After Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), started his second term, the official reports of officials being investigated for privately reading overseas “reactionary books and periodicals” have gradually increased. Some officials are trying to find internal information about the CCP from foreign media. Analysts believe that the fact that officials don’t trust the top leadership indicates a serious internal division within the CCP.
On September 20th, the Chongqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Cheng Zhiyi, the former director of the Personnel and Environment Construction Committee of the Political Consultative Conference, was expelled from the party and dismissed from public office on suspicion of bribery and other crimes, and his case was transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution.
Public records show that Cheng Zhiyi worked in the Chongqing Municipal Construction Committee early on, serving as deputy director and party group member of the Chongqing Municipal Construction Committee in 2001, deputy secretary-general of the Chongqing Municipal Government (official of the department level) in 2006, director and party committee secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Construction Committee in January 2008. After the organizational reform, he continued to serve as the director and party committee secretary of the Chongqing Urban Construction Committee.
In July 2016, Cheng Zhiyi became the Secretary of the Jiangjin District Committee and stepped down in August 2021, later becoming the director of the Population, Resources, and Environment Construction Committee of the Chongqing CPPCC. He was investigated in February 2024.
The reports on Cheng Zhiyi’s case indicate that he was accused of privately reading overseas publications with serious political issues; using public power to seek personal gain by collecting money illegally.
It is worth mentioning that Wang Yinfeng, another former deputy secretary-general of the Chongqing Municipal Government, had also been investigated, and during their tenure, both Wang Yinfeng and Cheng Zhiyi worked with Sun Zhengcai, the former member of the CCP’s Political Bureau who fell from power in Chongqing.
Just a week ago, Zhang Zulin, the former Vice Governor of Yunnan Province, was reported to be under investigation by the authorities. In addition to charges of forming cliques, engaging in power-for-sex and money-for-sex transactions, the report specifically mentioned his “privately reading publications with serious political issues” among the allegations.
A thorough review by Epoch Times reporters found that since Xi Jinping began his second term in October 2017, there has been a gradual increase in official reports mentioning fallen officials reading “overseas publications with serious political issues.”
As for what constitutes “overseas publications with serious political issues,” the official explanation includes contents that “denigrate the image of the Party and the country, or defame and slander Party and national leaders, or distort Party history and military history,” among others.
Furthermore, similar phrases like “purchasing and privately storing reactionary magazines,” “reading overseas publications with serious political issues,” and “purchasing and reading books that distort and attack the 18th Party Congress organization line and cadre policy” have appeared in reports from the CCP’s disciplinary inspection authorities.
In August 2018, Wu Dehua, a former standing committee member of the Yubei District Committee in Chongqing, was investigated, with the report citing his actions as “morally detached from the Party Central Committee, purchasing and privately storing reactionary magazines, spreading political rumors,” among other issues.
The China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News previously exposed the detailed case of Wu Dehua, a former deputy bureau-level official in Chongqing. Following the investigation into the case of Sun Zhengcai, the former Chongqing Municipal Party Secretary, Wu Dehua, fearing his involvement, specifically brought back two reactionary magazines from overseas through intermediaries in an attempt to seek information related to the Sun Zhengcai case. Subsequently, Wu Dehua purchased and read four more reactionary magazines from overseas and kept them.
Prior to these cases, several party members and leading cadres involved in reading “overseas publications with political problems” had been reported and dealt with.
In September and December 2018, Wang Xiaoguang, the former Vice Governor of Guizhou Province, and Li Qianghua, the former director of the Land and Housing Administration Bureau of Fengdu County, Chongqing, were reported to have read “overseas publications with serious political issues.”
In February 2019, Xie Jin, former district head of the Tianxin District Committee in Changsha City, Hunan Province, was reported to be under investigation by the authorities for instructing others to buy and spread publications that defame and slander the Party and national leaders from overseas.
In July of the same year, Wang Yinfeng, former chairman of the Chongqing Food Group Co., Ltd., was reported to be keen on “reading and privately storing publications and articles with serious political problems.” During his tenure as the deputy secretary-general of the Chongqing Municipal Government, both Sun Zhengcai and Zhang Dejiang served as the Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee at different times.
In October of the same year, Yu Zhiyun, the former chairman of the Political Consultative Conference in Erlianhaote City, Inner Mongolia, was reported to have “personally brought prohibited books into the country.”
In October 2020, Chen Zehui, a former standing committee member of the Changsha Municipal Party Committee and former executive deputy mayor of the city, was reported to have “personally bought, brought in publications with serious political problems from abroad, and read and privately stored them for a long time.”
In June 2022, Zhou Jia, the former Party Committee secretary and chairman of the board of directors of Yunnan State-Owned Financial Capital Investment Management Co., Ltd., was investigated for “privately reading overseas publications with serious political problems.”
In January of this year, Lin Gang, the former deputy mayor of Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, was reported to be “morally tainted,” with the report mentioning his “long-term reading of e-books with serious political problems.” Meanwhile, during the same period, Han Jiazheng, the former deputy mayor of Yangquan City, Shanxi Province, was reported to be “privately storing and reading publications with serious political problems.”
In August of this year, Li Zuoming, the former Secretary of the Minle County Party Committee in Gansu Province, was officially reported to have been involved in “privately holding prohibited audiovisual products brought into the country for reading.” During the same period, Yang Lei, the former deputy director of the Henan Provincial Civil Affairs Department, was reported to have “personally brought prohibited books into the country.”
On September 9th this month, Gan Chengjiu, the former deputy chairman and general manager of Jiangxi Financial Holdings Group Co., Ltd., was reported to have “personally brought reactionary books into the country and read them.”
In addition, when Wang Baoping, the former member of the Party Committee and former head of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee of the Natural Resources Department of Hubei Province, was reported, it was mentioned that he “purchased and read books that distort and attack the 18th Party Congress organization line and cadre policy, and serious political problems against the four fundamental principles.”
According to commentator Li Linyi, in an interview with Epoch Times, the increasing exposure of fallen officials reading overseas publications indicates that officials do not trust the CCP’s falsified propaganda and are actually seeking the truth from abroad.
Li Linyi believes that this phenomenon reflects two issues. “One is that officials may want to understand the internal struggles within the CCP because the infighting has been intense since Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and continues to this day. The other possibility is that many within the Party, after Xi’s rise to power, increasingly see no future for the Party, so they want to see the messages circulating overseas and act accordingly.
“In any case, this phenomenon illustrates a serious division within the CCP.”