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.
Monitor your PC for software crashes, hardware failures, and the kind of glitches that make
your life miserable.
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 ti 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.
And this episode is sponsored by PC-Doctor Toolbox.
There are many reasons your computer crashes—like buggy software, hardware failures, and general
slowdowns with older computers.
And the worst part is, your computer always seems to crash at the worst time—like when
you’re about to give a presentation, or when you’re on the road, and there’s no
IT person around to help.
Fortunately, there’s PC-Doctor Toolbox with Remote monitoring.
If you're concerned about the health of your computer and want tools to prevent untimely
system issues, you should be using PC-Doctor Toolbox.
Stop crashes before they happen.
And we have a special announcement for China Uncensored viewers: Toolbox is now free for
personal use on up to 5 PCs with free remote monitoring!
Use the link below to sign up and download your 5 free copies of Toolbox today.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.