Chinese Communist Party Cracks Down on ‘Improper Discussion’ — Even After Retirement

May 3, 2016

As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues his bid to consolidate power, his 88 million-strong Communist Party has increasingly spoken with one voice. Failure to sing to the same tune could mean facing the music.

This week, influential retired businessman Ren Zhiqiang was slapped with a one-year suspension of his party membership after publicly criticizing Mr. Xi’s demands for loyalty from the media.

The punishment against Mr. Ren marked the latest in a series of disciplinary actions that Communist Party took in recent months against internal dissenters. The crackdown on political deviance has escalated since the party adopted a new rule in October against the “improper discussion” of central party policies.

Another recent case emerged late last month when party disciplinarians in the eastern Chinese city of Wenling said they had issued a “serious warning” to a retired local official for publicly airing remarks that were deemed inconsistent with party policies.

Mu Yifei, a former senior staff member at Wenling’s Communist Party school, had “repeatedly published and republished erroneous commentary that contradicts the party’s theories, guidelines and policies, and thereby severely damaged the party’s image,” the local discipline-inspection commission said in an April 20 notice.

According to a separate notice that was shared on social media, the Wenling discipline-inspection commission said Mr. Mu had written and republished “erroneous commentary” on his Weibo microblog from 2011 to 2014. Complaints from another Weibo user prompted party officials to order Mr. Mu to delete the offending commentary and close his Weibo account, the notice said.

Neither Wenling’s propaganda department nor its discipline-inspection commission immediately responded to requests for comment. Mr. Mu, 59 years old, couldn’t be reached for comment.

More recently, Mr. Mu wrote an essay, published last month in the Guangzhou-based Information Times, that described himself as a “vagrant official,” using a Chinese term that describes semi-retired public servants who do less work while receiving the same pay as before.

“While I’d like to right my wrong, there’s no chance to do so now, so I can only write this guilt-ridden essay,” wrote Mr. Mu, who said he became a “vagrant official” in 2008 before retiring fully in February. “I had held off from writing this essay mainly because I feared people would criticize me as reluctant to give up my post.”

“My guilt had stayed hidden deep in my heart for many years, and I can’t feel relief unless I let it out,” he wrote in the essay, which Wenling authorities cited in their notice as an example of “erroneous” commentary. “Now I couldn’t care if I should offend anyone.”

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Mr. Mu had worked at Wenling’s Communist Party school from January 2008 till February this year, according to a notice from the city’s discipline-inspection commission. He was also deputy chief of Wenling’s propaganda department from 2000 to 2008, the notice said.

According to screenshots posted by the Weibo user who lodged complaints against Mr. Mu, the official had made sarcastic remarks about party discipline and expressed support for “constitutionalism,” widely derided by many Communist Party intellectuals as a Western political concept that contradicts the party’s supreme position in Chinese politics.

The Weibo user, who uses the moniker “Huaxia Corps Battle Command,” repeatedly attacked Mr. Mu’s social-media postings as unbefitting a party member and instructor. The user continued his criticism after disciplinary action was taken against Mr. Mu, saying the retired official should have been expelled from the party.

“Huaxia Corps Battle Command,” which describes itself as “volunteer Internet army” member that champions nationalism and supports Mr. Xi, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The fate of Mr. Mu dovetailed with the Communist Party’s recent efforts to curb internal dissent, which have been seen by many politically minded Chinese as part of Mr. Xi’s attempt to consolidate his power as the world’s second-largest economy decelerates after years of rapid growth.

Last July, a university lecturer in southern Guangdong province was removed from his post as deputy chief of the English department, after he was found to have “fabricated political rumors” and published “radical” commentary on his Weibo account from 2012 to 2014, according to the provincial party disciplinary commission.

In early November, within weeks of the party’s adoption of the rule against “improper discussion,” the chief editor of a state-run newspaper in the restive western region of Xinjiang was fired for contradicting official policies on terrorism and religious extremism. The deputy party secretary for Beijing was then dismissed in January for violations including “improper discussion of central party policy,” according to the party’s disciplinary agency.