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» As Chinese Debate the Need for Political Reform, an Outspoken Blogger Is Attacked
As Chinese Debate the Need for Political Reform, an Outspoken Blogger Is Attacked
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China is suffering its coldest winter in decades. But the chill didn’t
stop some 10,000 fans from lining up in three cities to get a signed
copy of Li Chengpeng’s latest book, Everybody in the World Knows.
With 6.6 million followers on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, the
former investigative journalist is one of China’s most trenchant social
critics — even if his latest book had thousands of words excised by
censors. Yet on his book tour this month, Li was silenced by authorities
who told him that he could take “no questions from readers, no talking
at all — not even ‘happy new year’ or ‘thank you.’” At a book signing in
Chengdu, the southwestern Chinese city that is his hometown, Li
responded to the gag order with sartorial subversion, wearing a black
face mask.
Li may have been momentarily hushed, but that didn’t stop his enemies
from acting out. At an event in Beijing on Sunday, a man who identified
himself as a Maoist tossed a wrapped kitchen knife at Li. (The weapon
missed its target.) Li was also punched by another man who reportedly
considered his book an attack on China itself. Soon after, a shaken Li
contacted my colleague and me, wanting to talk that night in Beijing. (I
have interviewed him before.) But just before we set off to see him, Li
sent an apologetic text: “The police are taking me away to talk. Can’t
meet you anymore.”
On Jan. 15, when Li had moved on to Shenzhen — the boomtown where
Deng Xiaoping unleashed his famous economic reforms — he was finally
able to talk by phone. More than 3,000 people had shown up that day at
his book signing, the kind of adulation an author craves. But Li was
dejected. Mysterious men snapped his photo, while others yelled, “Down
with traitor Li Chengpeng.” His luggage, full of important documents,
had gone missing. The knife-wielding man in Beijing has been released.
“The excessive concentration of power in China has resulted in the law
being controlled by the powerful,” says Li. “If there is not even
freedom of speech, then I’m not optimistic about political reform at
all.”
It has been just two months since China’s new leader Xi Jinping
became the most powerful man in the world’s most populous nation. After a
decade of paralysis under Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao, hopes have
proliferated that Xi — a grinning, vigorous figure whose father was a
reformist Communist Party elder — might prove more open to political
liberalization. To expect Xi to suddenly tear down the Bamboo Curtain
just weeks into a 10-year tenure is unrealistic. But beyond the lip
service the new Chinese Communist Party chief has paid to tackling
corruption and promoting the constitution, there’s not much to indicate
any major commitment toward reforming China politically. Hu himself
talked an awful lot about reform when he first came to power. It didn’t
happen.
Earlier this month, journalists at Southern Weekend, one of
the most respected newspapers in the country, went on strike to protest
mounting censorship. Their strike gained support from tens of thousands
of Chinese, including a gaggle of pinup actresses, former Google China
head Kai-Fu Lee and blogger Li. A last-minute deal brought the
journalists back to the newsroom. But some have said privately that they
are worried about retribution and continuing censorship. Chinese
security agents have harassed celebrities who supported the Southern Weekend journalists.
The online support for Southern Weekend and the long lines at
Li’s book signings prove that the Chinese public expects far more from
its leaders than when Hu took power in 2002. A new stratum of
middle-class Chinese has more to protect and recognizes the checks on
unbridled power democratic reforms can bring. “We all hope our country
can be stable and wealthy,” Li told TIME. “Our criticism is our
expression of patriotism. We try to change, not to overthrow.”
Just as Li was in Beijing for his book event, pollution in the
Chinese capital soared to record hazardous levels. The pall was so toxic
it far surpassed the highest notch on the yardstick the U.S. uses to
measure pollution, causing American monitoring equipment in Beijing to
label the pollution “beyond index.” One of the reasons for the noxious
air is a spike in people burning coal to keep warm during this freezing
winter. Previously, Chinese authorities tended to underplay the smog,
referring to it as “fog” and arguing implausibly that Beijing’s air has
improved every year for the past 14 years. But this horrible air was
hard to ignore. Even the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s
mouthpiece, ran a front-page story on the pollution. The capital will
eventually defrost and winds always clear away the pollution for a time.
But a Beijing spring that heralds lasting political reform? Don’t hold
your breath.
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