In half a month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will celebrate its centenary, thus becoming the second 100-year-old party in China after the Kuomintang. On the eve of that important day, it is safe to assume that regions across the country have geared up for the celebrations, and at the same time are on high alert or in “stability-maintaining” mode. To ensure nothing is amiss, security measures are ten times tighter than during the usual politically sensitive days or the “Two Sessions” (the NPC & CPPCC National Committee annual sessions). The actual situation, however, seems to be radically different from the outside world’s imagination.

Preparations for the CCP’s centenary must have begun a year ago, or even earlier. Recently, they have been in full swing. Early this month, the Beijing authorities announced that from June 13th to July 2nd, nine districts including Chaoyang will be classified as “no-fly zones”. Drones and balloons will be prohibited, and the release of birds will be limited according to a rotating schedule. Between 00.00 am June 23rd and July 1st, Tiananmen Square will be closed for nine days for the preparations of the centenary, much longer than the two-day closure for the military parade on the CCP’s 70th anniversary in 2019.

Many towns and villages in Beijing’s suburbs have started clearing out people from other cities to ensure that visitors to the capital who are “not pleasing to the eye” are removed. The first general rehearsal for the celebrations was held in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square on the evening of June 12th with 14,000 participants. Although there will not be a military parade this year, the army mobilized Chengdu J-20 aircraft and armed helicopters to form the numbers of “71” and “100” in the sky, symbolizing the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP.

A propagandic buildup has also been on full throttle for quite some time. Apart from newspaper articles and TV and film productions singing the praises of the CCP, the authorities also announced earlier the “complete victory in the fight against poverty”, and there has been a ceaseless propaganda campaign about how happy the Chinese people feel compared with Westerners. This means that the CCP will be able to proclaim the completion of the first of the “Two Goals for the Two Centenaries” (the centenary of the CCP and the centenary of the People’s Republic of China), namely the “full completion of a well-to-do society”, on the coming July 1st. In addition, an ambitious overhaul of the CCP’s history has been completed, placing Xi Jinping’s party-building achievement on par with that of Mao Zedong.

However, amid such watertight security measures and a pervasive mood of wariness among officials at all levels in preparation for the celebrations, a string of social incidents has cropped up across the nation.

- Random stabbing sprees on the street, which have taken place in Putian (Fujian Province), Cangwu (Guangxi Province), Nanyang (Henan Province), Anqing (Anhui Province) and Chenzhou (Hunan Province), have resulted in 90 casualties. In a Guangxi primary school alone, 39 people were wounded.

- “Revenge against society” attacks. In Dalian, Liaoning province, a man drove his vehicle at 108 km/h and intentionally crashed it into pedestrians, killing five and injuring five. A man in Nanjing ran over his ex-wife and then stabbed several passersby with a knife.

- In a 100-kilometer cross-country marathon in Jingtai County (located in Baiyin City, Gansu Province), 21 runners froze to death due to sudden changes in weather, the negligence of the organizer, and a failure to take safety measures. The entire country was shocked, and the central government dispatched a team to investigate the incident. Li Zuobi, the county’s party chief, jumped to his death after being interviewed by the team.

- A shocking explosion happened at a wet market in Shiyan, Hubei. The market was razed to the ground, and windows 200 meters away were shattered. A total of 25 people were killed and 138 were injured. Even Xi Jinping was alarmed, saying, “A string of production accidents and campus incidents has occurred in many places across the country. All regions and relevant departments must draw lessons from similar incidents, ascertain responsibilities, and increase political acumen.” He ordered a full inspection of all kinds of hidden safety hazards and the maintenance of social stability in order to “to create a good atmosphere before the CCP’s centenary”.

- Amid a sudden COVID-19 outbreak in Guangdong, it has emerged that a leak has happened at Taishan nuclear power plant. A French co-operator of the nuclear power plant has said that “radioactive threats are imminent”. It has asked the US government for assistance, adding that the Chinese government is revising upwards the acceptable radiation limits to avoid shutting down the plant.

No doubt these accidents were not directly caused by the CCP’s governance, nor were they the results of corruption, dereliction of duty or idleness on the part of government officials. In a normal society, they are deemed accidents. But the CCP claims to be an all-powerful party. It takes credit for any achievement made by the country or even any Chinese person, so every social issue, big or small, should be taken as its responsibility. The CCP also has an inherent need to “maintain stability”. At a time when the nation is in a state of extreme alert prior to the CCP’s centenary, these issues have, quite inevitably, been given political meanings. That was why Xi blamed the “lack of political acumen” on the part of some local CCP cadres for the recent production accidents and campus incidents. But what kind of politics is involved, and what kind of problem do they reflect?

The theory that some people have been acting against Xi and have orchestrated the above incidents stretches credulity to the limit. Some say the gods are not smiling on China, but such superstitious beliefs are impossible to verify. But if we say that the problem lies with the security and “stability maintenance” fatigue suffered by officials at all levels, we should not be off the mark. Over the past few years, officials from ethnic minority areas such as Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia to coastal or inland provinces and cities have been facing all kinds of political pressure. They have had to fight against separatist forces, fight against corruption, fight against the pandemic, fight against poverty, promote consumption, reduce domestic debt, reduce emission and conserve energy, and take on the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. At the same time, they have had to ensure that no serious production accident happens, and no major casualties are caused before the celebration of the party’s centenary. These are all political tasks on which the political future of any leader of any region or government department is hinged. The strictness of Xi’s rule means that an official can lose his job or even find himself behind bars if anything goes pear-shaped. Who can stand it when so many departments have remained so tensed up for so long?

(Poon Siu-to, veteran journalist)

This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.

Click here for Chinese version

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