The Wuhan virus epidemic has laid bare the skeletons of the Chinese Communist Party and exposed the brutal side of President Xi Jinping. Anyone who dared to criticise the Chinese government’s inept handling of the coronavirus has been mysteriously disappeared by the government as the Xi Jinping government is spending millions of dollars to shift goalposts over the Wuhan virus and position Jinping as a ‘hero’ who saved China.
In a concerning development, Ren Zhiqiang, a member of China’s ruling Communist Party and a former top executive of the state-controlled property developer Huayuan Real Estate Group has mysteriously disappeared after he directly criticised Xi Jinping over his failure to contain the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
Chinese property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang has not been contactable since March 12 after he dared to criticise Jinping’s February 23 speech as he wrote an essay where he took potshots at Jinping.
In his article, Ren slammed Jinping for creating a situation of a “crisis of governance” within China’s Communist Party as he blamed the lack of freedom of speech and the press which was directly responsible for slowing down the response to combat the coronavirus.
On Xi Jinping’s speech, Reg wrote that after analyzing the Chinese President’s speech he “saw not an emperor standing there exhibiting his ‘new clothes,’ but a clown stripped naked who insisted on continuing being emperor.”
Ren has in the past criticised Xi Jinping over his move to control the property market. He in the past has strongly hit out against Xi Jinping’s assertion that China’s state media should be aligned to the Communist Party.
Ren’s friends have come out and shown concerned after repeated attempts to contact him have failed. “A citizen can’t just disappear, we need to know if he’s been taken by any department. His family and friends should know,” said Zhang Ming, a history professor at Renmin University. Many of our friends are looking for him,” Ren’s close friend and businesswoman Wang Ying said in a statement and added that she was “extremely anxious” over his disappearance. “Ren Zhiqiang is a public figure and his disappearance is widely known. The institutions responsible for this need to give a reasonable and legal explanation for this as soon as possible,” Wang said.
Ren’s disappearance follows the mysterious disappearance of two citizen journalists who exposed the government’s callous response to the outbreak. The mysterious disappearance of two Citizen journalists, Chen Quishi and Fang Bin had created a stir in China. Their only crime was that they unmasked the true face of the Chinese government as they exposed the government’s inability to tackle the virus at its epicentre in Wuhan.
Citizen journalist Chen Qiushi who dared to travel to Wuhan and uncover the truth despite the threat of the Chinese Communist Party had mysteriously gone missing in February. Chen built his reputation by covering the Hong Kong protests in August. Though he was harassed and silenced by Chinese authorities after his trip to Hong Kong, he continued speaking out using Twitter and YouTube.
There was a huge outcry when the news of Quishi’s disappearance trickled in and in a brazen display of ignorance, the Chinese government has now disappeared Quishi’s colleague Fang Bin. Citizen journalist Fang Bin who was reporting from the epidemic epicentre in Wuhan has also disappeared, according to his friends and activists. The clothing seller turned journalist stopped posting videos or responding to calls and messages on February 9, 2020, according to activists Gao Fei and Hua Yong, citing Fang’s friends.
The Wuhan virus epidemic has exposed brought front the worst side of Xi Jinping as he battles on a sticky wicket.