Chinese Communist Party high-level officials are believed to be collectively hiding in Beidaihe for vacation. There has been a surge of online reports naming officials in mainland China, with many informants being insiders of the system. This phenomenon has drawn attention from overseas observers.
Beidaihe, located in a seaside resort in Hebei Province, has historically been a place where high-level CCP officials and retired elders conduct meetings related to power struggles. Several experts have previously indicated to the Epoch Times that such a meeting may still exist this year but holds only symbolic significance in the current heavily centralized regime under Xi Jinping.
In contrast to the tightened secrecy surrounding activities in Beidaihe, a large number of real-name reports suddenly flooded the internet in recent days in mainland China. Many CCP insiders, including personnel from public security, procuratorates, and courts, chose to report officials by name on the internet without following judicial procedures.
On August 3, Qiao Zhizhong, former head of the Price Supervision and Management Division of Datong City Market Supervision Administration in Shanxi Province, appeared in uniform and publicly reported two leading officials, Feng Zhiwei and Yu Xi Yun, for using their management positions for personal gain, misconduct, and dereliction of duty.
On August 5, Shi Kaihua, self-proclaimed director of the “Great Wall Patriotic Merit List” project, reported Nie Moumou, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Thirteen Ming Dynasty Office in Beijing, for installing tiles on the Great Wall within the Ju Yong Guan Cultural Heritage Protection Area, with costs ranging from 80,000 to 800,000 yuan per tile.
Also on August 5, Wu Qiang, a judge from the Hanjiang District Court in Putian City, Fujian Province, publicly reported former court chief He Wenzhen and Huang Zhiqiang, Director of the Political Department of the Party Committee of the Putian Intermediate Court, for corruption in personnel transfers.
Even the wife of a former county magistrate joined the ranks of real-name reporters. On August 7, Liu Li, wife of a former police officer at the Zhoukou Public Security Bureau in Henan Province, publicly accused Judge Zhou Qingsong from the Henan High Court of dereliction of duty, abuse of power, and judicial injustice.
Chongqing Judicial Bureau official Zeng Wen publicly reported in May on Weibo against Zhu Jiangping, Director of the Organization Department, and Zheng Shaodong, Deputy Director, of Liangping District in Chongqing. His video report also circulated on the internet on August 7.
Lai Rongwei, CEO of the Taiwan Inspiration Association (TIA), stated to the Epoch Times that the surge in reports indicates malfunction and loss of trust in the CCP system, especially in the public security, procuratorial, and judicial aspects.
Regarding the fact that these reports have not been completely removed from the mainland Chinese internet, Lai Rongwei pointed out that the CCP high-level officials may be using this opportunity to identify so-called “bad elements” and allow such reports, potentially including voices critical of Xi Jinping.
Chen Shimin, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University, told the Epoch Times that while public whistleblowing has always existed, the recent sudden surge is abnormal. It indicates that after the 19th National Congress, where Xi Jinping’s camp gained full power and turned the party system into a complete dictatorship, the situation has worsened, leaving the people with even less trust in the fairness of the judicial system. Officials themselves can only resort to using public whistleblowing online and public pressure to force the authorities to handle these cases.
Furthermore, the emergence of these public reporting incidents also signifies that officials are more inclined to “lie flat” now. Chen Shiliang said that they hold an attitude of “do more wrong if you do more, do less wrong if you do less,” and many tricky judicial cases are left unaddressed as no one wants or dares to handle them.
A message on August 6, reported by the CCP official media CCTV, showed that a netizen named Jia Yuding, previously known as Jia Yu, had reported on video on August 5 accusing a vice chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Federation of Zhizhou County in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province of fraudulently enrolling in and attending school in Sui De Normal School and working there. Local authorities announced an investigation on August 6. The speed of response was remarkable.
In the Tangshan assault case at a barbecue restaurant, Policeman Chen Zhiwei was sentenced for the delayed response of the local police station, and local leaders in Tangshan threatened him not to report false news. Subsequently, Tangshan authorities found his residential address in another province the next day and required him to return to Tangshan. The relevant content on Chen’s Weibo was cleared on August 7.
Commentator Li Linyi analyzed to the Epoch Times that from the prompt handling of the reporting in Shaanxi to the suppression of the police officer’s real-name reporting in Tangshan, it is evident that the CCP is not genuinely responding to public opinion or resolving miscarriages of justice, merely evading major issues.
“An official accused in Yulin, Shaanxi of enrolling in school under a false identity, and another in Tangshan, Hebei, which is about an hour’s drive from Beidaihe, reported on police falsification, have different impacts. Moreover, from the CCP’s perspective, the political implications of the Tangshan assault case are significant, involving Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong, at the time of the Beidaihe meeting, this real-name reporting would definitely face strong stability maintenance.”
Some netizens suspect that as the CCP is pushing for a web identity verification system, people are rushing to make real-name reports now; otherwise, they may lose access to social media in the future.
The Ministry of Public Security and the National Internet Information Office of the CCP released the “Public Service Management Measures for National Internet Identity Verification (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)” on July 26, stating that it intends to unify the issuance of “Internet IDs” and “Internet Certificates” by voluntary registration of real identities by internet users. Although the deadline for public opinions on these measures is until August 25, relevant identity authentication apps have been trialed on several platforms.
Concerns have been raised by the public and many scholars about the strengthening of identity verification by the CCP through web IDs and certificates, where over 1 billion Chinese netizens might have to show credentials to go online in the future. However, opposition views have been swiftly censored.
Chen Shimin suggested that while the CCP has strong departments for opinion control, and online real-name reporting and seeking redress can sometimes have some effect, it is not a systematic way to seek redress or justice. The decision to process or ignore these reports ultimately lies within the CCP itself. If the CCP can effectively prevent all these reports, the common people will have no way to seek redress.
“Recently, with the introduction of the web identity verification system by the CCP, it is possible that due to real-name reporting, individuals may be blacklisted, cutting off their access to web services, and they may not even be able to go online.”
He believes that continuing on this path will only lead to increasing public grievances, with the right to go online being deprived, resulting in various ways for the people to unite, eventually leading to events like the political change in Bangladesh where those in power were overthrown.