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As April passed into May this year, one electrifying story replaced another in the consciousness of the Chinese public. The first involved a ruthless official struggling for control of the ruling Communist Party and the second a solitary activist who, without this being his stated intention, challenged the one-party state from below. Soon, the two narratives began to merge, posing a threat of the first order to Chinas increasingly fragile political system.
During the night of April 22nd, Chen Guangcheng, a blind human rights advocate, climbed over walls and made his way through a heavy security cordon that had, for nineteen months, illegally ringed his home, where he had been confined, beaten, and denied medical treatment. In the following days, he traveled almost four hundred miles to the Chinese capital over closely watched highways, moved from safe house to safe house, uploaded a YouTube challenge to the countrys premier, and somehow managed to get past Chinese guards into an American diplomatic compound.
The Chinese government moved quickly to suppress news of Chens great escape, as the countrys netizens termed his amazing journey from confinement in rural Shandong to the safest place in Beijinga reference to the US Embassy. Yet overworked censors could not prevent Chinese, both online and off, from trying to link the Chen incident with an even more significant series of even
Conspiratorial Chinese minds began to allege that the blind dissident was able to complete his flight to safety only because he had help from Zhou Yongkang, the member of the Politburo Standing Committee in charge of domestic security. Zhou, the theory goes, knew that Chen would try to leave his heavily ringed home because just hours before Chen made his attempt, officials had monitored his cell-phone calls to other dissidents involved in the plan. The internal-security boss then let the blind man escape, according to this view, because he knew the incident would embarrass Wen Jiabao, the countrys premier and the target of Chens YouTube video, and Hu Jintao, Chinas current ruler.
Why would Zhou seek to undermine Hu and Wen? Because the pair had put Zhou under investigation for trying to unseat them through a coup. Reports indicate that at least two people, Wang Lijun and Gu Kailai, have implicated the security boss. By now, the names of these two figures are known throughout China because of their association with the infamous Bo Xilai, the central figure in the other great event roiling Chinese public life.
In the beginning of February, Bo had sent hundreds of armed security troops from Chongqing, where he was the Communist Party secretary, across provincial lines to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu. There, his army surrounded the American consulate and began a tense standoff to prevent a once-trusted aide, Wang Lijun, from defecting to the US and handing over papers incriminating Bo and his wife, Gu Kailai, in activities ranging from graft to murder.
Wang, formerly the chief of Chongqings police, had apparently asked for asylum but eventually left the consulate after spending a night. Officials from the Ministry of State Security escorted him to Beijing. Since then, he has been branded a traitor.
During the night of April 22nd, Chen Guangcheng, a blind human rights advocate, climbed over walls and made his way through a heavy security cordon that had, for nineteen months, illegally ringed his home, where he had been confined, beaten, and denied medical treatment. In the following days, he traveled almost four hundred miles to the Chinese capital over closely watched highways, moved from safe house to safe house, uploaded a YouTube challenge to the countrys premier, and somehow managed to get past Chinese guards into an American diplomatic compound.
The Chinese government moved quickly to suppress news of Chens great escape, as the countrys netizens termed his amazing journey from confinement in rural Shandong to the safest place in Beijinga reference to the US Embassy. Yet overworked censors could not prevent Chinese, both online and off, from trying to link the Chen incident with an even more significant series of even
Conspiratorial Chinese minds began to allege that the blind dissident was able to complete his flight to safety only because he had help from Zhou Yongkang, the member of the Politburo Standing Committee in charge of domestic security. Zhou, the theory goes, knew that Chen would try to leave his heavily ringed home because just hours before Chen made his attempt, officials had monitored his cell-phone calls to other dissidents involved in the plan. The internal-security boss then let the blind man escape, according to this view, because he knew the incident would embarrass Wen Jiabao, the countrys premier and the target of Chens YouTube video, and Hu Jintao, Chinas current ruler.
Why would Zhou seek to undermine Hu and Wen? Because the pair had put Zhou under investigation for trying to unseat them through a coup. Reports indicate that at least two people, Wang Lijun and Gu Kailai, have implicated the security boss. By now, the names of these two figures are known throughout China because of their association with the infamous Bo Xilai, the central figure in the other great event roiling Chinese public life.
In the beginning of February, Bo had sent hundreds of armed security troops from Chongqing, where he was the Communist Party secretary, across provincial lines to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu. There, his army surrounded the American consulate and began a tense standoff to prevent a once-trusted aide, Wang Lijun, from defecting to the US and handing over papers incriminating Bo and his wife, Gu Kailai, in activities ranging from graft to murder.
Wang, formerly the chief of Chongqings police, had apparently asked for asylum but eventually left the consulate after spending a night. Officials from the Ministry of State Security escorted him to Beijing. Since then, he has been branded a traitor.
