64 Questions for Xi Jinping

Introduction

On Tuesday, Xi Jinping will begin his first state visit to the U. S. To prepare for the visit, the Chinese propaganda apparatus, as usual, has attempted to portray a China that is not only a far cry from reality but in many ways the opposite of what’s true. But unfortunately for Xi Jinping, he is visiting a free country beyond the control of his communist mouthpiece media. Today, Initiatives for China, the Washington, DC-based advocacy group, put forward “64 Questions for Xi Jinping.” They might well be also considered by others worldwide, especially American officials, journalists, and citizens who are blinded by Beijing’s propaganda and, therefore,  simply praise Xi’s visit, or who advocate U. S.-China relations lacking true critical assessment of Xi’s extreme repression, let alone failing to force China to pay a price for such gross violation of human rights and civil liberties.

It is our hope that people from different areas and with different  particular concerns, who are already concerned about those abuses, will find their questions articulated here and will directly or indirectly ask Xi Jinping  to respond.

We are also putting forward these 64 questions to Chinese “netizens,” in the hope that they would be spread online and that Chinese citizens will legitimately question Xi Jinping and the Communist authorities in their own ways. Asking the right questions about the pressing problems facing the oppressed Chinese people is the beginning of their solution.

These 64 questions are from diverse sources, but I would particularly like to thank the special contributions of Chang Ping (长平), Xia Yeliang (夏业良), Hu Ping (胡平), Chen Kuide (陈奎德), He Pin (何频), Cheng Tiejun (程铁军), Teng Biao (滕彪), Chen Pokong (陈破空), Cheng Xiaonong (程晓农), Wang Xueli (王雪笠), Xia Ming (夏明) among others.

These 64 questions will only be the beginning of Chinese citizens’ persistent questioning of Xi Jinping and the communist regime — and of calling such questions to the attention of those around the world who care about human rights, justice and human dignity. In fact, as these questions illustrate, all of China’s problems can be traced to the problem of China’s political system, and there are way more than 64 questions to consider and ask.

YANG Jianli

President of Initiatives for China

1.Mr. Xi Jinping, as chief of Party, State and the Military, from where does the money for your “salary” and “expense account” actually come, regardless of what office officially issue your paycheck? From the Party, or government, or military? Are all the budgets for the Party, Government and the military collected from taxpayers?

2. You have consistently emphasized that the PLA cannot be nationalized as opposed to being controlled by the Communist Party, because it “belongs to the Party.”  If so, then why is the military paid by government budget, which comes from taxpayers?

3.  Why are the Communist Party cadres and operating expenses, and those of its organs at all levels, which are said to be “social groups”, paid for by the taxpayers?

4.  As a whole, how much does the entire apparatus and operations of the Communist Party annually cost to taxpayers?

5.  How much of the taxpayers’ money did you spend on the recent  9/3/15 military parade? How much will the 2022 Winter Olympics cost taxpayers, not only in the year 2022 but also in all the prior preparations for it, and the subsequent clean up and reclamation of land and property in subsequent years?

6.  Do you believe that the Chinese taxpayers (citizens) have the right to know where their tax money has gone or will be spent? Do you think Chinese taxpayers are entitled to get involved in the decision-making process regarding the expenditure of their tax money?  How do you propose they can do so?

7.  With great stride, you even risk losing life in a potential coup to carry out anti-corruption campaigns. Why then do not you order your subordinates of the government to make public all of their sources of private income, as distinct from government paid salaries and expense accounts?  As world history also demonstrates, this is one of the most effective ways to identify conflicts of interest between one’s official duties to act in the public interest and one effort to reap bribes or other private sources of enrichment.  Why did you punish citizens demanding such disclosures?

8. In addition to such public access to information, the freedom of expression, press freedom, and open competition among different political parties for public offices are widely acknowledged to be the most effective mechanisms in fighting against corruption. So if you are genuine about concerns of anti-corruption, why don’t you let these freedoms flourish, but why do you, instead, severely punish those advocating for them?

9. Why don’t you let citizens get involved in your anti-corruption campaigns? Some people comment that in today’s China anti-corruption is tantamount to anti-the Party(CPC). Is that true?

10. Do you honestly believe that epidemic of corruption within the Communist Party comes solely as a result of individual members’ corruption and degeneration? Do you think the tremendous extent of the corruption correlates to, and is caused in part, by the party’s totalitarian system? Although you have taking down an impressive number of “Tigers,” how can you assure Chinese citizens that your newly appointed officials, working within the same totalitarian system, will not follow suit and also become corrupted? Do you think you have more orders than your predecessors such as Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao to restrain subordinates themselves from corruption? Unless you can specify such unprecedented anti-corrupton orders, are you any different from those two predecessors?

11. Do you think that such a large-scale number of corrupt Communist members of your party are influenced by Western bourgeoisie ideology as you seem to contend? How do you explain that in Western governmental systems the level of corruption is much lower?

12. Can the Chinese taxpayers/citizens learn the facts about your family wealth? If you dispute the information revealed in the report by the New York Times report about your family wealth, what specific factual claims do you dispute and what are the correct facts? If you seriously dispute the article, are you planning to take legal actions against the NYT, as would be customary?

13. Do you still believe in the validity of the “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” issued by CCP Central Committee on June 27, 1981, in which the Cultural Revolution was totally negated and labeled as “A Decade of Turmoil.” Your statement that the second thirty years of history (1979 onward) cannot be used to negate the subsequent thirty years (1949-79). Does this statement apply to the Cultural Revolution? What’s your view about the Cultural Revolution, it’s validity and it’s impact on the Chinese people?

14. After the Communist Party seized power in China, under the Party’s rule, China saw the great famine, great turmoil, and horrific massacre. Do you know the number of abnormal and unexpected deaths that happened in China over the period of 66 years (since 1949)? What do you think are the causes of these tragedies? Since it is now over a half century since the great famine in the early 1960’s occurred, is it possible to announce the archived data of the deaths during that famine ?

15. Your family, including your father and yourself, experienced repression, injustices, and persecution both during and before the Cultural Revolution. What kind of lessons have been learned from your and his experiences?

16. After Bo Xilai was arrested, there were people who believed that you do not agree to his Chongqing Path in the name of Chanting Red Old Melodies and Oppressing the gangsters.But it turned out to be otherwise. Is it only corruption that led Bo Xilai to a disgraceful fall? What is your view on Bo Xilai’s practice of “Chanting and Oppressing”?

17. Since your taking power, China’s central television has aired a series of public confession of the “crimes” by suspects before they were justifiably defended in court. Is this practice a kind of renaissance of the Cultural Revolution?

18. After taking power, you established and led a number of super powerful “small leadership groups.” Are you worried about making “mistakes” by hearing only from such a subservient inner circle, like the “mistakes” Mao Zedong made from such reliance after consolidating overwhelming power? Do you think your personal power needs some checks? Are there any effective checks in place? If so, please specify them and explain how they can effectively provide such checks..

19. After you came to power, there were people who proposed eliminating the influence of Western Culture, particularly the foundation and principles of Western social sciences and humanities. Now if without any importing Western concepts, does China ever produce its own political science, sociology, economics, among other fundamental social sciences? Does Marxism and Leninism belong to Western thoughts and ideology? If you cancel or stop study and consideration of these Western social sciences, what kind of new ones do you have to replace them? Are you going to switch back to the Mao-Mode of “high institutions of science and engineering” as Mao himself did?

20. Now we see that you depend on the so-called Stability Maintaining System inherited from Hu Jintao and Zhou Yongkang and suppressing human rights lawyers and other dissidents. In fact, it is widely recognized within China and around the world, that you have increased such repression. Do you believe that Zhou Yongkang has made great contributions to maintaining the Communist rule?

21. Can you explain or elaborate on the So-called “7-NOs” that were credited to be your original ideas. Were these approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party? Can you explain individually for each of them the reasons for pushing the “7-NOs” (including no speaking of universal values, press freedom, civil society, civil rights, historical mistakes in Communist Party rein, crony capitalism, and judicial independence)? Which “universal values” do you wish to prevent China from understanding and following? For example, China is a party to both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration Against Torture. Yet you have increased abuse of human rights and continued the use of torture.

22.  What kind of “state secrets” were leaked in the article by Gao Yu, a famous journalist in her 70’s? What kind of harm did her writing cause to citizens? Or is it a crime if her writing helps Chinese citizens learn what they are entitled to know?

23. Liu Xiaobo has been sentenced to 11 years on the basis of his 6 pieces of writing. Do you think his sentence violated his legitimate freedom of expression? If not, why didn’t it. Liu Xiaobo’s sentence will terminate on June 22, 2020. If you are still in power, will you let him be freed then? In your opinion, what are the differences among the actions of Liu Xiaobo, Nelson Mandela, Václav Havel, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., in the context of the respective political environments that they experienced?

24. Since just this past July 10, more than 300 human rights lawyers and activists have been detained, arrested, disappeared, and harassed. Most were released later, with a small number still in custody. We know such a campaign is conducted under the Unified Order.  Who is responsible for this campaign, which has been widely condemned by many in China and around the world.? What kind of orders have you issued to implement it? To stop it?

25. Are you going to stop suppressing Falun Gong during your tenure, including the illegal harvesting of organs from imprisoned practitioners for sale by the State.? What is your view on the global movement by Falun Gong to prosecute Jiang Zemin for establishing the 6-10 office and the ongoing campaign to repress the movement that the Party, before that, had publicly applauded for it’s beneficial impact on citizens’ health and moral conduct?

26. During the Hu Jintao era, official data shows that China’s expenditure for maintaining order and suppressing peaceful expressions of dissent, in the name of  “social stability,” surpassed that for national defense. Is that ratio still the same under your administration? If not, is it because you have decreased your expenditures for maintaining “social order” or because you have increased the national defense budget? Which expenditure is now larger, including all of the agencies of social control, not merely the police.

27.   Do you think the Tiananmen movement was a violent anti-revolutionary turmoil? Or was  a civil disorder? Or just legitimate political dissent under China’s constitution? Did you agree that it is acceptable to send tanks and machine guns to  suppress peaceful students and civilians?

28.  Do you support your father’s known position against suppressing students on Tiananmen Square?

29.  If there were students coming to Tiananmen Square for peaceful demonstration and protest, are you going to adopt the same measures as the CPC did 26 years ago? If not, what are you going to do?

30.  Why has the Communist regime been working hard to create “national amnesia” so as to cover the truth of the Tiananmen Massacre in June 1989?

31. “Tankman” is well known throughout the world, and is said to be Wang Weilin. What is his real identity? What is his status now? Why has he simply disappeared?

32. Do you support or oppose the abrupt actions in 1987 to remove Hu Yaobang from his position of the Secretary-General of the so-called “Democratic Life Session”?

33.  Before your taking over the position of Secretary-General of the Communist Party, rumors spread that you were to reverse the Party decision on 1989 student movement. What is the possibility of that happening?

34. Seventy years ago, both Japan and Germany pushed patriotism, nationalism, combined with military might. This resulted in World War II and death or great suffering to millions of people in many lands, including Germany and Japan. As you commemorated the victory of Anti-Japanese War and Anti-Fascism, you similarly emphasized the same three themes of patriotism, nationalism, and military might, mimicking the the Nazi-German military parades. Have you noticed the inherent identical problems that repeat of such combination could pose for China’s people?

35. In his military parades, Hitler allowed his subjects on the street to watch from their balcony and even on roofs of  buildings, why have you banned such viewer-rights in Beijing?  Why did you bar Chinese citizens from viewing the parades from window, rooftops and other vantage points. In modern times, none of the other world leaders has banned every opportunity for their citizens to observe their national military parades. Nor have they shut down their stock markets, factories, hospitals, commercial air flights, vehicular traffic, schools, and entertainment TV. Can you image anything more fascist than your behavior in this regard?

36. In your speech in connection with the 9/3/15 military parade, you shrewdly avoided touching historical details of China’s anti-Japanese war and anti-Fascism. We cannot forget the rivalry between the KMT and Communist party in China at the time, and that between freedom and democracy and authoritarian Communism. It was just these debates of the two ideologies that delayed the final triumph over Fascism. Moreover, as is well known to all historians it was the KMT, not the CCP’s forces that played the dominant role in fighting the Japanese and, particularly in fighting in alliance with American and Allied forces. In your propaganda about China’s role in World War II, why did you misinform the Chinese people,and the rest of the world, about the major role of the KMT forces and the minor role of the CCP forces?

37. How come the KMT veterans who fought against Japanese aggression and Communist forces during the Civil War have never received any benefits to support their lives? Even following your rhetoric that these veterans were wrong in the civil war fighting against Communist forces, they deserve amnesty based on their 30-year long humiliation, as victims of slaughter, forced labor camps, custody, and family members who suffered from the mistreatment. Given their sacrifices they made in their fight anti-Japanese aggression, surely these veterans deserve some recognition from the regime, yet none has been offered. How can the regime sufficiently comply with that most basic standard of fairness and humanity?

38.  What’s your view on the treatment of Lien Chan (Taiwan’s former vice president) when he returned from your military parade to Taiwan, where even the pro-reunification allies showed no respect for him?

39.  How come most of the WWII anti-Fascism allies, including the United States, Great Britain and France, did not join you for the military parade on September 3?

40. Do you think being a patriot for China and loving the Communist Party-love are identical issues?  Are you aware that in most of the other major world powers one can be recognized as patriotic and still be permitted to criticize the ruling party of the moment, and, by most people, respected for it?

41.  In dealing with maritime disputes with neighboring countries, the international community is concerned about your regime becoming more militaristic and resistant to using the proper international legal system to adjudicate them. What is your view on the role of armed forces when addressing the disputes?

42.  China’s propaganda insists on promoting China’s soft power, however, when universal values, press freedom, and autonomy for civil society, among other principles that are universally accepted, are prohibited from public discussion in China, then, what can you utilize to present your soft power if not for the opening wallets, and therefore, how can you persuade global community to learn from you, to give you a nod?

43.  Ling Jihua, a former senior official and chief of staff in the Communist Party’s headquarters, has been under custody, and his brother Ling Wancheng has fled China, now living in America. Your administration dispatched officers, as well as his daughter, to urge him to return, even coercing him to comply, which is illegal here in the United States. Without any legal agreement between the two governments, China sent its law enforcement officers to try to catch some one in the US.  How can you justify this if China is to be treated as a legitimate member of the international community?

44. As between USA or Russia, which one is likely to be China’s closest long-term ally, and why?

45.  How many family members of your officials, including most senior-level (sitting and retired) have migrated to the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and European countries? And what about their ill-gotten wealth? Do you have accurate information about them? Do you think USA and other countries know this information? In other words, China’s senior leadership and their subordinates and family members, along with their records of corruption, are all in the hand of these countries. How can you afford confrontation with them? Not to mention, in military conflicts. Can you bear the consequences? Your hard-line rhetoric seems to fool your domestic audience, does it not?

46. China’s leaders, including you, often meet with protests and demonstration by Chinese citizens abroad whenever they visit another country. Why is that?

When President Hu Jintao visited the U.S, the CCP paid some naive Chinese students studying in Washington to line his parade route, after they had received a free lunch and bus ride to near the White House. This was intended to present a photo opportunity to give a false impression to citizens back in your homeland that he was welcome and applauded by most Chinese living or studying abroad. We have information that the same tricks are planned for your visit to Washington D.C. now. Why is that necessary?

47.  Earlier this year,  your government forces helped prop up stock prices, and in cracking down on “short-selling” following the market plunge. When this has been reported by commentators and journalists, these voices have been silenced with arrests and those investment institutions and individuals threatened against any possible short-selling. Do you think this kind of scheme would work and is adequate to save the stock markets and peoples hard-earned life savings?

48. Your government have finally found CaiJing journalist Li Xiaolu as a scapegoat for the recent stock market crisis and forced him to confess on CCTV. If Li Xiaolu had the capacity to stimulate short-sell the Chinese stocks with his mere reporting, then should he be considered as a replacement for Premier Li Keqiang, given such brilliant competence?  What do you think？

49. On the 3rd plenary session of the 18th Party Congress, you promised to let market forces play a leading, even decisive role. How do you explain the government’s hand recently intervening in economic issues in such an aggressively manner?

50. China’s state banks possess huge bad debts.  Were these loans made to the state-owned enterprises, local governments, or private businesses? Were the largest one arranged in ways that presented a conflict of interest to endanger depositors in order to enrich the powerful?

51. Is Household Registration Law a kind of systematic discrimination? One “People’s Deputy” in rural areas represents four times the number of  persons than the number represented by some deputies of the urban areas, i.e., political rights of villagers equals a quarter of those in urban communities.  Isn’t that blatant political discrimination?

Also, since migrant workers in cities pay their taxes,  why can they be denied any public services, such as their children’s rights to attend local public schools?

52. China’s public services don’t match its tax collection. Thus, its fragile, limited social security cannot support the general mass with affordable healthcare, basic schooling, aging care, yet ironically, your administration still call itself a socialist country.  How can this be the case when the country’s citizens cannot be provided these basic, necessary social services?

53. As the Secretary General of the Communist Party of China, do you simply mean to realize the communism in China when you talk about your “China Dream”.

54. While visiting Russia, when you said that only felt tall knows if the shoes fit, it was clearly rhetoric intended  to hinder international community “interference” in the political system on your side. Why didn’t you say this inside China? Does this mean you fear the people’s choice of an appropriate system to fit their own needs?

55. Why don’t you let Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and Hong Kong residents to tell you if their shoes fit their feet, and in doing so, you know well in your heart that they will achieve genuine self-rule in their autonomous regions?

56.  You must know that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is held in very high regard throughout the global community. Do you think those who respect the Dalai Lama intend to confront China? Will you invite the Dalai Lama to a pilgrimage to Mount Wutai (Wu Tai Shan)? Why won’t you grant Tibetans where they are a dominant ethnic group the autonomy that they are guaranteed by China’s Constitution.

57.  Why can’t the Uyghurs keep their beards and whiskers? In your speech on military parade, you mentioned the Communist ancestor Marx. He was a man with a great beard. Was he then wrong with beard? If not, why are Uyghurs now wrong with beard?

58. In the past 5 years, more than 140 Tibetans have died of self-immolation. What do you know of the reasons? Your government has accused the Dalai Lama of inciting Tibetans to self immolate. As the CCP chief, you should be a communist. You have also claimed you believe in Confucius. Whichever is your belief, if Marx or Confucius incited you to set fire on yourself, would you do it?

59. The Communists of China claim to be atheists. Then why do you and your government insist in intervening in the reincarnation of a Living Budda in Tibetan Buddhism?

60. Why has the Communist Party chief Xia Baolong of Zhejiang province ordered demolition of more than 1,500 churches and crosses in that province?

61. In your article which was published by the People’s Daily on December 7, 1984, entitled “Young and middle-aged cadres must respect the oldies”,  you said that the generational exchange of the guardians on power should be done by cooperation and replacement. “Respecting the old” is a prerequisite for cooperation, while the latter is the foundation for replacement.”

In contrast, the People’s Daily recently published a piece saying that former high officials should “cool off” like tea after guests leaving, meaning that those officials after retirement should not interfere with the sitting leadership. What’s your current view on the old comrades? Do you think an elder like Jiang Zemin has become a hindrance on your path to power? The late Deng Xiaoping toppled the tenure of two chiefs of the Communist Party, committed the Tiananmen Massacre (the crime of slaughtering innocent people) in June 1989, followed by his “Southern Inspection Tour” in 1992. All these are perfect examples that demonstrate a consistent interference by the elders in China’s politics.  Why didn’t you oppose him?

62. Are you willing to follow the suit of Chiang Ching-kuo of Taiwan to end the ban of political parties, open up freedom of the press, and embrace constitutional democracy and the rule of law? Or are you in tune with your wife’s famous song “Dynasty” which echoes the old regime that those founders pass on their dynasties to their offspring, i.e., in your case, RED Siblings like you and those offspring of the first Communist leadership taking control of China under  communist rule. Some people say you worship Mao Zedong and Vladimir Putin.  If so, do you want to become a lifetime leader

63. Drawing a comparison between Mao Zedong thought and those of your father, which influenced you the most?

64.  What is your ultimate goal? Multiple choice: A. To achieve ultimate personal power to make sure no obstacle or challenge exists while in power. B. To ride high, and maintain the Communist rule in the hands of red siblings. C. To seek appropriate opportunities to achieve a peaceful political evolution for China to look up to the most advanced countries for democracy. D. To restore the mental outlook of Mao-style leadership, and even surpass Mao himself and your predecessors.