There has been much talk around the world about Zhou Yongkang’s downfall ever since the end of last year when rumors started to spread. The rumors have intensified in the weeks since July 29, 2014, when Xinhua News Agency announced that the Central Discipline Inspection Commission would investigate Zhou. This is truly a major political event in China, involving highly sensitive and important issues pertaining to political, economic and social dimensions. Citizen Power is paying very close attention to the development of the case.
Other than anecdotal accounts, Citizen Power knows little about specific details of Zhou’s corruption. However, with our thorough understanding of the Chinese communist political system and the widespread corruption of government officials, it is not difficult to imagine the degree of corruption of Zhou, who held high-level positions in both local and central governments for over two decades. He was head of CPC’s Politics and Law Commission for a decade. We have every reason to expect most of the rumors will be confirmed, just like in other similar cases in recent years. However, that is not what Citizen Power is most concerned about. As a non-government organization dedicated to promoting China’s civil society and democratization, we know too well of the crimes he committed when he was in charge of China’s politics and law system. He is directly responsible for deterioration of China’s rule of law, violations of basic human rights, and the plunder of individual properties and economic interest. He is responsible for the tragic loss of lives and the humiliation of human dignity of many people in China. He helped expand and headed the so-called stability maintenance system, which committed unimaginable evil.
People from all walks of life in China have long been furious about Zhou’s evil deeds and the widespread corruption of his followers and the state-owned enterprise executives. As the No.1 figure of the CPC Central Political and Law Commission, Zhou played a critical role in the notorious stability-maintenance system, weakened China’s rule of law and helped worsen human rights conditions. Xi Jinping finally decided to target this evil and cruel “Big Tiger.” This is a good thing, regardless if Xi is serious about his anti-corruption campaign or if this is just a means to eliminate a political rival. This hopefully will break the unspoken rule of Politburo Standing Committee members being immune to punishment of law. Citizen Power welcomes this move.
However, we clearly recognize that the corruption and evils Zhou did are not just about his personal problems, but are more about China’s political system. It is an inevitable result of the one-party dictatorship and the unchecked government power in a country without an independent judiciary and where ordinary citizens are deprived of their basic rights of free participation, free speech, free association and free assembly. History has proved that democracy is the cornerstone of transparent governance, and we believe that Xi Jinping and his colleagues are fully aware of this. That is exactly why the motivation and sincerity of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign has been broadly questioned, because ever since Xi came to power, freedom of participation and expression in China has deteriorated, rather than improved. There have been many disturbing setbacks, and the most obvious is the relentless repression of Internet opinion leaders and civil movements that demand government officials’ reveal their personal properties. The biggest paradox of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign is the regime’s suppression of civil participation, which — if he were serious — he should have embraced as the most effective way to fight against corruption. Xi and his followers have made a political choice that casts themselves into an institutional dilemma that their anti-corruption efforts rely on power rather than rights. They should know that any autocracy is doomed without institutional reforms. There has been no exception in human history.
If Zhou’s biggest evil was that he strengthened the regime’s repressive state apparatus and its stability- maintenance system, which created numerous catastrophes, we can say it is a continuation of Zhou’s evil for Xi to suppress civil movements and freedom of speech on the Internet. If one of Xi’s political goals is to win over supports of the Chinese people, he must show his determination to stop this kind of evil by reversing the case of the New Citizens Movement. Civil Power is concerned that the Chinese authorities will not be forthright in handling the case of Zhou, ignoring the numerous human rights disasters he is responsible for as head of the stability-maintenance system. Citizen Power strongly appeals to the Chinese authorities to correct a series of most typical and significant cases of human rights violation by the Politics and Law Committee under Zhou and his followers. These cases are related to but not limited to Liu Xiaobo, Gao Zhisheng, Falun Gong, Tan Zuoren, Ai Weiwei, Hadad, Yasin, the self-immolated Tibetans, and countless others. Without doing so, the highly publicized theme of rule of law in the fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC National Conference will just be a show put on for the public, one that will lack substance.
Zhou’s case is being reviewed by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline for infraction of the Party’s interval disciplines. Zhou, ever since his loss of freedom, has been held in secret detention, and this leads to another disturbing issue about human rights — CPC’s party disciplines overriding the law. Putting the Party above the law and wantonly violating human rights is one of Zhou’s evils. But treating Zhou in the way he used to treat others is unacceptable. It is the continuation of Zhou’s evils.
When the winner in the political struggle manipulates the judiciary system, the loser, popular with the people or not, becomes the victim — as does every member of society. If the system that could not protect the fundamental rights of Gao Gang, Rao Shushi, Peng Dehuai, Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, Zhao Ziyang, Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, it cannot protect the basic rights of the general public either.
Contact:
Jianying Wang
202-677-0209
josephdcwang@gmail.com
Yang Yu
650-798-9318
yangyu1976@gmail.com
Duan Chao
617-5843620
duanchao222@gmail.com
Jianli Yang
857-472-9039
yangjianli001@gmail.com