On October 2nd, Ren Xinyi, the daughter of Ren Zhiqiang, a “Second-Generation Red” and real estate businessman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published an open letter to CCP President Xi Jinping on her WeChat Moments. In the letter, she pleaded:
“I implore you, based on humanitarian principles, to allow my father to receive medical treatment outside of prison and travel abroad for treatment, so that he can reunite with his family in his final days.”
“My father was diagnosed with a serious prostate disease before he was imprisoned and urgently needs surgical treatment. Since his imprisonment, he has not received surgery and effective treatment, and his condition has continued to deteriorate. For a long time, he has had to go to the restroom more than a dozen times every night, suffering from pain and unable to rest properly. In recent months, he has also been diagnosed with asthma, and his health is deteriorating. We have pleaded many times, but he is still not allowed to undergo surgical treatment, which makes us feel deep pain and despair.”
“I am willing to promise that my father will not make any public statements or content after receiving medical treatment abroad. He is elderly, seriously ill, and has no ability to cause trouble for you and the country.”
“We have previously made the above request several times through normal channels but have not received a positive response. We had no choice but to use this method to express our desperate plea to you.”
The letter was later widely circulated on overseas social media platform X and has garnered international attention.
Ren Zhiqiang is the former chairman of Beijing Huayuan Group.
In February 2020, shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ren Zhiqiang wrote an article criticizing Xi Jinping without explicitly naming him. The article was somehow leaked online. On April 7, 2020, the Beijing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CCP announced that Ren Zhiqiang was under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law.
On September 22, 2020, Ren Zhiqiang was charged with “corruption, bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power by personnel of state-owned companies” and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Based on my understanding of the CCP, if Ren Zhiqiang had remained silent after the pandemic in 2020, he might not have faced any consequences.
Will the CCP authorities give a positive response to Ren Xinyi’s open letter? I believe the likelihood is low.
If the current CCP authorities agree to let Ren Zhiqiang receive medical treatment outside of prison and go abroad, he would not have been heavily sentenced to 18 years initially.
Ren Zhiqiang was a well-connected figure in the CCP’s political, business, and academic circles.
His father, Ren Quansheng, served as the Deputy Minister of Commerce from 1964 to 1985. His mother was classmates with North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, and there is a photo of Kim Il-sung holding a baby Ren Zhiqiang. In his autobiography, Ren Zhiqiang wrote, “I have seen many senior officials since I was little, being carried by leaders.”
Former CCP Politburo Standing Committee member and Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Wang Qishan, was Ren Zhiqiang’s counselor during middle school. Their relationship has always been strong. In Ren Zhiqiang’s book “Elegant Ambition” published in 2013, he wrote, “To this day, he (referring to Wang Qishan) occasionally calls me in the middle of the night, and we often chat for a long time.”
Huayuan Group, where Ren Zhiqiang worked, had connections with many high-ranking CCP officials. Chen Yuan, the son of CCP senior Chen Yun, was the founder and first chairman of Huayuan Group. Ma Kai, who later served as Vice Premier of the State Council, also served as Vice Chairman of Huayuan Group. Liu He, who later served as Vice Premier of the State Council, was appointed as a part-time researcher at Huayuan Company by Ren Zhiqiang during his postgraduate studies. Former CCP Politburo Standing Committee member and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Yu Zhengsheng, wrote a foreword for Ren Zhiqiang’s first book in 2002.
Ren Zhiqiang was known for being outspoken. Since the introduction of Weibo in China in 2009, he frequently used the platform to voice his opinions and by early 2016, he had nearly 38 million followers on Weibo.
In December 2011, CCTV reported on Ren Zhiqiang’s retirement audit, titled “Ren Zhiqiang: Audit proves I have no problems and can safely retire.” The article cited Ren Zhiqiang’s public postings on Weibo of an “Audit Decision” and an “Audit Report,” in which he claimed that “apart from individual financial accounting treatments, there is no personal corruption issue” and that he can retire safely without bearing legal responsibilities for directly managing state-owned assets.
Additionally, Huayuan Real Estate Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huayuan Group, announced a decision by the Supervisory Board in April 2015 unanimously approving Ren Zhiqiang’s departure audit report.
From the above introduction, we can see that Ren Zhiqiang is considered one of the representatives of the “Second-Generation Reds” in the CCP, a prominent Chinese entrepreneur, and a friend of many powerful officials in the CCP, making him a figure with extensive social influence.
Based on the official CCP departure audit report on Ren Zhiqiang, he should not have any criminal issues such as “corruption, bribery, embezzlement, abuse of power by personnel of state-owned companies.”
After the “170,000 People’s Congress” held by the CCP on February 17, 2020, Ren Zhiqiang wrote an article criticizing the responsibility of Xi Jinping for the pandemic, without explicitly naming him, but it somehow got published overseas. After carefully reading this article, it is apparent that except for some harsh sentences, it largely aligns with the reality.
At the time, Ren Zhiqiang was nearly 70 years old, retired for many years, financially well-off (his annual salary reached 7.5 million RMB as early as 1995), and had everything he needed in terms of material comfort. If it were not for the national crisis and his concerns for the country and the people, he would not have written the critical article about Xi Jinping.
Using common sense and reasoning, it is unlikely that Ren Zhiqiang would be sentenced or heavily sentenced solely because of this article. Nevertheless, he not only received a sentence but was sentenced to 18 years.
The CCP authorities heavily sentenced Ren Zhiqiang deliberately to suppress his audacity to “offend the superiors” and to warn anyone daring to criticize the CCP.
Given this, how could the CCP possibly show leniency to Ren Zhiqiang today?
Ren Xinyi’s letter to her daughter reminded me of Chinese dissident Guo Feixiong.
On January 28, 2021, Guo Feixiong arrived at Shanghai Pudong Airport, ready to fly to the United States to take care of his wife Zhang Qing, who had just undergone major surgery. However, he was prevented from boarding the plane under the pretext of “potentially endangering national security.” Guo Feixiong immediately went on a hunger strike in protest but was arrested by the police.
On February 3, 2021, dozens of mainland Chinese intellectuals jointly published an open letter to CCP leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, and National People’s Congress Chairman Li Zhanshu, urging them to fulfill their legal duties, order the relevant departments to immediately revoke the wrong decision hindering Guo Feixiong from leaving the country, release Guo Feixiong, and allow him to go to the United States as soon as possible to care for his critically ill wife.
However, the CCP authorities did not respond to the petition letter.
On November 29, 2021, Guo Feixiong wrote to Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang, stating:
“My wife Zhang Qing suffered from advanced stage colon cancer in early 2021 in Maryland, USA. She underwent surgery for intestinal obstruction caused by cancer at that time, and on November 27, she had a second episode of intestinal obstruction. As cancer cells had spread throughout her body, the local hospital deemed surgery ineffective and could only provide palliative care through a gastric tube placement. My wife faced direct life-threatening risk and urgently needed me to rush over to transfer her to another hospital for surgery.”
“I sincerely request Premier Li Keqiang to act in accordance with the law and basic humanitarian principles… to enable me to quickly go to the United States to accompany and save my wife.”
Despite sending the letter, there was no response.
During her painful wait for Guo Feixiong’s arrival, Zhang Qing sent out a distress call online. In her message, she wrote:
“My life is nearing its end, and I am beginning to despair. When will I be able to see my husband? Yang Maodong (Guo Feixiong’s original name), you need to hurry up and come. I am only 54 years old, with two children, and I am not willing to give up! I am willing to try my best, I do not want to give up like this. Even if there is no hope, I want to see you one last time.”
“Yang Maodong, I have been waiting for you to come and care for me for a whole ten months. Why haven’t you come yet? Do you realize how desperate and desolate I am now? Yang Maodong, come over, come and save me! You are my last hope, my last expectation. I am waiting for you to come, when will you arrive?”
However, even until her final moments, Zhang Qing was not able to wait for Guo Feixiong.
On January 10, 2022, Zhang Qing, who had been separated from her husband for 15 years, passed away in the United States.
Guo Feixiong not only could not attend to his wife’s affairs in the United States but on the day after her death, on January 12, 2022, he was arrested by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
On May 11, 2023, Guo Feixiong was sentenced to 8 years on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
Prior to this, Guo Feixiong had been sentenced twice for participating in rights activities, totaling 11 years: first sentenced to 5 years on charges of “illegal business operations,” and was released on September 12, 2011; and then sentenced to 6 years on charges of “disturbing public order by gathering crowds” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” and was released on August 7, 2019.
Through Ren Xinyi’s letter to her father, I also think of Chinese human rights lawyer Tang Jitian.
In May 2021, Tang Jitian’s daughter, Tang Zhengqi, studying in Japan, went into a prolonged coma due to brain edema caused by pulmonary tuberculosis.
In late May 2021, a group of overseas scholars initiated a joint petition urging the CCP authorities on humanitarian grounds to allow Tang Jitian to go to Japan to care for his seriously ill daughter. The joint letter pointed out that, according to Article 13, Paragraph 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within his own country, but like other rights defenders, “Tang was informed that if he left China, it would endanger national security, yet the authorities never clearly informed him how his departure would jeopardize national security.”
This “Appeal to Support Lawyer Tang Jitian” letter collected signatures from hundreds of scholars, researchers, and lawyers from around the world within a week.
Tang Jitian purchased a ticket to fly from Fuzhou to Japan on June 2, 2021, but was blocked from traveling for “potential harm to national security” by border inspection officials.
On February 20, 2024, Tang Zhengqi passed away from pneumonia at the age of 27.
Upon reading Ren Xinyi’s letter to her father, I also recall Chinese dissident Zhu Yufu.
From 1999 to 2018, Zhu Yufu was sentenced to prison three times, totaling 16 years.
After his release in 2018, Zhu Yufu was placed under house arrest in his home in Hangzhou, unable to leave the city, and was restricted from crossing the Qiantang River from Shangcheng District to Xiaoshan District. There were individuals monitoring his building’s corridor 24/7.
In March of last year, Zhu Yufu’s sister in Japan was in the late stage of lung cancer and hoped to see her brother for the last time. He applied for a passport and visa. However, the police arrived at his home the day before he was supposed to fly out, confiscated his passport, citing the Asian Games scheduled to be hosted in Hangzhou.
On November 2, 2023, Zhu Yufu took a friend’s advice and prepared to travel to Japan through Vietnam. He maneuvered through the rooftop of his building, descended through another corridor, and then drove 1,700 kilometers to Ningming County in Chongzuo City, Guangxi Province.
Once the police monitoring him in the corridor discovered his disappearance, they immediately reported it to the Ministry of Public Security. The Ministry then imposed martial law on all border areas in the country, leading to his interception at a location just 1 kilometer from the Vietnamese border and being escorted back to Hangzhou. He was told he could not leave the house for three months.
Zhu Yufu’s sister passed away on December 27, 2023, without being able to see him for the last time.
Recently, I read an article titled “China is Far From a Normal Country,” listing various abnormal behaviors of China in politics, economics, society, culture and education, religion, diplomacy, military, environmental and resource protection, social morality, and national strategic construction.
What does a normal country mean? What does an abnormal country mean?
These questions do not require profound theories to answer. A country that adheres to common sense, common sentiment, and common reasoning is considered normal; a country that deviates from common sense, common sentiment, and common reasoning is considered abnormal.
China is far from being a normal country because the ruling party, the CCP, is not a normal party.
All normal parties worldwide adhere to universal values that align with common sense, common sentiment, and common reasoning; however, the CCP does not recognize universal values and instead venerates Marxism-Leninism.
What is Marxism-Leninism? Simply put, it can be summarized in four words as “pressure, deception”; three words as “false, evil, struggle”; or two words as “cult.”
All the demands mentioned by Ren Zhiqiang, Guo Feixiong, Tang Jitian, and Zhu Yufu fall within the realms of common sense, common sentiment, and common reasoning.
However, the CCP views them as “offending the superiors,” “economic crimes,” “inciting subversion of state power,” or “subverting state power,” and their attempts to travel abroad to visit, care for, and comfort severely ill family members could “endanger national security.”
Every normal country, society, party, and individual — past and present worldwide — would never entertain such absurd and bizarre thoughts.
The only rational explanation for the CCP’s actions can be that it is not a normal entity but an evil cult core that centers around “false, evil, struggle.”
If the CCP does not cease to exist, peace and tranquility will not be possible for China, the Chinese people, the Chinese nation, and people worldwide.