jinping is enthroned as the absolute dictator. Then we need someone who will stand up against him. Remember Mao Zedong purged many revolutionaries like Liu Shaoqi . . . I guess there will be an opportune moment when a counter-revolutionary movement upsets the Establishment and foreign intervention comes in again like at the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

 
There have been many reports of recent arrests in China of people who openly expressed their anti-government opinions.

In July, authorities arrested a woman from Shanghai when she uploaded a video of herself shouting, “I object to Xi Jinping’s dictatorial regime!” while splashing black ink over a photograph of Xi’s face.

Beijing authorities raided the home of former-university professor, Sun Wenguang, during his telephone interview with a U.S. radio station, and arrested him for his anti-government stance.

The more Xi Jinping tries to control freedom of speech, the more the world hears about the oppression of freedom in China. Criticism of the Xi government is growing internationally, and more people in China are now willing to risk their lives to fight against the dictatorial regime.

China’s next revolution is imminent.