DHARAMSHALA, March 26: Chinese authorities have reportedly arrested 16 people including the editor in chief of a state-run website in connection with a mysterious, hard-hitting letter posted online that besides criticizing Chinese president Xi Jinping demanded his resignation.
Four of those arrested, two top editors and two technicians, work for the state-run website Wujie News or Watching, that posted the letter on March 4, the day an annual political conclave in Beijing opened. 10 others who work with “a related technology company” have also been taken away.
Wen Yunchao, a Chinese activist living in New York, told the New York Times that his parents and younger brother in southern China had gone missing since Tuesday. The police, according to Wen, threatened his family that they must tell him what he knew about the letter.
The Chinese authorities also detained a noted freelance writer named Jia Jia, 35, minutes before he was to board a flight to Hong Kong on March 15. Jia’s family members and friends say he had nothing to do with the letter. On Friday night, a post appeared on Jia’s WeChat account that implied he had been freed. “Thank you, everyone,” it said.
Jia is a friend of Ouyang Hongliang, editor in chief of the website that posted the letter. According to the New York Times, people with knowledge of the situation say Jia called Ouyang asking him to take off the letter from Wujie after he noticed it circulating online.
The letter published on Wujie News website, jointly owned by SEEC Media Group, Alibaba and the government of Xinjiang, called president Xi Jinping to resign for his inability to tackle the unprecedented problems and crisis in all political, economic, ideological, and cultural spheres.
The letter had also mentioned the safety of the president and his family could be in jeopardy if not complied.
“Comrade Xi Jinping, since your election as General Secretary at the Party’s 18th National Congress, your determination to fight corruption by ‘beating tigers’ has led to some improvement in the unhealthy tendency of internal Party corruption,” the letter said.
It also stated his gathering of all the power in his hand and taking decisions directly had led to problems in every section of the political and civil society.
They complained, “In handling the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan problems, lack of compliance with Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s wise concept of ‘one country, two systems’ has created a further dilemma, allowing the Democratic Progressive Party to win power in Taiwan and letting sentiment of Hong Kong independence to rise.”
The letter also mentions the flaws in leadership in political, economic and ideological spheres to rule the country. “We feel that you do not possess the capabilities to lead the Party and the nation into the future, and we believe that you are no longer suitable for the post of General Secretary.”
