Subscribed? Check “update your preferences” at the bottom of this newsletter China Newsletter What China Is Reading Issue 91 – August 1, 2021 Reader Feedbacks to China Newsletter to improve our China Newsletter! In This IssueThe articles shared here do not necessarily reflect the views of China Newsletter or Dialogue China. All articles sourced from WeChat public accounts unless otherwise noted.I. Editorial1. How to Understand the Communist Party of China (Part Two) II. Policy 2. Family Politics Without Justice: A Framework for Understanding the Current Rural Pension Crisis – A Survey Based on Rural Guanzhong 3. Jack Ma/Ma Yun Was Fined ¥18.2 Billion. A Wise Observer Discloses the Real Story: Why Have We Come To This Point Today? III. Politics 4. Behind the Alibaba Punishment: How the Dominant Position of the Super Platform was Actually Formed? 5. 310,000 Diagnoses a Day, But Claims the Situation is Excellent? India’s Mystery and China’s Truth 6. China’s Plan to Promote the Cross-border Flow of “One Belt, One Road” Data IV. Society 7. Suicide Over Gambling Debts: The Power and Tragedy of a Small Town “Star Teacher” 8. Young People Who Watch Election Shows to “Avoid the World” are Slipping into a Dangerous Political Game 9. Why is it Difficult for Chinese People to Separate Work and Life? V. Finance and Business 10. What Signal Was Given by Alibaba Being Fined ¥18.2 billion? 11. How Long Can the Collective Rise in National Housing Prices Last? Editorial 1. How to Understand the Communist Party of China (Part Two) Wang Dan – Radio Free Asia Opinion Column – June 28, 2021Last issue, we talked about the violent and illegitimate nature of the Chinese Communist Party in a 100 year review. In addition, in order to understand the inherent nature of the Chinese Communist Party, we need to look at other characteristics of the Communist Party.   The third characteristic we must recognize is that the essential nature of the Communist Party of China is not that of a political party in the modern sense, although it has the word “Party” in its name. We know that one of the most basic features of modern political parties is that they are closely related to elections. The two main political parties in the United States – the Republican Party and the Democratic Party – do not in general have much party activity, and their participants only identify themselves as party members at the time of each election. The so-called party rule is also achieved through the election of their candidates in order to gain the leadership of the government. But in China, there are no elections at all in the realistic sense. The Chinese Communist Party’s rule does not need to be legitimized by elections, nor does it need to take public opinion into account in determining the success or failure of the Communist Party’s rule. Such a political party is not a modern political party in the political science sense. Since the Chinese Communist Party is not a political party, what kind of organization is it?   To a large extent, the Chinese Communist Party is more akin to a feudal secret society or underworld criminal gang. Of course, this is a very large criminal gang that controls the power of the state. Why do I say this?   First, from the perspective of its leadership structure, the leadership of modern political parties is also elected through internal party elections. But the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party at all levels are not truly elected. Instead, the Communist Party Committee at each level makes recommendations, and after layer upon layer of inspection by various levels of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, appointments are made through direct designation by the Communist Party Committee at the higher level. Communist Party members do not have the authority to supervise their superiors, they only have the obligation to obey. This is a typical characteristic of feudal secret societies and underworld criminal gangs.   Secondly, the essential top leader of the Chinese Communist Party has the dictatorial power of a feudal emperor. From Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung to paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, even when they did not nominally hold formal Communist Party positions, they remained in reality the unquestioned, unparalleled Communist Party leader. And they possessed final and absolute authority, with absolutely no oversight. They possessed the power of life and death over Communist Party officials at all levels, and this single leader had absolute authority over the Communist Party’s policies. In Xi Jinping’s time, the Communist Party’s obedience to the top leader remains firmly in place. The top leader of the Chinese Communist Party’s absolute authority is no different from the power of a feudal emperor. They are even more dictatorial and despotic than an emperor. This characteristic of Communist Party Committee Secretaries at all levels deciding all the affairs of their respective organizations is the kind of thing that can be done if you are recognized as “Lao Da” [“The Boss”]. The characteristic of making decisions without any formal authority is the same as the attributes of historical Chinese secret societies and underworld criminal gang organizations.   Third, a modern political party does not regard loyalty to the party as the highest principle of the organization. Not only in the United States, but also in Taiwan – where democracy has just been established – it is normal for individuals to leave their original political party and join another party or even the opposition party, and they will not be punished or sanctioned by their own party for doing so. But what the Chinese Communist Party emphasizes most is absolute loyalty to the Party and to the Party’s supreme leader. This can be tested and verified by studying the history of the Chinese Communist Party. Recently, there have been rumors that some senior Communist Party officials have fled the country. The official media of the Communist Party published an article citing the historical example of Gu Shunzhang*, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, whose entire family was destroyed after he defected from the Communist Party. The implied meaning was to warn members of the Communist Party who have thoughts of disloyalty. An organization that threatens party member defectors with extermination of their entire family is not a modern political party by any means, but more like a feudal secret society or underworld criminal gang, or even a Triad or Mafia gang organization. The recent TV image of Xi Jinping leading all Politburo members in raising their right hands and swearing a loyalty oath “to never rebel against the Communist Party” is also more reminiscent of a feudal secret society or criminal Triad initiation ceremony than that of a normal modern political party. * Gu Shunzhang (1903－1934), also known as Gu Fengming, born in Baoshan, Shanghai, was a leader of the Chinese Communist Party of China (CCP). In his earlier life he worked at Nanyang Tobacco Factory, where he became an active participant of the workers’ movement, then of the Shanghai Trade Union and finally of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1926 Gu was sent to the Soviet Union (Vladivostok) for training as a spy. After his return he participated in three armed uprisings in Shanghai. In 1927, after the April 12 Incident [aka The Shanghai massacre of April 12, 1927 or the April 12 Purge as it is commonly known in China, the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporting General Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party, or KMT), he became an active member of the underground communist movement together with Zhou Enlai, held numerous posts and finally became the Head of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo’s security service. Known as a magician, in fact he personally participated in physical extermination of the Chinese Communist Party betrayers and thus became famous as a party activist. On 24 April 1931, while giving a performance in Wuhan (he was assigned to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek), Gu was identified from a photograph by the KMT special service. After the arrest he was persuaded to defect, thus causing the execution of several thousand communists over the next three months (according to the estimation of the French intelligence bureau in Shanghai). Among those shot was Xiang Zhongfa, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. As retribution, members of Gu’s family were killed, except his young daughter and nephew, allegedly on the orders of Zhou Enlai. In the following years Gu was an effective coach of the Nanjing intelligence service, and secretly organized a “New Communist Party” in 1934. However, he was captured and executed in Suzhou in December 1934.   In fact, if we look back at the early history of the Chinese Communist Party, we can see that collusion with the Shanghai Triad criminal gangs during the workers’ movement in Shanghai in the 1920s, and collusion with Shanghai criminal gangs during workers’ strikes, as well as the practice of cooperating with bandit groups in the rural areas – including Wang Zuo* in the Jinggang Mountains – to strengthen itself during the period when the Communist Party entered the rural areas to establish the Communsit regime, all have strong elements of an underworld criminal organization. Even today, judging from the way they mete out punishment to different factions within the Communist Party, they still have the characteristics of a Triad criminal organization. All of this is far from the nature of a modern political party. The Chinese Communist Party is just a large criminal gang organization under the banner of a political party. * Wang Zuo (May 1898 – February 24, 1930), also known as Wang Yunhui (王雲輝) or Wang Yunfei (王雲飛), and nicknamed Nandougu (南斗牯) was a former bandit chieftain who operated in the Jinggang Mountains of Jiangxi Province from 1923, and then joined the Chinese Communist Party, becoming a protégé of Mao Zedong during the formative period of the Jiangxi Soviet. However, this collaboration cost him his life in the following power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party.【Back to Top】Policy2. Family Politics Without Justice: A Framework for Understanding the Current Rural Pension Crisis – A Survey Based on Rural GuanzhongZhang Jianlei – Qualitative Research – April 29, 2021Why Read This? The article proposes an analytical framework of family politics in order to comprehensively understand the current rural pension crisis. At present, the intergenerational exploitation mechanism formed by the imbalance of power and obligation in family politics has broken the principle of justice in family politics, leading to the unrighteousness of the family and eventually triggering a comprehensive crisis in the life of the rural elderly. The changes in peasant family life have also profoundly changed the nature of the rural social order, with interests and violence beginning to form the undertones of the rural social order, and the rural political order facing serious challenges.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Policy3. Jack Ma/Ma Yun Was Fined ¥18.2 Billion. A Wise Observer Discloses the Real Story: Why Have We Come to This Point Today?Fan Peng, Li Yan – Beijing Cultural Review – April 10, 2021Why Read This? The authors argue that the state’s alertness to and intervention in the monopolistic position of the platform giant and its potential for secondary disasters is an instinctive response of the political system and the organizational system, but in terms of anti-monopoly theoretical strategies, technical means and resource reserves, the state power may not be fully prepared. The depth of the game between these two forces is worthy of continuous observation.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Politics4. Behind the Alibaba Punishment: How the Dominant Position of the Super Platform was Actually Formed?Liu Han – Beijing Cultural Review – April 11, 2021Why Read This? In this paper, we comprehensively analyze the generation mechanism of network platform power. The article points out that platform power “does not imply legal status, but rather actual control and intangible domination.” Any individual or organization that can enforce its will in spite of the opposition of others constitutes a form of power. Before evaluating and responding to it, we need to understand the source of its power and the mechanism of its occurrence.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Politics5. 310,000 Diagnoses a Day, But Claims the Situation is Excellent? India’s Mystery and China’s TruthZheng Zhenqing – Beijing Cultural Review – April 23, 2021Why Read This? This article points out that the West often explains China’s success in fighting the COVID pandemic in terms of an “authoritarian state” or the taming influence of Confucianism, but this analysis does not hold water. Compared with the neo-liberal Western countries that put the blame on individuals, the state-led cooperative and responsible governance model is a successful experience in China’s fight against the COVID pandemic and may also foreshadow the future development trend of global risk governance.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Politics6. China’s Plan to Promote the Cross-border Flow of “One Belt, One Road” DataHong Yanqing – China Law Review – April 22, 2021Why Read This? The European Union currently holds its own data protection model as a standard and insists that other countries look to it for data flow with the European Union. The United States, on the other hand, has implemented a model of cross-border data flow based on a low level of protection to achieve data convergence to the United States, which consolidates and strengthens the control of United States companies over global data while compressing the regulatory space for countries to choose their own level of data protection. The United States’ and Europe’s practice of drawing up “small circles” for data flow is not in line with the guiding spirit of China’s initiative to build the “One Belt, One Road.”（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Society7. Suicide Over Gambling Debts: The Power and Tragedy of a Small Town “Star Teacher”Shu Bingbing – Sanlian Life Weekly – April 11, 2021Why Read This? In this small town in the northeast of the country, the identity of a quality elementary school “backbone teacher” helped Yang Wen gain the trust of her parents and neighbors, and also helped her obtain millions of loans to feed her dreams on the online gaming platform. Finally, Ms. Yang Wen committed suicide and died in her home on the second floor of the district.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Society8. Young People Who Watch Election Shows to “Avoid the World” are Slipping into a Dangerous Political GameWang Ting – Beijing Cultural Review – April 24, 2021Why Read This? In recent decades, the game competition “reality TV show” has become a popular entertainment program worldwide. The program places participants in a competitive environment and eliminates them in a gradual manner according to certain rules. Such programs are sweeping the globe through model purchase, even transcending culture and ideology to become a popular form of mass entertainment with “universal meaning” that is enjoyed around the world. This paper presents a critical reflection on this phenomenon.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Society9. Why is it Difficult for Chinese People to Separate Work and Life?Wei Dan – Southern Metropolis Observer – April 30, 2021Why Read This? The separation of work and life, and not being disturbed in one’ s private life, is a new consciousness that is gradually emerging in China, a right that a new group of people is striving for but has not yet realized. It is even a privilege, because those who are busy with life often inevitably have to experience the intertwining of the two, and cannot bargain.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Finance and Business10. What Signal Was Given by Alibaba Being Fined ¥18.2 billion?What Signal Was Given by Alibaba Being Fined ¥18.2 billion?Why Read This? Under strong regulation, Internet giants will meet what fate? From the response of the Internet giants, they are also readjusting their position in the Chinese economy. Alibaba said: “We will keep in mind that the value of the platform is to integrate and share resources, to succeed by helping others succeed, and to achieve self-worth by continuously creating value for society.” Ant Group said that it would “take this reform as an opportunity to innovate and strengthen its position in serving the real economy based on micro and small businesses.” Compared with six months ago, the tone of the Internet giants has been much more muffled.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】Finance and Business11. How Long Can the Collective Rise in National Housing Prices Last?Stinking Old Ninth Category on Finance and Business – Sanlian Life Weekly – April 19, 2021Why Read This? At present, the global economy is in a very delicate moment, whether it is the property market, the stock market or many other asset prices, are facing up and down dilemma of choice. For the domestic property market, after experiencing the recent general increase, the adjustment pressure also began to get closer and closer. Once monetary policy begins to tighten, many cities that do not have actual demand support and rely entirely on monetary releases to raise housing prices will be the first to show their true colors. After the tide has receded, it is clear who is swimming naked.（Read the full text） 【Back to top】

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