Read on Twitter
Thread about Li Zhanshu (currently the #3 person on the CCP Politburo Standing Committee), and why we shouldn't be shocked at what's happening in Hong Kong right now.
Li is Xi Jinping's guy through and through. Xi brought him to Beijing from the provinces in 2012 to run the CCP's General Office. It's an obscure job outside China, but massively important, like an uber-chief of staff (viz this great 2015 article on Li by @ZiYangResearch )
(link to full article here, definitely worth a read: https://thediplomat.com/2015/01/the-eminence-grise-of-zhongnanhai/)
Li was running the General Office when it issued the infamous Document #9, a "Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere". This @chinafile
translation is worth reading in full. It's a (then) preview of where China has gone under Xi Jinping https://www.chinafile.com/document-9-chinafile-translation
translation is worth reading in full. It's a (then) preview of where China has gone under Xi Jinping https://www.chinafile.com/document-9-chinafile-translation
Some highlights from that document include this bit on civil society
This bit, on "Questioning Reform and Opening and the socialist nature of socialism with Chinese characteristics."
And this bit on how to handle the relationship between the Party and the media (still as relevant today in the context of the debate over TikTok as it was in 2013)
(Document #9 was never meant to be made public. It was leaked by a retired journalist, Gao Yu, who was promptly thrown into prison for her trouble. It's notable for how it states very baldly a lot of the things that leaders like Xi Jinping only hint at in their public statements)
Flash forward to earlier this year, when the PRC's National People's Congress rams through a draconian new National Security Law, that's now being used as the legal pretext to round up people like @JimmyLaiApple and @chowtingagnes. What does this have to do with Li Zhanshu?
Well, between 2013 and 2020 Li got promoted, to the #3 spot on the Politburo Standing Committee, second in rank only to Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. What is the #3 PBSC member's job? That would be Chairman of the National People's Congress.
I've seen people express shock that the National Security Law is being used so quickly and so forcefully. Obviously there are a lot of things affecting Beijing's calculation besides who runs the NPC.
But Zhongnanhai clearly associates Lai, Ting, and their ilk with the "hostile foreign forces" Li Zhanshu's General Office was warning about in 2013. During last year's massive protests, HK's top representative to the NPC even called protesters "pawns" https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/19/beijing-blames-foreigners-when-hong-kongers-march/
So anyone paying attention to who's calling the shots at important institutions in Beijing, and to those people's paper trail, shouldn't find themselves shocked with what's playing out now. Li and his boss Xi made clear in 2013 where they are on this stuff.
