Xi Critic Jailed for 18 Years in Graft Case

The former chairman of a state-owned real estate company who openly criticised the handling of the coronavirus pandemic by President Xi Jinping was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 years in prison on corruption charges, a court announced.

In March, after publishing an online essay that accused Xi of mishandling the outbreak that started in December in Wuhan, Ren Zhiqiang, who became known for talking about censorship and other sensitive topics, disappeared from public view. 

Xi, party leader since 2012, has suppressed criticism, tightened censorship and cracked down on unofficial organisations, reports AP.

Dozens of journalists, labour and human rights activists and others have been imprisoned.

Ren, 69, was convicted of corruption , bribery, misappropriation of public funds and abuse of authority, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court announced on its social media account.

It quoted Ren as saying that he was not going to appeal.

In July, the former chairman and deputy party secretary of the Huayuan Group was expelled from the ruling party.

In a commentary that circulated on social media, Ren criticised a February 23 video conference with 170,000 officials held early in the pandemic at which Xi announced orders for responding to the disease.

Ren didn’t mention Xi’s name but said, “standing there was not an emperor showing off his new clothes but a clown who had stripped off his clothes and insisted on being an emperor.”

Ren criticised propaganda that depicted Xi and other leaders as saving China from the disease without mentioning where it originated and potential errors, including the denial of information at the outset of the outbreak.

“People did not see any criticism at the conference. It didn’t investigate and disclose the truth,” Ren wrote, according to a copy published by China Digital Times, a website in California. “No one reviewed or took responsibility. But they are trying to cover up the truth with all kinds of great achievements.”

Ren had an early military career, and both his parents were former Communist Party members. Some named him a princely, a word for the descendants of the founders of the Communist regime, a category that includes Xi.

He appeared to have crossed a political line by criticising Xi’s personal leadership.