As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues his bid to consolidate power, his 88 million-strong Communist Party has increasingly spoken with one voice. Failure to sing to the same tune could mean facing the music.<\/p>\n
May 3, 2016 2:00 pm HK<\/p>\n
As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues his bid to consolidate power, his 88 million-strong Communist Party has increasingly spoken with one voice. Failure to sing to the same tune could mean facing the music.<\/p>\n
This week, influential retired businessman Ren Zhiqiang was slapped with a one-year suspension of his party membership<\/a> after publicly criticizing Mr. Xi\u2019s demands for loyalty from the media.<\/p>\n The punishment against Mr. Ren marked the latest in a series of disciplinary actions that Communist Party took in recent months against internal dissenters. The crackdown on political deviance has escalated since the party adopted a new rule in October against the \u201cimproper discussion\u201d of central party policies.<\/p>\n Another recent case emerged late last month when party disciplinarians in the eastern Chinese city of Wenling said they had issued a \u201cserious warning\u201d to a retired local official for publicly airing remarks that were deemed inconsistent with party policies.<\/p>\n Mu Yifei, a former senior staff member at Wenling\u2019s Communist Party school, had \u201crepeatedly published and republished erroneous commentary that contradicts the party\u2019s theories, guidelines and policies, and thereby severely damaged the party\u2019s image,\u201d the local discipline-inspection commission said in an April 20 notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to a separate notice<\/a> that was shared on social media, the Wenling discipline-inspection commission said Mr. Mu had written and republished \u201cerroneous commentary\u201d on his Weibo microblog from 2011 to 2014. Complaints from another Weibo user<\/a> prompted party officials to order Mr. Mu to delete the offending commentary and close his Weibo account, the notice said.<\/p>\n Neither Wenling\u2019s propaganda department nor its discipline-inspection commission immediately responded to requests for comment. Mr. Mu, 59 years old, couldn\u2019t be reached for comment.<\/p>\n More recently, Mr. Mu wrote an essay, published last month in the Guangzhou-based Information Times<\/a>, that described himself as a \u201cvagrant official,\u201d using a Chinese term that describes semi-retired public servants who do less work while receiving the same pay as before.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I\u2019d like to right my wrong, there\u2019s no chance to do so now, so I can only write this guilt-ridden essay,\u201d wrote Mr. Mu, who said he became a \u201cvagrant official\u201d in 2008 before retiring fully in February. \u201cI had held off from writing this essay mainly because I feared people would criticize me as reluctant to give up my post.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy guilt had stayed hidden deep in my heart for many years, and I can\u2019t feel relief unless I let it out,\u201d he wrote in the essay, which Wenling authorities cited in their notice as an example of \u201cerroneous\u201d commentary. \u201cNow I couldn\u2019t care if I should offend anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Mu had worked at Wenling\u2019s Communist Party school from January 2008 till February this year, according to a notice<\/a> from the city\u2019s discipline-inspection commission. He was also deputy chief of Wenling\u2019s propaganda department from 2000 to 2008, the notice said.<\/p>\n According to screenshots posted by the Weibo user who lodged complaints against Mr. Mu<\/a>, the official had made sarcastic remarks about party discipline and expressed support for \u201cconstitutionalism,\u201d widely derided by many Communist Party intellectuals as a Western political concept that contradicts the party\u2019s supreme position in Chinese politics.<\/p>\n The Weibo user, who uses the moniker \u201cHuaxia Corps Battle Command,\u201d repeatedly attacked Mr. Mu\u2019s social-media postings as unbefitting a party member and instructor. The user continued his criticism after disciplinary action was taken against Mr. Mu, saying the retired official should have been expelled from the party.<\/p>\n \u201cHuaxia Corps Battle Command,\u201d which describes itself as \u201cvolunteer Internet army\u201d member that champions nationalism and supports Mr. Xi, didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The fate of Mr. Mu dovetailed with the Communist Party\u2019s recent efforts to curb internal dissent, which have been seen by many politically minded Chinese as part of Mr. Xi\u2019s attempt to consolidate his power as the world\u2019s second-largest economy decelerates after years of rapid growth.<\/p>\n Last July, a university lecturer in southern Guangdong province was removed from his post<\/a> as deputy chief of the English department, after he was found to have \u201cfabricated political rumors\u201d and published \u201cradical\u201d commentary on his Weibo account from 2012 to 2014, according to the provincial party disciplinary commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n In early November, within weeks of the party\u2019s adoption of the rule against \u201cimproper discussion,\u201d the chief editor of a state-run newspaper in the restive western region of Xinjiang was fired for contradicting official policies<\/a> on terrorism and religious extremism. The deputy party secretary for Beijing was then dismissed in January for violations including \u201cimproper discussion of central party policy,\u201d according to the party\u2019s disciplinary agency.<\/p>\n