Tibet has its own culture and language. And officially, China claims to protect the customs of the different peoples on its territory. But in reality, the Communist Party has never been particularly squeamish about them. It combines the majority Han culture with good organization and economic prosperity. In recent years, the suppression of cultural diversity has only increased under the fig leaf of development.
The public focus lies particularly on the fate of the Uyghurs, but cultural homogenization also happens in Tibet. Beijing hopes that its desire for independence will fade with the loss of its cultural identity. The main cultural pillar is their own language. Instead of promoting local customs, the government sends children to boarding schools where they mainly speak Mandarin without contact with their parents. Tibet’s children are forgetting Tibetan, writes Marcel Grzanna in his analysis. In an interview with Table.Media, exiled President Penpa Tsering asks the German government for support.
Meanwhile, China’s economy is picking up momentum after the end of zero-Covid. What is a blessing for local German companies could bring new problems for energy policy. Because China is snatching up LNG from Germany, writes Joern Petring. One reason for the recent price drop on the German gas and oil market was China’s low demand. Now Beijing can use its long-term contracts with supplier countries like Qatar to receive preferential treatment.
Today, Johnny Erling delves into some of the mysteries of Chinese politics. Why did Xi Jinping vanish for a fortnight before taking office, and why did Lin Biao’s plane disappear over Outer Mongolia? Why were the Covid measures lifted so abruptly, and what happened to Hu Jintao? These and other mysteries still remain unanswered, but there are plenty of theories. China is still full of mysteries.
After the Covid slump, the Chinese economy is about to make a significant recovery this year. But strong growth of 5.2 percent, as forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is not good news for everyone. The economic boom will likely also drive up already high global energy prices.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil demand will reach a “historic high” this year. Global crude oil demand could rise by 1.9 million barrels to a record high of 101.7 million barrels per day, according to the IEA’s January Oil Market Report. The report warns of “tightening balances“. One of the main reasons: The renewed demand from China.
Last year, the Chinese bought about three percent less oil on the world markets due to their economic downturn. This was the first decline since 1990 and an important reason for the somewhat surprising relaxation of the price situation in Europe.
Now oil prices are expected to rise again. The US investment bank Goldman-Sachs forecasts that the price of a barrel of Brent Crude could climb to 105 US dollars by the fourth quarter. Most recently, the price was around 83 US dollars.
The Chinese economic upswing will not only leave its mark on the oil market. Especially important for Germany: Chinese demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will also pick up again. According to commodity analysts, China’s LNG demand is expected to rise to 70 to 72 million tonnes this year. That is an increase of up to 14 percent compared to 2022.
Germany, which is also dependent on gas deliveries by ship due to the Ukraine conflict, has a strong competitor on the world market in China. The Chinese began diversifying their oil and gas imports long before Germany. Beijing was also faster in Qatar. The producer Qatar Energy wants to deliver a total of 108 million tonnes of liquefied gas to the Chinese group Sinopec over a 27-year period.
The deal was announced last November 22 during the World Cup. Just over a week later, Germany also signed LNG contracts, which, however, will be of much lower volume and will not be delivered until 2026. Around two million tonnes will then be delivered annually over 15 years.
The British business paper Financial Times sees new problems brewing. “As Chinese LNG demand returns prices will rise and competition for gas will intensify, which could leave Europe with shortages next winter,” the paper wrote in an editorial in mid-January: “If the upswing in China drives up energy prices, inflationary pressures could also last longer and central banks may be forced to tighten monetary policy further”. In the end, the analysis continues, the West could face recession despite the upswing in China. Joern Petring
The United Nations Special Rapporteurs are not letting up. They have once again requested the Chinese government’s statement on a human rights issue. This time, the UN observers are focusing on the dramatic situation in Tibet.
The United Nations reportedly has information indicating “a large-scale program to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture,” through a “series of oppressive actions against Tibetan educational, religious and linguistic institutions,” according to the communication to the Chinese Foreign Ministry from November last year, which was now released to the public.
In short, the accusation is that Beijing wants to culturally uproot Tibetans. The four Special Rapporteurs responsible for minority issues, cultural rights, the right to education and freedom of religion or belief accuse the government of systematic policies and the introduction of laws that “marginalize Tibetan language and
culture of Tibetan culture”.
Their paper is to be intensively discussed in mid-February at the upcoming session of the UN Committee on the Convention on Cultural, Economic and Social Rights (CESCR) in Geneva. China is already mounting its defense: Around 20 supposed non-governmental organizations from China have submitted reports to the upcoming discussion in an attempt to nip all accusations in the bud.
These NGOs, which are actually state-run, will try to credibly justify why “in the framework of school mergers, Tibetan primary schools located in rural areas are shut down or subsumed into bigger Han Chinese medium schools”. School closures force many Tibetan children to attend faraway boarding schools – with drastic consequences, as Tibetan exile president Penpa Tsering told China.Table.
“This denies the children daily contact with their parents and they have no opportunity to speak their mother tongue,” says Tsering. This is because Tibetan is strictly forbidden in these schools. Mandarin is mandatory around the clock. “We are at a point where Tibetan children come home for holidays and are unable to communicate fluently with their parents. They have forgotten Tibetan, while their mother and father barely speak any Mandarin,” says Tsering.
Extracurricular activities to preserve the Tibetan language and culture are also radically suppressed by the authorities and their organizers are imprisoned. For example, a Sichuan court found a father of two guilty last year of alleged “separatist activities” and “creating social disorder”. He was sentenced to nearly four and a half years in prison for campaigning for the preservation of the Tibetan language and sharing his translations of English or Chinese texts in Tibetan on social media.
This dramatic development is the result of years of oppressive policies. As early as 2000, the government passed the law on a common national language. But along with the loss of their own language, critics argue, they also lose their own identity. Tsering urges the German government to call on Beijing to cease its anti-Tibetan school policy. “I ask the German government to exert influence on Beijing to put an end to this practice as soon as possible,” he says.
UN observers are not putting this issue on the agenda for the first time. This is the ninth time since 2010 that they have drawn attention to conditions in Tibet. The Chinese government has already replied eight times, as required by protocol. But obviously, nothing has changed. “We remain concerned in light of recent developments,” the Special Rapporteurs write.
Tibet’s youth, in particular, not only forget their language but also lose access to their own traditions and roots in the long-term. “The children are only exposed to Chinese language, history and propaganda in schools. They are completely mentally sinicized. The impact on Tibetan culture is catastrophic,” says Tsering. More than 800,000 students are currently affected. Local schools are only still open in a few places.
The results of the sinicization of an entire generation can hardly be predicted. Without a linguistic bond to their own culture, and an understanding of their roots and past, the young Tibetans hardly notice that they are being subjected to massive brainwashing. Their grasp of the tragedy behind it and their dedication to preserving their own culture is likely to be correspondingly low.
The US has acquired access to four more military bases in the Philippines. Washington and Manila made the announcement on Thursday during a visit by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to the Philippines. It expands the 2014 Defence Enhancement Agreement (EDCA), which already allows US forces to operate five Philippine military bases on which troops can be stationed on a rotating basis.
China called the expansion of the US military presence a threat to peace and stability. A Beijing Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it would be an act that “endangers regional peace and stability”.
The US recently revived relations with the Philippines after relations cooled during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term. The new efforts are part of a general strategy to strengthen its position in the Indo-Pacific region. One reason for this is the conflict over Taiwan. The stronger presence in the Philippines could also be interpreted as a deterrent against China. The Philippines is Washington’s oldest treaty partner in the region. jul
Few countries pose as many mysteries as the Chinese empire. This was already the case under its dynasties and continues under the People’s Republic. While CP leaders praise their rule as transparent, their constant secrecy proves the opposite. For example, in their handling of the Covid pandemic that broke out in Wuhan three years ago. In the beginning, Beijing stonewalled any serious investigations into its origins. In the end, its position on the pandemic changed completely overnight.
EU Chamber President Joerg Wuttke, who knows China’s decision-makers like no other foreigner and has encountered many unexplained mysteries in his more than three decades on the ground, was completely stunned: “For three years, the virus had practically guided Beijing’s hand. Then, suddenly, all signals turned from red to green. “What happened?”
When there is too much speculation, Beijing’s leadership sometimes reveals its secrets – but in the Chinese way. For example, the CCTV evening news on February 19 before Chinese New Year was significantly longer than usual. The reason was a special news item shortly before the Spring Festival. The CCTV announcer said: Party leader Xi Jinping and all CC comrades “wish the old comrades” all the best for the festival 中央领导同志慰问老同志. Then the announcer started listing 109 names for several minutes, without photos or any explanations about each person.
Insiders knew: He read out the illustrious retirees list of the highest party and state pensioners. The media are not allowed to report anything about them, not even how and where they spend their retirement and whether they are still in good health. All these are state secrets. This has been internally decided by the party.
Only once a year does it make an exception by giving its salute to the elderly on state television by listing their names. Viewers discover who is still alive and, more importantly, who still enjoys the good graces of today’s rulers. The first 17 people out of the 109 named used to sit on the Politburo committee. All others were decision-makers in the party and government.
After 96-year-old CP patriarch Jiang Zemin passed away in December, 80-year-old former party leader Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 moved up to first place. It was a hint that Hu leads the senior elite, although at the 20th Party Congress last November, which he attended as a guest of honor, he was escorted out of the hall at the behest of current CP leader Xi Jinping. All of China gossiped about it.
Xi never explained Hu’s removal. What really happened remains another mysterious incident under his rule. Xi’s unstoppable rise since 2012 already began with a mysterious act. He vanished suddenly from Sept. 1, 2012, to Sept. 15. Then he reappeared just as unexpectedly, allowing himself to be filmed walking with senior officials in a university and dominating the CCTV main news that evening.
This would hardly be worth mentioning if Xi had not been the designated party leader shortly before the start of the 18th party congress and had canceled all appointments for his time-out, including with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council or Denmark’s Prime Minister. They were only told informally that Xi had injured himself while swimming.
Years later, a well-connected party functionary gave me a plausible explanation under the condition that I would not quote him: Xi had given the Politburo committee an ultimatum and decided the power struggle in his favor. He would only allow himself to be elected party leader if he also received command of the armed forces. At the 18th Party Congress, party and army chief Hu Jintao handed him both offices. This, my contact said, not only showed Xi’s desire for power, but also the influence he already had within the party.
“We are a superpower of secrets,” the magazine Yidu 壹读 mockingly headlined in April 2014. “Every year, the US produces 100,000 classified documents. In our country, it is millions.” The insolent investigative magazine was discontinued at the end of 2015.
In the past, almost everything was classified anyway. For decades, it was forbidden to report death tolls after floods or earthquakes, and certainly not to talk about the millions of victims of the mega-disasters and famines under Mao’s many campaigns of terror and persecution. Three years passed after the devastating Tangshan earthquake of July 28, 1976, before it was reported in November 1979 that at least 240,000 people had perished. It was not until August 2005 that the censorship on reporting major accidents or disasters came to an end. Now it was allowed to report on disasters that had been kept quiet. For example, in August 1975, the provincial leadership of Henan covered up the rupture of the huge Banqiao dam after rainstorms. It remained a secret for 30 years. In 2005, it was revealed that 85,600 local residents had drowned as a result. And tens of thousands of people died from epidemics in the wake of the floods.
To this day, China’s justice system considers all information about how many death sentences its courts hand down and carry out to be top secret. International legal experts believe that China executes more convicts each year than all other countries in the world combined.
It is impossible to find public information about what is considered a “government secret” within the party. But this certainly includes all highly sensitive events, such as the Tiananmen massacre on June 4, 1989, on which all questions about what really happened and how many Beijingers died are forbidden. After 27 years, the question of what happened to the Tibetan boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is also taboo. On May 14, 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized him as the reincarnation of the deceased 10th Panchen Lama. On May 17, 1995, China’s authorities kidnapped him, declared the Dalai Lama reincarnation “invalid,” and installed another boy as the “real” one. Since then, there are no traces of the kidnapped boy.
Secrecy is an “essential part of the system and leads to guesswork in public discourse,” says Michael Kahn-Ackermann, sinologist, founder and regional director of the Goethe-Institut China. As an example, he cites the mysterious annual ritual when the top party leadership meets during its summer break in the hermetically guarded celebrity beach resort of Beidaihe to informally discuss important decisions. There are no reports about it, not even about when the leaders are coming or going, or whether they attend in the first place.
Occasionally, observers decipher Beijing’s hints of “Chinese characteristics” that something is afoot. The China expertise currently much discussed and called for in Western and German politics should be able to interpret such signals. In his standard work “Diplomacy,” Henry Kissinger, who arranged the meeting between Nixon and Mao in 1972, admits how his China experts failed. For example, they ignored Mao’s “sounding balloon” of using US journalist Edgar Snow to signal his intention to reconcile with the United States. Mao invited Snow to stand beside him on the parapet of Tiananmen Gate on Oct. 1, 1970, to watch the National Day celebrations. Kissinger recalled, “We didn’t even notice Mao’s gesture and thought Snow was a communist tool… We also didn’t pay attention to his interview with Mao in December 1970, in which he invited Nixon to visit China either as a tourist or as the US president.”
In 2001, when I was a journalist in Beijing, I tried to get to the bottom of one of China’s great mysteries. Together with Beijing correspondent Eva Corell, I embarked on a search in Outer Mongolia for the wreckage of Lin Biao’s 1971 plane. He was China’s second most powerful man and Mao’s crown prince. When Lin learned that Mao was suspicious of him and that he could face imprisonment, he had flown his Trident Type 1E to Canton, where he planned to declare a counter-government. When he was targeted by Beijing mid-flight, he turned around and tried to escape to Moscow via Outer Mongolia. On the way, he was forced to make an emergency landing at 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 13. The Trident crashed. All nine passengers burned to death.
So much for Beijing’s statements today.
After a day and a half in the jeep, we stumbled upon the hidden crash site near Berkh. It was located three kilometers from a quartz mining town and 48 kilometers from a military airport. The plane was headed there. That night, a quartz mine operated by Russian experts was said to be lit up. The pilot must have believed the mine to be the airfield he was looking for. When he realized his mistake, he tried to make an emergency landing. Local eyewitnesses reported that the plane was already on fire while in the air.
Mongolian military recovered the large parts and the engines. The dryness of the steppe preserved metal shards and aircraft scrap for 30 years. Our most important source turned out to be a former diplomat from the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was one of the first to arrive in the helicopter at dawn on the day of the crash. They found charred bodies. Some occupants must have survived the crash because there were traces that they had tried to crawl away from the burning wreck.
The official, who was stationed in Beijing in 1966, said he did not know who the passengers in military uniform were who had crossed from China, which was an enemy of Mongolia at the time. But he then later found a charred ID card belonging to Lin Biao’s son and a pistol among the recovered papers. He said that shots had been fired on board, because they discovered bullet holees in parts of the cabin wall.
To this day, it is unclear what happened on the plane, especially since the black box is missing. Why did Lin Biao flee, why did he stage a coup? How was Mao involved in his death? Beijing’s archives were only opened during a brief period of reform, then closed again. The party keeps China on course as a superpower of secrets.
Sunday is the Lantern Festival, which is always held on the 15th day and therefore the last day of the celebrations. Colorful lanterns and many other light decorations shine with the first full moon of the new year.
Tibet has its own culture and language. And officially, China claims to protect the customs of the different peoples on its territory. But in reality, the Communist Party has never been particularly squeamish about them. It combines the majority Han culture with good organization and economic prosperity. In recent years, the suppression of cultural diversity has only increased under the fig leaf of development.
The public focus lies particularly on the fate of the Uyghurs, but cultural homogenization also happens in Tibet. Beijing hopes that its desire for independence will fade with the loss of its cultural identity. The main cultural pillar is their own language. Instead of promoting local customs, the government sends children to boarding schools where they mainly speak Mandarin without contact with their parents. Tibet’s children are forgetting Tibetan, writes Marcel Grzanna in his analysis. In an interview with Table.Media, exiled President Penpa Tsering asks the German government for support.
Meanwhile, China’s economy is picking up momentum after the end of zero-Covid. What is a blessing for local German companies could bring new problems for energy policy. Because China is snatching up LNG from Germany, writes Joern Petring. One reason for the recent price drop on the German gas and oil market was China’s low demand. Now Beijing can use its long-term contracts with supplier countries like Qatar to receive preferential treatment.
Today, Johnny Erling delves into some of the mysteries of Chinese politics. Why did Xi Jinping vanish for a fortnight before taking office, and why did Lin Biao’s plane disappear over Outer Mongolia? Why were the Covid measures lifted so abruptly, and what happened to Hu Jintao? These and other mysteries still remain unanswered, but there are plenty of theories. China is still full of mysteries.
After the Covid slump, the Chinese economy is about to make a significant recovery this year. But strong growth of 5.2 percent, as forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is not good news for everyone. The economic boom will likely also drive up already high global energy prices.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil demand will reach a “historic high” this year. Global crude oil demand could rise by 1.9 million barrels to a record high of 101.7 million barrels per day, according to the IEA’s January Oil Market Report. The report warns of “tightening balances“. One of the main reasons: The renewed demand from China.
Last year, the Chinese bought about three percent less oil on the world markets due to their economic downturn. This was the first decline since 1990 and an important reason for the somewhat surprising relaxation of the price situation in Europe.
Now oil prices are expected to rise again. The US investment bank Goldman-Sachs forecasts that the price of a barrel of Brent Crude could climb to 105 US dollars by the fourth quarter. Most recently, the price was around 83 US dollars.
The Chinese economic upswing will not only leave its mark on the oil market. Especially important for Germany: Chinese demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will also pick up again. According to commodity analysts, China’s LNG demand is expected to rise to 70 to 72 million tonnes this year. That is an increase of up to 14 percent compared to 2022.
Germany, which is also dependent on gas deliveries by ship due to the Ukraine conflict, has a strong competitor on the world market in China. The Chinese began diversifying their oil and gas imports long before Germany. Beijing was also faster in Qatar. The producer Qatar Energy wants to deliver a total of 108 million tonnes of liquefied gas to the Chinese group Sinopec over a 27-year period.
The deal was announced last November 22 during the World Cup. Just over a week later, Germany also signed LNG contracts, which, however, will be of much lower volume and will not be delivered until 2026. Around two million tonnes will then be delivered annually over 15 years.
The British business paper Financial Times sees new problems brewing. “As Chinese LNG demand returns prices will rise and competition for gas will intensify, which could leave Europe with shortages next winter,” the paper wrote in an editorial in mid-January: “If the upswing in China drives up energy prices, inflationary pressures could also last longer and central banks may be forced to tighten monetary policy further”. In the end, the analysis continues, the West could face recession despite the upswing in China. Joern Petring
The United Nations Special Rapporteurs are not letting up. They have once again requested the Chinese government’s statement on a human rights issue. This time, the UN observers are focusing on the dramatic situation in Tibet.
The United Nations reportedly has information indicating “a large-scale program to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture,” through a “series of oppressive actions against Tibetan educational, religious and linguistic institutions,” according to the communication to the Chinese Foreign Ministry from November last year, which was now released to the public.
In short, the accusation is that Beijing wants to culturally uproot Tibetans. The four Special Rapporteurs responsible for minority issues, cultural rights, the right to education and freedom of religion or belief accuse the government of systematic policies and the introduction of laws that “marginalize Tibetan language and
culture of Tibetan culture”.
Their paper is to be intensively discussed in mid-February at the upcoming session of the UN Committee on the Convention on Cultural, Economic and Social Rights (CESCR) in Geneva. China is already mounting its defense: Around 20 supposed non-governmental organizations from China have submitted reports to the upcoming discussion in an attempt to nip all accusations in the bud.
These NGOs, which are actually state-run, will try to credibly justify why “in the framework of school mergers, Tibetan primary schools located in rural areas are shut down or subsumed into bigger Han Chinese medium schools”. School closures force many Tibetan children to attend faraway boarding schools – with drastic consequences, as Tibetan exile president Penpa Tsering told China.Table.
“This denies the children daily contact with their parents and they have no opportunity to speak their mother tongue,” says Tsering. This is because Tibetan is strictly forbidden in these schools. Mandarin is mandatory around the clock. “We are at a point where Tibetan children come home for holidays and are unable to communicate fluently with their parents. They have forgotten Tibetan, while their mother and father barely speak any Mandarin,” says Tsering.
Extracurricular activities to preserve the Tibetan language and culture are also radically suppressed by the authorities and their organizers are imprisoned. For example, a Sichuan court found a father of two guilty last year of alleged “separatist activities” and “creating social disorder”. He was sentenced to nearly four and a half years in prison for campaigning for the preservation of the Tibetan language and sharing his translations of English or Chinese texts in Tibetan on social media.
This dramatic development is the result of years of oppressive policies. As early as 2000, the government passed the law on a common national language. But along with the loss of their own language, critics argue, they also lose their own identity. Tsering urges the German government to call on Beijing to cease its anti-Tibetan school policy. “I ask the German government to exert influence on Beijing to put an end to this practice as soon as possible,” he says.
UN observers are not putting this issue on the agenda for the first time. This is the ninth time since 2010 that they have drawn attention to conditions in Tibet. The Chinese government has already replied eight times, as required by protocol. But obviously, nothing has changed. “We remain concerned in light of recent developments,” the Special Rapporteurs write.
Tibet’s youth, in particular, not only forget their language but also lose access to their own traditions and roots in the long-term. “The children are only exposed to Chinese language, history and propaganda in schools. They are completely mentally sinicized. The impact on Tibetan culture is catastrophic,” says Tsering. More than 800,000 students are currently affected. Local schools are only still open in a few places.
The results of the sinicization of an entire generation can hardly be predicted. Without a linguistic bond to their own culture, and an understanding of their roots and past, the young Tibetans hardly notice that they are being subjected to massive brainwashing. Their grasp of the tragedy behind it and their dedication to preserving their own culture is likely to be correspondingly low.
The US has acquired access to four more military bases in the Philippines. Washington and Manila made the announcement on Thursday during a visit by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to the Philippines. It expands the 2014 Defence Enhancement Agreement (EDCA), which already allows US forces to operate five Philippine military bases on which troops can be stationed on a rotating basis.
China called the expansion of the US military presence a threat to peace and stability. A Beijing Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it would be an act that “endangers regional peace and stability”.
The US recently revived relations with the Philippines after relations cooled during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term. The new efforts are part of a general strategy to strengthen its position in the Indo-Pacific region. One reason for this is the conflict over Taiwan. The stronger presence in the Philippines could also be interpreted as a deterrent against China. The Philippines is Washington’s oldest treaty partner in the region. jul
Few countries pose as many mysteries as the Chinese empire. This was already the case under its dynasties and continues under the People’s Republic. While CP leaders praise their rule as transparent, their constant secrecy proves the opposite. For example, in their handling of the Covid pandemic that broke out in Wuhan three years ago. In the beginning, Beijing stonewalled any serious investigations into its origins. In the end, its position on the pandemic changed completely overnight.
EU Chamber President Joerg Wuttke, who knows China’s decision-makers like no other foreigner and has encountered many unexplained mysteries in his more than three decades on the ground, was completely stunned: “For three years, the virus had practically guided Beijing’s hand. Then, suddenly, all signals turned from red to green. “What happened?”
When there is too much speculation, Beijing’s leadership sometimes reveals its secrets – but in the Chinese way. For example, the CCTV evening news on February 19 before Chinese New Year was significantly longer than usual. The reason was a special news item shortly before the Spring Festival. The CCTV announcer said: Party leader Xi Jinping and all CC comrades “wish the old comrades” all the best for the festival 中央领导同志慰问老同志. Then the announcer started listing 109 names for several minutes, without photos or any explanations about each person.
Insiders knew: He read out the illustrious retirees list of the highest party and state pensioners. The media are not allowed to report anything about them, not even how and where they spend their retirement and whether they are still in good health. All these are state secrets. This has been internally decided by the party.
Only once a year does it make an exception by giving its salute to the elderly on state television by listing their names. Viewers discover who is still alive and, more importantly, who still enjoys the good graces of today’s rulers. The first 17 people out of the 109 named used to sit on the Politburo committee. All others were decision-makers in the party and government.
After 96-year-old CP patriarch Jiang Zemin passed away in December, 80-year-old former party leader Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 moved up to first place. It was a hint that Hu leads the senior elite, although at the 20th Party Congress last November, which he attended as a guest of honor, he was escorted out of the hall at the behest of current CP leader Xi Jinping. All of China gossiped about it.
Xi never explained Hu’s removal. What really happened remains another mysterious incident under his rule. Xi’s unstoppable rise since 2012 already began with a mysterious act. He vanished suddenly from Sept. 1, 2012, to Sept. 15. Then he reappeared just as unexpectedly, allowing himself to be filmed walking with senior officials in a university and dominating the CCTV main news that evening.
This would hardly be worth mentioning if Xi had not been the designated party leader shortly before the start of the 18th party congress and had canceled all appointments for his time-out, including with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council or Denmark’s Prime Minister. They were only told informally that Xi had injured himself while swimming.
Years later, a well-connected party functionary gave me a plausible explanation under the condition that I would not quote him: Xi had given the Politburo committee an ultimatum and decided the power struggle in his favor. He would only allow himself to be elected party leader if he also received command of the armed forces. At the 18th Party Congress, party and army chief Hu Jintao handed him both offices. This, my contact said, not only showed Xi’s desire for power, but also the influence he already had within the party.
“We are a superpower of secrets,” the magazine Yidu 壹读 mockingly headlined in April 2014. “Every year, the US produces 100,000 classified documents. In our country, it is millions.” The insolent investigative magazine was discontinued at the end of 2015.
In the past, almost everything was classified anyway. For decades, it was forbidden to report death tolls after floods or earthquakes, and certainly not to talk about the millions of victims of the mega-disasters and famines under Mao’s many campaigns of terror and persecution. Three years passed after the devastating Tangshan earthquake of July 28, 1976, before it was reported in November 1979 that at least 240,000 people had perished. It was not until August 2005 that the censorship on reporting major accidents or disasters came to an end. Now it was allowed to report on disasters that had been kept quiet. For example, in August 1975, the provincial leadership of Henan covered up the rupture of the huge Banqiao dam after rainstorms. It remained a secret for 30 years. In 2005, it was revealed that 85,600 local residents had drowned as a result. And tens of thousands of people died from epidemics in the wake of the floods.
To this day, China’s justice system considers all information about how many death sentences its courts hand down and carry out to be top secret. International legal experts believe that China executes more convicts each year than all other countries in the world combined.
It is impossible to find public information about what is considered a “government secret” within the party. But this certainly includes all highly sensitive events, such as the Tiananmen massacre on June 4, 1989, on which all questions about what really happened and how many Beijingers died are forbidden. After 27 years, the question of what happened to the Tibetan boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is also taboo. On May 14, 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized him as the reincarnation of the deceased 10th Panchen Lama. On May 17, 1995, China’s authorities kidnapped him, declared the Dalai Lama reincarnation “invalid,” and installed another boy as the “real” one. Since then, there are no traces of the kidnapped boy.
Secrecy is an “essential part of the system and leads to guesswork in public discourse,” says Michael Kahn-Ackermann, sinologist, founder and regional director of the Goethe-Institut China. As an example, he cites the mysterious annual ritual when the top party leadership meets during its summer break in the hermetically guarded celebrity beach resort of Beidaihe to informally discuss important decisions. There are no reports about it, not even about when the leaders are coming or going, or whether they attend in the first place.
Occasionally, observers decipher Beijing’s hints of “Chinese characteristics” that something is afoot. The China expertise currently much discussed and called for in Western and German politics should be able to interpret such signals. In his standard work “Diplomacy,” Henry Kissinger, who arranged the meeting between Nixon and Mao in 1972, admits how his China experts failed. For example, they ignored Mao’s “sounding balloon” of using US journalist Edgar Snow to signal his intention to reconcile with the United States. Mao invited Snow to stand beside him on the parapet of Tiananmen Gate on Oct. 1, 1970, to watch the National Day celebrations. Kissinger recalled, “We didn’t even notice Mao’s gesture and thought Snow was a communist tool… We also didn’t pay attention to his interview with Mao in December 1970, in which he invited Nixon to visit China either as a tourist or as the US president.”
In 2001, when I was a journalist in Beijing, I tried to get to the bottom of one of China’s great mysteries. Together with Beijing correspondent Eva Corell, I embarked on a search in Outer Mongolia for the wreckage of Lin Biao’s 1971 plane. He was China’s second most powerful man and Mao’s crown prince. When Lin learned that Mao was suspicious of him and that he could face imprisonment, he had flown his Trident Type 1E to Canton, where he planned to declare a counter-government. When he was targeted by Beijing mid-flight, he turned around and tried to escape to Moscow via Outer Mongolia. On the way, he was forced to make an emergency landing at 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 13. The Trident crashed. All nine passengers burned to death.
So much for Beijing’s statements today.
After a day and a half in the jeep, we stumbled upon the hidden crash site near Berkh. It was located three kilometers from a quartz mining town and 48 kilometers from a military airport. The plane was headed there. That night, a quartz mine operated by Russian experts was said to be lit up. The pilot must have believed the mine to be the airfield he was looking for. When he realized his mistake, he tried to make an emergency landing. Local eyewitnesses reported that the plane was already on fire while in the air.
Mongolian military recovered the large parts and the engines. The dryness of the steppe preserved metal shards and aircraft scrap for 30 years. Our most important source turned out to be a former diplomat from the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was one of the first to arrive in the helicopter at dawn on the day of the crash. They found charred bodies. Some occupants must have survived the crash because there were traces that they had tried to crawl away from the burning wreck.
The official, who was stationed in Beijing in 1966, said he did not know who the passengers in military uniform were who had crossed from China, which was an enemy of Mongolia at the time. But he then later found a charred ID card belonging to Lin Biao’s son and a pistol among the recovered papers. He said that shots had been fired on board, because they discovered bullet holees in parts of the cabin wall.
To this day, it is unclear what happened on the plane, especially since the black box is missing. Why did Lin Biao flee, why did he stage a coup? How was Mao involved in his death? Beijing’s archives were only opened during a brief period of reform, then closed again. The party keeps China on course as a superpower of secrets.
Sunday is the Lantern Festival, which is always held on the 15th day and therefore the last day of the celebrations. Colorful lanterns and many other light decorations shine with the first full moon of the new year.
