(1) On May 22 of this year, Huang Yangtian Tian posted a selfie on Xiaohongshu of herself attending her coming-of-age ceremony, showing off the earrings she was wearing. Netizens noticed that these earrings were unusual, suspected to be high-end luxury brand earrings worth up to 2.3 million yuan. The young Huang Yang was able to wear such luxurious earrings, which aroused suspicion among the public, who then began to investigate Huang Yang’s family background. It was found that her father had held public office in the Zhongxiu government and was suspected of using his position to embezzle funds from the 2013 Ya’an earthquake donations and post-disaster reconstruction projects[1]. Many people who experienced the Ya’an earthquake expressed their opinions, stating that the huge donations at that time did not improve their living conditions, questioning where the large sums of donations went. The Zhongxiu government’s extreme disregard for human life at that time caused widespread dissatisfaction among the people, and many began to blame the reactionary government of Zhongxiu based on this incident.
During the “4.20” Ya’an earthquake, residents of Baoxing County in Ya’an held banners saying “Baoxing officials ignore the people” and “I’m cold and hungry” to protest against bureaucrats exploiting hunger to hype up prices and withholding rescue supplies from the people.
Some residents recall the tragic scenes of the “4.20” Ya’an earthquake, including an official who took off his watch.
In response to such public opinion, the Zhongxiu government established the “Ya’an City Joint Working Group” to investigate the matter. Meanwhile, Huang Yang’s parents explained the origin of the earrings and their official positions. However, the focus of their explanation was not on whether the donations to Ya’an were properly used or whether corrupt officials embezzled large amounts of disaster relief funds. Instead, they adopted a “treat the symptoms, not the root cause” approach, emphasizing the story behind the earrings and carefully preparing a story about them[2]. Besides the story of the earrings, Zhongxiu, during Huang Yang’s father’s tenure in public office, only admitted to minor violations such as using his position to illegally set up a company to earn 30,000 yuan, which was confiscated, and violating the one-child policy, but since Huang Yang’s father was no longer a public official and not a “party member,” no further action was taken.
Combining the results of netizens’ investigations and official inquiries, a very absurd image emerges: on one hand, an obsession with the decadent lifestyle of the bourgeoisie (Huang Yang’s mother and Huang Yang herself flaunting wealth, and Huang Yang’s father, as her husband and father, in such an environment, can he truly remain unaffected?); on the other hand, during his public service, he strictly adhered to his duties, only making 30,000 yuan through business activities using his position, without abusing power for corruption. It seems that as long as Huang Yang’s father is cleared and it is claimed that he did not directly embezzle using his authority, the family’s luxury is justified. Here, the “socialist” Zhongxiu state, while distancing itself from itself, nakedly admits that the bourgeois decadent lifestyle is justified by capitalist logic.
(2) This ridiculous image directly leads to a question: if Zhongxiu has no intention of investigating the truth of the incident, what are they covering up? To answer this, we must revisit past reports on Ya’an disaster relief:
“The troops will advance to Baoxing even if they don’t sleep.” The images of the people’s soldiers who once rescued the people during the “5.12” Wenchuan earthquake appear again where the people need them most. Eight minutes after the quake, five emergency teams from Chengdu Military Region Air Force rushed to the disaster area; three hours after the quake, the first rescue team arrived at the epicenter, and over 400 critically injured were sent to other locations for treatment. Around 18:40 on April 20, the 200-member armed police rescue team from Sichuan Provincial Corps arrived on foot at Lingguan Town, Baoxing County, becoming the first reinforcement team to enter Baoxing besides local rescue forces. Around 7:00 on the morning of the 21st, the special police team of Chengdu Public Security Bureau became the first police rescue team to reach Baoxing County town. (China Communist Party News Network "Life First — The Complete Record of the “Golden 72 Hours” Rescue of the 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Lushan on “4.20”)
What a touching scene! It seems that the Zhongxiu government is truly fulfilling its promise to “serve the people,” mobilizing the state machinery immediately to aid the hardest-hit workers affected by the earthquake. But is that really the case? Is the earthquake relief truly the work of the Zhongxiu government? After the earthquake, people across the country launched rescue efforts, raising huge sums to help Ya’an residents recover and rebuild. Yet, Zhongxiu took credit for the achievements, attributing the success to a few national leaders who spoke, and to the quickly mobilized “people’s soldiers.” Even during the suffering and hunger of disaster victims, external reports claimed they enjoyed lavish food thanks to Zhongxiu’s role. When supplies were desperately short, they unilaterally controlled the distribution, creating shortages to profit from the price difference, claiming “sufficient supplies” to the outside world, and obstructing civilian rescue teams from entering the disaster zone[3]. This reveals that what Zhongxiu desperately tries to hide is the dual nature of its regime — on the surface, Zhongxiu’s party is a “people-serving” mass party, and the state apparatus is a government representing everyone’s interests; internally, it is a bourgeois party and state serving a small clique of bureaucratic monopoly capitalists.
The reason Zhongxiu denies its connection with reactionary bourgeoisie and the state machinery is to conceal the true nature of this machinery, especially in social issues directly related to the working people like earthquake relief. “Dialectics, in the understanding of existing things, simultaneously contains affirmation and negation, that is, the understanding of the inevitable demise of existing things” (Marx, “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right” Preface). Once the masses thoroughly understand the true nature of Zhongxiu’s disaster relief (which is actually about making a fortune), Zhongxiu’s true demise is not far off. Zhongxiu is well aware of this, so it goes to great lengths to disguise itself. To incite the masses to pursue wealth and maintain capitalism, it promotes the bourgeois outside the party as models of individual struggle; during social upheaval, it shifts blame to corrupt capitalists or a few morally degenerate officials, claiming the state is within limits, fighting “tigers and flies together,” and “anti-corruption is a long road.” In the past, Zhongxiu justified its control over disaster relief funds with “the party’s centralized and unified leadership” and “uniform arrangements.” As early as 2016, reports revealed that over 50 billion yuan of the 60 billion yuan donations during the Wenchuan earthquake went missing[4]. Today, it is clear that some officials involved in disaster relief have profited, and based on their own experiences and past reports, the public recognizes this as a widespread phenomenon, directly blaming Zhongxiu’s reactionary rule.
People say they did not receive much subsidy from the Zhongxiu government during the “4.20” Ya’an earthquake.
Thus, to continue maintaining its reactionary rule, Zhongxiu tries hard to disconnect the state power from the wealthy who made their fortune through embezzling disaster relief funds. But this effort exposes the connection. Some netizens found that after this controversy erupted, a biotech company founded in 2020 under Huang Yang’s father rapidly changed its business scope, company name, and ownership. Usually, such changes require tedious approval from local industrial and commercial authorities, but Zhongxiu’s government approved these changes with ease, seemingly to protect the bureaucratic capital involved in this incident. A biotech company that once exploited the people under the guidance of national economic policies now quickly passed through a series of approvals. What could be a better example of the close relationship between the state and such wealthy figures? Doesn’t this precisely demonstrate that Zhongxiu’s regime is a bureaucratic and bourgeois monopoly dictatorship?
In socialist society, to plan and adjust the national economy, the economy and state power are highly integrated. But after the capitalists usurped state power and restored capitalism, this economy immediately became a highly centralized state monopoly capitalism, with bureaucratic monopoly capitalists controlling the economy through state power. In such production relations, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie distributes capital based on official rank and power, thus distributing social wealth (this is implicitly accepted by Zhongxiu — the wages of “civil servants” are ranked from low to high according to their positions, and laws merely describe these economic relations). Corruption and embezzlement are among the means of distribution, and the bourgeoisie’s desire for surplus value is limitless; they inevitably exploit their power to “cash in” (these senior bureaucrats — the reformers within the Communist Party, even under socialism, use their seized power for “cash-in,” with many reports describing their extremely decadent lifestyles). Their monopolistic profits come from obstructing others, forcing them to pay tribute, such as approval rights for mineral and oil resources. In the past, some officials, like a provincial energy bureau chief in Beijing, embezzled billions through oil and gas approval rights; or they used privileges to monopolize conditions, invest based on insider information, or directly influence policy to profit[5]. So, is it any surprise that they treat natural disasters, the greatest suffering of the masses, as opportunities for profit?
(3) Whether Huang Yang’s father actually committed corruption is not the key point in this incident. Zhongxiu’s attitude fully proves that even if Huang Yang’s father did not embezzle funds, others would. He could still use other means to extract surplus value through his position. Zhongxiu has not responded to any public doubts about the whereabouts of the donations; their only response was Huang Yang’s statement that he was not involved in the funds during disaster reconstruction, nor did they disclose the donation details. This evasive attitude exposes their implicit praise of corrupt officials, a reflection of the bourgeois bureaucratic monopoly class. However, in this incident, public opinion largely fell into a form of positivism, with some even providing evidence of how Huang Yang’s father violated China’s Civil Servant Law, but it did not escalate into a full critique of Zhongxiu’s authoritarian regime. Since Zhongxiu’s bureaucratic bourgeoisie controls the state and exploits surplus value, they can freely decide which methods of extraction are legal or illegal; the distinction between lawful and unlawful is meaningless here.
The role of Zhongxiu’s strict positivism is not just to create a humorous image of a “clean official” who secretly yearns for bourgeois luxury and only earns 30,000 yuan through his position to cover up the truth. It also serves to delay and obscure the truth. As with past accusations against Zhongxiu, public opinion initially dominated. But Zhongxiu first announced the formation of a joint investigation team, then through some internet trolls and influenced individuals, spread rumors like “wait for the official results” and “the full picture is unknown, no comment,” buying time for lies. Finally, they release “empirical” investigation results, which, if convincing, deceive the public; if not, they turn the critique into a debate over “evidence.” This causes division within the public, with some people being misled, hindering the formation of a unified public opinion against Zhongxiu’s dictatorship. Ultimately, due to the obstruction of positivism, right-wing elements, internet trolls, and censorship by Zhongxiu itself, the movement was suppressed, making spontaneous nationwide protests difficult. Many past incidents, like Luo Shuayu’s death by falling, also suffered from similar suppression — public accusations did not connect with Zhongxiu’s medical monopoly and corruption, nor did they develop into large-scale protests to seek justice or uncover the truth.
So, what exactly prevents public opinion from uniting and rising to a political level? The core issue is what is missing in current public discourse. Some blame the masses for not being progressive enough. But in these events, the people do not trust Zhongxiu and try every means to prove the close connection between the incident and Zhongxiu’s regime, engaging in spontaneous relay activities to sustain the discourse, exhausting all methods to bypass censorship and expand public opinion. The problem is not with the masses themselves. What is lacking are individuals with high theoretical consciousness, who can immediately judge the nature of events after they occur, expose the specific links to Zhongxiu’s authoritarian regime, connect it with past bloody crimes, and relate it to the harsh reality of the people’s lives; also, they must have a rigorous plan and organization to guide public opinion, respond swiftly to censorship, and continuously expose the crimes of Zhongxiu’s dictatorship. Yes! What we lack is a revolutionary organization with strict discipline, built on Marxist revolutionary principles and style.
Let’s imagine: if there were such a revolutionary organization, what would happen after the Huang Yang incident? At the outset of public denunciation of Zhongxiu, the organization would elevate the issue to a political level, recognizing that the core of Huang Yang’s incident is the people’s dissatisfaction with Zhongxiu’s dictatorship, and based on this, develop propaganda plans and activity goals. With centralized organization, they would contact survivors of the Ya’an earthquake, compile their direct accounts of how Zhongxiu bureaucrats persecuted them, and produce articles and videos exposing Zhongxiu’s rotten dictatorship, spreading these messages widely inside and outside the country, fiercely and centrally criticizing Zhongxiu’s regime. They could also conduct irreconcilable struggles against various erroneous ideas on major social platforms, identify and expose falsehoods used by Zhongxiu to muddy the waters, and distinguish genuine spontaneous expressions from manipulated falsehoods, uniting the masses as much as possible and preventing division. When public opinion is gathered, it will inevitably lead to real struggles against Zhongxiu’s government, and it’s easy to imagine that Zhongxiu’s bureaucrats’ savage profiteering from the national disaster would provoke nationwide outrage, leading to protests and strikes. In these activities, the revolutionary organization would propose slogans that best meet the people’s needs, call on the masses to fight against the dictatorship, and set minimum and maximum demands (for example, in this incident, the minimum demand should be the disclosure of Ya’an donations’ whereabouts and punishment of corrupt officials, while the maximum demand should be to stop censorship and give the people oversight over government expenditures). They could also establish worker patrols to prevent undercover police from infiltrating and sabotaging the movement; when Zhongxiu dispatches police and military to suppress, they could flexibly mobilize forces to strike before police gather or target weak points after they do. During this process, the most active and resolute participants should be absorbed into the party, expanding its strength and strengthening ties between the party and the masses. Whether the movement succeeds or fails, they should summarize experience, use political newspapers to promote the incident nationwide, continue exposing Zhongxiu’s true face, and guide the people onto the Marxist path. We should fantasize that if such a revolutionary organization existed, China’s workers’ and mass movements would undergo profound changes!
To establish such an organization, it is necessary to transform the worldview of intellectuals. Because in a society based on private ownership, there are significant differences in brain and body, and Marxism cannot spontaneously arise from the struggles of workers and masses but must be externally instilled. This is the significance of ideological struggle, which is not about personal cultivation, because the source of ideas is practice. Currently, we are building a secret leadership forum and journal, creating a framework that recruits revolution-minded individuals, and through activities like forums and publications, helps them reform their worldview during revolutionary activities. This is not as some petty people slander — merely complaining and venting anger at the appalling social phenomena of Zhongxiu — but a real preparatory activity for future revolution. Even if we currently lack the strength to directly lead mass movements, we can still expand Marxist influence through analysis of social events.
Only those who practice Marxism in life, overcoming their own wrong ideas, will have the motivation to overcome difficulties and carry out strenuous propaganda and organization work. Even writing a political expose requires the willingness to put in effort, following Chairman Mao’s instructions, to gather and process materials, and constantly evaluate which ideas are correct or wrong using Marxist principles. Moreover, some news and past events are interconnected[6], requiring not only attention during hot topics but also ongoing concern with social news and daily theoretical study, constantly reflecting on the political implications behind these news, and summarizing Zhongxiu’s methods of repression and the difficulties faced by the masses in resisting Zhongxiu. Only in this way can social events be elevated to philosophical and political levels after they erupt, enabling us to refute bourgeois distortions with reason and evidence, ultimately raising Zhongxiu’s dictatorship to a rational understanding and pointing out the future way out. This is something those shouting for quick counterattacks cannot do.
Zhongxiu’s society is becoming increasingly dark and corrupt, and this darkness and corruption will inevitably inspire the people to seek the truth of liberation. It is no surprise that more and more people, seeing the reality of Zhongxiu and recognizing that these phenomena are rooted in their own wrong ideas, will resolve to eliminate bourgeois elements from their worldview and firmly walk the path of social liberation.
Give us a revolutionary organization, and we can turn Russia upside down! (Lenin, “What Is To Be Done?”)
Related links:
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1907461041555747900
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1908142040023307762
Her father once served in the City Management and Law Enforcement Support Team (a public institution managed according to the Civil Servant Law) and in the Municipal Investment Promotion Service Center under the Ya’an Investment Promotion Bureau (a sub-division of the city-level public institution). The Yunfengshan 4A scenic area development project (7 billion yuan investment) after the Lushan earthquake in 2015 was indeed contacted by Yang Wei, with the same phone number used in his business activities. ↩︎
The earrings were first learned about when her mother, eleven years ago (2014), studied jewelry appraisal and met a friend who, liking her, gifted her a high imitation earring worth up to 300 yuan (gifted in 2016, and this friend later confirmed the fact). Huang Yang’s mother kept it for ten years, keeping it close until Huang Yang wore it to her school’s coming-of-age ceremony and posted on Xiaohongshu, sparking public opinion. The story of this imitation earring is quite legendary and perfect — so perfect that a witness from ten years ago can testify. It is so perfect that it has a small flaw: the fake was produced before the genuine product appeared. Some netizens found that Huang Yang’s earrings were released in 2018, so how could someone in 2016 copy a product from 2018? ↩︎
Remembering a past incident: in a certain large city, a high-speed rail station was built in a remote rural area far from the city. It was later found that the reason was that relatives of local provincial and municipal leaders lived in that village, allowing them to embezzle demolition and resettlement funds directly. This is a typical example of policy-led corruption for personal gain. ↩︎
Like this incident, the past Ya’an earthquake, and various corruption cases in Zhongxiu, as well as Luo Shuayu’s death, are all linked to Zhongxiu’s corrupt medical system. ↩︎