The Chinese Communist Party’s political and legal system has launched a year-long nationwide campaign called “Deepening the Special Struggle against Gangs and Evil Forces” starting from August, with a focus on combating online behaviors such as extortion of public opinion and malicious claims, and requiring online platforms to cooperate in governance. Critics say that under the guise of cracking down on gangs, the CCP is including public opinion in its crackdown, potentially labeling citizen posts and consumer complaints as “gang-related.”
On August 2, the CCP’s mouthpiece CCTV released statements from the person in charge of the Central Political and Legal Committee, stating that organized online activities such as nude chat extortion, illegal lending, illegal debt collection, extortion of public opinion, malicious claims, forced consumption, labor scams, and erotic extortion will be targeted. It was claimed that criminal activities are shifting from offline to online, from “hard violence” to “soft violence.”
Mr. Jiang, a human rights activist in Wuxi, expressed to reporters that “Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown within the CCP is constantly making headlines, while their ‘anti-gang and evil’ actions towards the public are mainly aimed at silencing critical voices in public opinion, ultimately seeking to control public sentiment and suppress the voices of the people. This is an attempt to suppress internet speech as an unstable element.”
Mr. Wang, a human rights activist in Wuhan, also shared his views, stating, “The People’s Daily recently published a full-page article on combating gangs and evil forces, targeting village and urban bullies without mentioning the CCP ‘party bullies.’ The real bullies are the authorities themselves. Their so-called crackdown is just a means to silence dissenting voices and rob private enterprises.”
In February 2023, the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security held a meeting to advance the special action against internet gang-related crimes, with malicious claims, negative public opinion extortion, and online commentators causing trouble listed as key targets. In 2024, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate again emphasized the crackdown on “internet commentators” spreading rumors and extortion through public opinion.
Mr. Zhou, a network writer from Hubei, commented, “Several years ago, the CCP included what they called negative public opinion in the crackdown, and now they are expanding the scope through a national special campaign. The CCP is attempting to categorize internet criticism and consumer rights protection as gang-related activities, ultimately aiming to expand the political and legal system’s control over society and public opinion.”
The previous national special campaign against gangs and evil forces initiated in 2018 by the CCP’s political and legal departments had already targeted public opinion extortion, malicious claims, and internet commentators for regulation. This time, these behaviors are categorized under internet gang-related crimes and “soft violence” for special crackdown. Cases are determined and handled by CCP’s political and legal agencies, with targets designated by the authorities.