[China Watch]Chaos in Shanghai, Sun Chunlan and Li Qiang dumped the pot? | Xi Jinping |

[Epoch Times, April 16, 2022](Reported by Epoch Times reporters Ning Haizhong and Luo Ya) The lockdown of cities across China to prevent the spread of the virus continued, among which chaos occurred in Shanghai, which triggered a huge backlash. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan of the Communist Party of China, who oversees epidemic prevention in Shanghai, and Li Qiang, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, both emphasized in an interview with the central media that they were doing what Xi Jinping asked. The official media has been defending the hard-line “clearing” line in recent days.

Observers believe that the political situation before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is delicate, and behind the remarks of Sun Chunlan and Li Qiang, there are hidden infighting and governance crisis of the CCP.

Sun Chunlan and Li Qiang dumped Xi Jinping together?

On April 15, CCTV reported that Shanghai “adheres to the general policy of dynamic clearing and unswerving.”

Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said in an interview, “We have mobilized nearly 50,000 medical workers and nucleic acid testing forces from across the country in accordance with the request of the general secretary.” Sun also claimed that the “spread index” of the Shanghai epidemic has dropped.

However, according to the CCP’s official data, which may still be concealed, on April 15, there were 23,513 new local cases in Shanghai, and the epidemic situation was still at a high point for more than two weeks after the closure of the city. There have been more than 300,000 cases of infection in Shanghai this round.

Li Qiang, secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, said in an interview with CCTV, “We resolutely implement the spirit of the general secretary’s series of important instructions on epidemic prevention and control, and adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearing.”

Observers believe this is one of the unusual official moves after days of backlash against Shanghai’s closure both inside and outside the system.

Chen Kuide, executive chairman of the Princeton Chinese Society of the United States, told The Epoch Times on the 16th that Sun Chunlan and Li Qiang’s remarks are important to show that the responsibility for the difficult situation in Shanghai lies not with them, but with a higher class, on Xi Jinping. .

“This is implicit. He didn’t say it publicly, but he said he was completely obedient to Xi Jinping’s leadership, and Xi Jinping himself said it (insisting on “dynamic clearing”), then the attribution of this responsibility is very clear, that is Xi Jinping’s.”

Chen Kuide believes that Li Qiang and Sun Chunlan are potentially unwilling to take on this responsibility because Xi Jinping wants to adhere to the “dynamic clearing” policy. “It means that everyone knows that this matter has a bad reputation, and it has caused a lot of backlash. The two of them potentially have to distance themselves from their relationship.”

Chen Kuide said that the “clearing” epidemic prevention policy has become an important part of Xi Jinping’s political reputation, and Xi knows that it is difficult to shirk, so he simply goes all the way to the dark. But Xi will be sure that it is politically correct, and that he thinks it will succeed in the end.

At present, the vast majority of countries in the world have no longer adopted a strict lockdown mode of epidemic prevention and control, advocating coexistence with the virus. However, in China, the policy of “zeroing out” is still adhered to. Once a new case appears, the entire population will be required to undergo virus testing and isolation, closing down villages, communities and even entire cities.

On March 17, Xi Jinping emphasized the policy of “dynamic clearing” at the Politburo Standing Committee, making it the CCP’s highest epidemic prevention guideline.

Sun Chunlan, the vice premier of the Communist Party of China, who had been supervising the front lines across the country and demanded “clearing the social face”, arrived in Shanghai on April 2, and quickly changed the original relatively loose local epidemic prevention policy, and directly conveyed Xi Jinping’s comprehensive closure of the city to Li Qiang, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. instruction.

Under this harsh “zero” policy, there are a large number of secondary disasters and abnormal deaths. On April 15, social media reported that Shanghai violinist Chen Shunping was rejected by the hospital due to abdominal pain. He jumped from the top floor to his death on the 14th. On April 12, a highly stressed CDC official committed suicide in his office. Neighborhood committee members also resigned collectively.

The closure of cities in many places in China continues, and Shanghai is only one place that has attracted much attention. In the middle of the night on April 15, Xi’an issued an important notice to implement “temporary social control”.

Although the successive epidemic blockades have caused public grievances, Xi Jinping said at the celebration party of the Beijing Winter Olympics on April 8 that “if there is a gold medal for epidemic response, China should get one.”

During his inspection in Hainan from April 10 to 13, Xi Jinping emphasized that he should adhere to “dynamic clearing” and overcome paralyzing thoughts, war weariness, fluke mentality, and relaxed mentality.

Is Xi Jinping being misled?

Current affairs observer Wang He told The Epoch Times that Xi Jinping regards the dynamic clearing as a major political achievement and a bargaining chip for his third re-election, so the party must obey him absolutely. This also shows that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has caused enormous psychological pressure on Xi Jinping, and he cannot allow anyone to challenge him.

He believes that Xi Jinping’s decision on the epidemic prevention policy is all-encompassing, and he has set the tone of “dynamic clearing” because he has no way out now. If the dynamic reset he had set had to make a major adjustment, his face would be dull.

However, Wang He believes that Xi Jinping’s adherence to the “zero-clearing” policy must have also been misled by one of the CCP’s powerful epidemic prevention experts.

“Because the infighting within the CCP on epidemic prevention is very fierce, in addition to the Western medicine faction, there is also a faction of traditional Chinese medicine. The scientific community of the CCP and the circle of epidemic prevention have also become rivers and lakes. In addition, the CCP system itself has no scientific freedom. There is also no freedom of speech, and the system is a reverse elimination.”

“Xi Jinping’s decision must be that there are so-called scientists down there who pat him on the chest and say that he must do this. These experts are good at figuring out what he wants, and they put forward so-called professional opinions according to his mind, which makes Xi Jinping misled. For example, the United States The epidemic was released, the vaccine order was released, and Omicron was treated as a big flu. Immediately, some scientists in China said that it was very dangerous, so Xi Jinping continued to clear it up to reflect the so-called institutional advantages of the CCP. “Wang He said.

Analysis: Infighting factors behind the chaos in Shanghai

Regarding Sun Chunlan and Li Qiang’s statement in an interview with CCTV, Wang He believes that according to the CCP’s political correctness, this is the same approach as above, but Li Qiang is also trying to use Xi’s authority to suppress the officialdom in Shanghai. China’s political situation is now very delicate.

Wang He analyzed that the current situation in Shanghai is not simply a disaster caused by extreme reset, but also a factor of CCP infighting. One of the factors is that local officials in Shanghai are extremely flat. “They can do a lot of things, but they don’t do it. Originally, Shanghai’s municipal management level should be the highest in the country, and it is much stronger than Shenzhen.”

Shanghai has always been considered the political nest of former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin, and Han is a confidant of the current Politburo Standing Committee member who has served in Shanghai for a long time.

Wang He said that the CCP’s infighting has exacerbated Shanghai’s lockdown crisis. Han Zheng has a deep foundation in Shanghai, and Li Qiang is just a bare-handed commander who ran over, and with a few airborne ones, he couldn’t suppress the Shanghai local snake and keep his command intact. Foreign officials like Li Qiang fought fiercely with local gangs in Shanghai, which made the epidemic in Shanghai even more chaotic.

He said that the CCP system itself should be completely rejected, and now the CCP is dog-eat-dog, and under such circumstances, the common people must save themselves.

Li Qiang, the top secretary of Xi Jinping’s reign in Zhejiang, was accused of possibly joining the Politburo Standing Committee at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Some views believe that Li Qiang’s career may be affected by the Shanghai epidemic. Wang He believes that Li Qiang and Xi are in the same boat, and Xi Jinping is unlikely to remove Li Qiang.

Wang He said that the chaos caused by the closure of the city, there is also a national problem, that is, the central government and the local government have been in conflict, “because Xi Jinping has centralized power after he came to power, and the local government has been crushed to death. But local affairs, the central government also If it can’t be solved, the place will definitely not be satisfied, you can solve it if you have the ability, or I will solve it myself.”

Wang He said that now Li Qiang can only be forcibly suppressed by Xi Jinping’s arrows, so his statement on CCTV is to use Xi Jinping’s authority to give him momentum.

Chen Kuide believes that, of course, there is such a factor of infighting, but this is part of the CCP’s black box operation, and it is not easy to see clearly.

He believes that what happened in Shanghai is mainly because the political, economic and cultural characteristics of Shanghai itself are not completely the same as those of other places. On the contrary, it has a certain potential affinity with overseas and even Western political life. And this is exactly what Xi Jinping fears.

Chen Kuide said that although Shanghai people seem to be good-natured, when it comes to their rights and interests, there are times when they are not ambiguous.

Official media intensively defends the Tibetan crisis for “dynamic clearing”?

The Xinhua News Agency of the Communist Party of China issued a comment on April 15: The temporary “control” is for better “release” – from the interpretation of authoritative experts, “dynamic clearing” is necessary.

On April 16, Chinanews.com also published an online comment: If you don’t “lay flat” with fast production, life will eventually return to normal.

What the CCP calls “lying flat” means that many countries around the world no longer require other epidemic prevention and control measures other than vaccination.

Over the past week, the CCP’s major official media outlets have successively published articles defending Xi Jinping’s “clearing” policy. Officials of the Chinese Communist Party’s Health and Health Commission and disease control experts have also frequently voiced their support for “dynamic clearing.”

On the evening of the 12th, Xinhuanet published an article on Shanghai, claiming that the economic impact Shanghai suffered from the rebound of the epidemic was only a “short-term ‘labor pain'” and would not shake the fundamentals of China’s economy, and that insisting on “dynamic clearing” was the bottom line.

Regarding the necessity of intensive propaganda of “dynamic clearing” by official media, Chen Kuide believes that this shows that “dynamic clearing” is not recognized by society and the people.

“The reason why they go back and forth and do everything possible to ask so many experts to come out and talk about the importance of dynamic clearing shows that this policy has come to a point where it can’t go on. This is the historical law of the Chinese Communist Party. It’s getting to a very dangerous level.”

Li Linyi, a current affairs commentator, said that the frequent articles on the “dynamic clearing” in the official media may indicate that Xi’s policy has been increasingly questioned within the party.

Miao Xiaohui, the former vice president of Changzheng Hospital of the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, recently stated on social media that the secondary disasters of epidemic prevention have far exceeded Omicron’s own damage, and called for “do not go all the way to the dark”. Deng Fei, a senior media person in mainland China, also publicly sent a letter to the National Health Commission on Sina Weibo, calling for re-evaluation and adjustment of prevention and control policies. However, both appeals were blocked. This is only part of the voice of doubt.

At the same time, the conflict between the authorities’ measures to prevent the spread of the virus and economic growth expectations has grown so wide that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has issued repeated warnings. Li Keqiang reminded local officials in Jiangxi on April 11 to “coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development”, “stabilize the economic fundamentals” and “increase a sense of urgency”.

Li Keqiang, who will step down in March next year, faces a dire situation many experts believe: China’s 5.5 percent economic growth target for this year is no longer realistic because much of daily economic life has ground to a halt.

The disagreement between Li Keqiang and Xi Jinping on the epidemic prevention line has also been discussed recently. Li Keqiang is the nominal leader of the Central Leading Group for Response to the Epidemic, but the official media said that Xi Jinping is “personally directing and deploying” in the fight against the epidemic.

The State Council of the Communist Party of China, under the control of Li Keqiang, recently released a new set of pilot standards for epidemic prevention and control, and decided to launch a pilot program in 8 first-tier cities in China, including Shanghai and Guangzhou, to loosen some quarantine policies, including shortening the quarantine time for inbound personnel for epidemic prevention and control. However, after the news was released by Caixin on April 13, it was blocked in less than a day.

Li Linyi said that due to the various problems caused by dynamic clearing, the official is also forced to constantly revise the specific content of its policies. For example, on the evening of April 13, the CDC released the prevention and control requirements for people who are quarantined at home through its official account. This indicates that in the future, officials may implement home quarantine for mild and asymptomatic infections. However, Xi’s political life has been linked to “dynamic clearing”, and the official can only continue to support it with various commentary articles, which will further divide the CCP.

Responsible editor: Sun Yun#