Chinese Tycoon Kicked Out of Communist Party, Faces Prosecution After Criticizing Xi
China’s Communist Party expelled an influential businessman who has been an outspoken critic of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as prosecutors prepare corruption charges in a case likely to chill dissent within the Beijing elite.
The expulsion of Ren Zhiqiang, announced Thursday, followed a monthslong party and government investigation against the retired real-estate mogul, whom friends say had disappeared in March soon after he wrote an essay excoriating Mr. Xi for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement on Mr. Ren’s expulsion, party and government investigators cited wide-ranging allegations that included political misdeeds like disloyalty to the party, as well as illegal behavior such as receiving bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power. It said prosecutors would review Mr. Ren’s case and bring charges, without specifying a timeline.
The announcement comes shortly after another prominent critic of Mr. Xi was briefly detained by police and then fired from his job at a top Beijing university.
Mr. Ren, a 69-year-old former chairman of a state-owned property company, couldn’t be reached for comment.
As a well-connected party insider who was popular among ordinary Chinese for what many saw as his straight-talking style, Mr. Ren has been regarded as a potent symbol of dissent against Mr. Xi’s authority, China politics watchers said. The extent and seriousness of the allegations that authorities leveled against Mr. Ren suggest he could face severe penalties.
In their statement, investigators alleged Mr. Ren had deviated from party leadership on “major matters of principle,” published essays that oppose the party’s cardinal tenets, besmirched the party and the state, distorted party history and showed disloyalty and dishonesty to the party.
The statement also accused Mr. Ren of violating party rules against extravagant behavior, including his alleged use of golf-activity cards acquired with public money. Investigators also said his alleged improper performance of official duties caused grave losses in state assets, and they accused him of collaborating with his children to “wantonly accumulate wealth,” according to the statement.
Friends say they believe the probe against Mr. Ren was politically motivated and prompted by his essay, in which he appeared to call Mr. Xi a “clown” and attacked the leader’s domineering style and intolerance for criticism.
The essay, which began circulating on Chinese social media in early March, focused on a Communist Party meeting in February where Mr. Xi addressed some 170,000 officials across the country via teleconference to issue instructions on pandemic controls. Mr. Xi wasn’t named explicitly, but many readers inferred he was the target of Mr. Ren’s derision.
“There stood not an emperor displaying his ‘new clothes,’ but a clown who stripped off his clothes and still insisted on being an emperor,” the essay read. “Despite holding up pieces and pieces of loincloth in trying to hide the reality of your nakedness, you don’t hide in the slightest your resolute ambition to become an emperor.”
Friends say Mr. Ren went missing soon after the essay appeared. In early April, party and government inspectors from a central Beijing district said they were investigating Mr. Ren.
A former soldier whose father was a vice commerce minister, Mr. Ren has been called “Cannon Ren” for his outspoken views on topics ranging from real estate to politics, often shared through social-media posts. He has been widely seen as an influential member of the party elite, whose friends included senior officials such as Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan.
The party’s expulsion of Mr. Ren came days after Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University dismissed a prominent law professor known for his vocal criticism of Mr. Xi.
Xu Zhangrun, a 57-year-old legal scholar who joined Tsinghua in 2000, received a notice of dismissal from the university soon after he was released from a nearly weeklong police detention for allegedly soliciting prostitution, according to his friends.
The dismissal notice, dated July 15, cited the solicitation offense and a series of essays Mr. Xu had written since July 2018 that were deemed to have violated rules on the behavior of teachers at tertiary institutions, according to a photo of the notice reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Xu’s friends have described the solicitation charge as scurrilous. Mr. Xu couldn’t be reached for comment.
Photo: Retired real estate mogul Ren Zhiqiang, shown in 2010, has been regarded as a potent symbol of dissent against Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s authority. - PHOTO: CHINATOPIX/ASSOCIATED PRESS
