A Man Who Called Chinese President Xi Jinping “A Clown” is Now Reported by Friends to be Unreachable
The man who called the Chinese President “a clown” hasn’t been heard from.
Mr. Ren Zhiqiang, an influential man in Beijing who worked as a former property executive in called their president “a clown” in an essay. The essay took aim at a speech Chinese President Xi Jingping made on February 23. State media reported the president’s speech was teleconferenced to 170,000 party officials nationwide.
This essay, which was circulated in posts online after Mr. Zhiqiang’s speech was delivered. The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, is not mentioned by name in this speech.
Upon his analysis of the presidents speech, Mr. Zhiqiang, “saw not an emperor standing there exhibiting his ‘new clothes’, but a clown stripped naked who insisted on continuing being emperor”, according to the version posted online by the China Digital Times.
According to Mr. Zhiqiang, the president’s speech uncovers a major “crisis of governance” within his party. With Chinese people’s lack of free speech freedoms, particularly freedoms of the press, there was a delay in reaction for the rest of the world. Mr. Zhiqiang suggested this effectively spread the Wuhan Flu to the rest of the world faster.
Since the outbreak in China at the very end of last year, there have been more than 80,000 confirmed cases with a mortality of over 3,000 people.
Mr. Zhiqiang, or nickname “Cannon Ren” has been on probation by the party since 2016 for his prior critiques he has posted on social media account which is standard punishment for publicly criticizing the Chinese government.
The Chinese Government went so far as to order “Twitter-like” platforms to delete the accounts of Mr. Zhiqiang, who at the time had ammased over 30 million followers for “spreading illegal information.”
Panick began to set in for friends of Mr. Zhiqiang after a long period of no communication.
“Many of our friends are looking for him,” businesswoman and friend to Zhiqiang, Wang Ying, says. Ying says Zhiqiang’s friends are “extremely anxious.”
Three friends have been trying to contact Mr. Zhiqiang since thursday, and have heard nothing back.
“Ren Zhiqiang is a public figure and his disappearance is widely known. The institutions responsible for this need to give a reasonable and legal explanation as soon as possible,” added Ying.
The Beijing Police nor the State Council Information Office have offered a comment, and all calls to Mr. Zhiqiang continue to go unanswered.
