Public Opinion: An Open Letter with Fifteen Questions Challenging the Current Top Leader

After China announced it would hold the National People’s Congress and the National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in late May, an open letter written in Chinese, addressed to the representatives of the two conferences was widely spread on the Internet. The letter posed 15 questions, mainly against Xi Jinping, though it did not call out his name.

It was said that Deng Pufang, son of China’s former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, wrote this letter. (However, in Chinascope’s view, this is unlikely since, if Deng Pufang indeed wanted to challenge Xi, he could do it in many other ways that demonstrate more political savvy than an open letter that everyone sees.) However, the letter is worth reading as it shows public sentiment against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader. The following are the 15 questions:

As representatives of the two conferences, is it more important to protect the interests of our country and people, or to protect the power of a certain authoritarian?
The Constitution clearly stipulates that the representatives of the two conferences have the right to supervise and correct the wrong decisions of CCP Central. However, a few years ago, CCP Central created a “crime of baseless comments” (for someone who criticizes the top leader or CCP Central) and this year it created a “crime of showing no respect.” What is the value of the representatives of the two conferences then?
The authorities want to “settle questions by THE ONE” (this is a phrase that Xi’s supporters use to state following Xi’s direction). Is “THE ONE” an Emperor who inherited his power from his family, or a publicly elected President, or the CCP General Secretary based on all party member’s votes? Since it is none of these, why he is “THE ONE”?
If party member criticizes the mistakes made by the central leaders, they are “making baseless comments.” If the public does that, they are “stirring up the subversion of the government.” To whom does our country belong?
The Wuhan pneumonia has spread to the whole world. Did the central government delay the prevention and control of this virus? Did it hide information from the public? Should we provide an explanation to the world? Who should bear the responsibility for allowing the pandemic to get out of control?
The relations between China and the United States continue to deteriorate. What responsibilities should the top leader bear?
The turmoil in Hong Kong has lasted for almost a year. Who has destroyed Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” structure? What responsibilities should the top leader assume?
The “Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)” irrationally invests money based on the central leaders’ own preferences, without the approval from the National People’s Congress and without consideration for the national economy and people’s livelihood. What kind of behavior is this? Now this program is about to be aborted. Who should bear the responsibility?
Without the approval of the National People’s Congress and without expert’s study, the central leaders decided to invest trillions of yuan to build a Xiong’an New District (next to Beijing) based on a few people’s suggestions. Now that the project has been aborted, who should bear the responsibility?
Why did Taiwan drift away from the mainland? What responsibility should the central leaders assume?
A large number of foreign companies have withdrawn from China, a large number of Chinese private enterprises have closed down, and a large number of workers have lost their jobs. Does this have anything to do with the central leaders’ wrong decision? If so, who should bear the responsibility?
What kind of behavior is it for the current top leader to use his power to amend the Constitution by removing the limit that a person can only serve the top leader position for at most two terms? If anyone with power can create law on his own, what is the use of the national Constitution?
CCP Central has decided to re-adopt the planned economy model that the world has long abandoned. Is this decision coming from the consideration of strengthening someone’s personal power or of the interests of the country and the people?
In recent years, China’s international image has plummeted and national credit has been totally lost. Who should bear this responsibility?
In order to prevent the retired senior comrades from proposing a collective motion to call for an expanded CCP Politburo meeting, the CCP Central sent military police to provide “special protection” to retired senior comrades and current high-ranking officials of the party, government, and military. The “special protection” is actually to restrict their communications, freedom of movement, and guest visits. What kind of behavior is this? Who gave him this power? (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: The Widespread of a WeChat Posting Calling for Politburo Meeting to Remove Xi Jinping and Leadership: Fu Zhenghua Removed from the Deputy Party Secretary Position of the Ministry of Justice)

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