(TibetanReview.net, Oct09’24) – As President Xi Jinping tightens control, demanding absolute loyalty from more than 99 million members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), officials put under investigation for corruption are increasingly being accused primarily of having read forbidden publications, which is cited as proof of their disloyalty.
While such reading bans in China are believed to date back decades, the recent uptick in naming and shaming appears to coincide with last year’s amendment of the party disciplinary regulations, which greatly expanded the clause related to reading unapproved materials, noted the scmp.com Oct 7.
Those who privately read, browse or listen to publications and make irresponsible comments on the party Central Committee’s major policies, vilify the image of the party and the country, or slander leaders will be issued warnings, the amended clause is stated to stipulate. If the circumstances are serious, such persons could be removed from party positions.
Deng Yuwen, former deputy editor of Study Times, the newspaper of the cadre-training Central Party School, has said reading and circulating some sensitive materials within the party was common. This had long been impossible to ban, even in Mao Zedong’s era, he has added.
“It is not a big deal if they are not under disciplinary investigation, but it can be major evidence of disloyalty when [the top watchdog] finds them.”
Allegations of reading politically forbidden books have appeared in at least a dozen corruption case readouts so far this year – compared to around seven last year, the report said.
Similar accusations have been made by anti-corruption bodies in at least five other provinces this year.
One of the recent examples is Li Bin, a former vice-director of the municipal legislature of Mudanjiang in northeastern Heilongjiang province. He was expelled from the Communist Party on suspicions of corruption late last month.
At the top of the allegations made public was the accusation that he privately read an “illegal publication” with content that would “jeopardise the unity of the party”, with the municipal corruption inspectors not leading the charges with claims of corrupt dealings.
This was in keeping with a norm in which political disloyalty is always the first charge listed, the report noted.
Similarly, Cheng Zhiyi, 61, former party secretary of Chongqing’s Jiangjin district, was also accused of possessing and reading forbidden books. The southwestern city’s corruption investigators issued an announcement on his wrongdoings, saying he was accused of “reading overseas books and periodicals with serious political problems”.
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Though the investigators did not name the books claimed to have been found in the allegedly corrupt officials’ possession, the “forbidden books” are generally believed to include but not limited to those that examine a sensitive period for the party. These include insider stories about the struggle of the party and its leaders; the Chinese Civil War; the Anti-Rightist Movement of the 1950s; the Great Leap Forward (1958-62); the Three Years of Hardship famine (1959-61); the Cultural Revolution (1966-76); and the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
A 2021 customs document is stated to define articles that are prohibited and restricted from entering and leaving China. These include printed materials, films, photos, records, audio and video tapes, laser discs and computer storage media that are harmful to China’s politics, economy, culture and morality.
A statement released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top political disciplinary and anti-corruption body, was on Sep 12 stated to have accused Zhang Zulin, former vice-governor of southwestern Yunnan province, of possessing and reading forbidden books.
The 65-year-old retiree was stated to have been accused of “losing his political ideals and aspirations, forming political cliques … and possessing and reading books, periodicals and audio-visual products with serious political problems” in private.
Three days earlier, the anti-corruption watchdog in Jiangxi province was stated to have accused Gan Chengjiu – a former general manager at the local government-owned Jiangxi Financial Holding Group Ltd – of bringing “reactionary books into the country” and reading them privately, along with other political disloyalty and corruption charges.