National Post (National Edition)
Billionaire takes on communists
EXILED FORMER INSIDER HURLS ACCUSATIONS OF CORRUPTION AT CHINA’S RULING PARTY
Officially, no one in China can watch when the exiled tycoon Guo Wengui appears on banned websites to cheerfully lob incendiary allegations of corruption and skulduggery at the top ranks of the Communist Party. Unofficially, though, many people here in Beijing are riveted.
Since taking office, President Xi Jinping has cultivated an aura of austere probity and stern control. But now a garrulous billionaire living in a lavish apartment in New York, taunting the authorities beyond the easy grasp of Chinese security forces, has muddied that image — and created a political and publicity headache for Xi just months before a key leadership conference.
“Everyone is paying attention to Guo Wengui,” said He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University who has criticized Xi’s hard-line policies. “At meals and gatherings, everyone talks about it.”
More than a week ago, Guo escalated his campaign with a fresh batch of sensational — and unproven — charges against Wang Qishan, the party leader who has directed the anti-corruption drive that is the signature achievement of Xi’s first five years in power.
The government declined to comment on the allegations, perhaps worried that responding would only draw more attention to the claims.
But it is already near impossible to hold a private conversation with anyone in the Chinese capital who takes an interest in politics without talk turning to Guo and his unverified insider tales of elite corruption and power plays. People here have followed each unveiling of Guo’s often longwinded allegations by creeping around China’s barricade of Internet censorship.
“I don’t think the party has ever had a big businessman so boldly challenge it like this,” said Bao Tong, a former senior aide to Zhao Ziyang, a former party leader toppled from power during the 1989 protests. “How to respond is a dilemma.”
Guo, who also goes by the name Miles Kwok, has delighted in doling out his allegations on a lively Twitter feed as well as in hours-long talks and interviews broadcast, sometimes live, on YouTube and Mingjing, a Chinese news website based in the United States. All those sites are blocked in China.
During a broadcast in midJune, which went on for more than four hours, Guo seemed to enjoy teasing the interviewer.
“I don’t get how you’re just sitting there. Are you made from flesh and blood?” Guo said as he laid out pictures and diagrams that he said proved his claims. “Such huge news. Why don’t you take off your clothes and get excited?”
Guo’s stories have caused a stir in part because he socialized with security officials before he left China several years ago and has shown a familiarity with who’s who in elite party families. But many of his recent claims are unverified and disputed, and Guo has sometimes left out important details needed to test the accusations.
Yet even without confirmation, the allegations appear vexing for Xi.
Guo has described himself as a paladin defending Xi and even acting indirectly on his orders. But the billionaire has also asserted that Xi’s plans for choosing a new leadership team for his second five-year term at the coming congress are mired in conflict. There is little evidence of that, but Guo has thrown a firecracker into the careful choreography of the leadup, some experts said.
“No matter whether these allegations are bogus or exaggerated, they have become a distraction,” said Deng Yuwen, a current affairs commentator in Beijing.
“People who dislike Xi — the democratic opposition, cadres unhappy with his policies — are also finding something to focus on in Guo Wengui.”
Much of the speculation has focused on the future of Wang, one of the most powerful men in China and the primary target of Guo’s ire. Party insiders have said Xi may want Wang to stay in office, bucking the established retirement rules.
But Guo wants Wang out and has claimed again and again that his extended family has amassed staggering wealth through a web of companies. At a minimum, the pounding has bruised Wang’s reputation among members of the urban elite who have heard Guo’s claims. The state news media has long presented him as an incorruptible graft buster with the courage to catch “tigers” — corrupt officials in the party’s high echelons.
“What if the tiger hunter turns out to be a tiger?” asked Bao, the former senior aide. “How do you explain that?”
Asked about Guo’s allegations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he was a crime suspect whom China had put on an Interpol list, and it referred questions to the legal authorities. The State Council Information Office, the government agency that deals with such inquiries, did not respond to faxed questions.
Leaders in Beijing face a quandary: Openly disputing Guo would give him more prominence, while ignoring him could be read by some as a sign he is telling the truth, several experts said.
“You can’t give him attention, but you can’t ignore him, either,” Bao said. “You might have been able to entirely ignore Guo Wengui before, when society was shut off and had no access to information. But that doesn’t work now. You can’t act dumb.”
Guo, his business and his employees have been assailed by a wave of lawsuits in China and the United States claiming unpaid wages and debts, fraud and libel. The authorities have also channeled vitriol against Guo through Global Times, a tabloid the party often uses to attack its foes.
“He’s lied so much that the lies don’t match up, and Guo Wengui has totally given up on logic,” the newspaper said this month.
Still, the editorial nodded to Guo’s acumen as a showman.
“It must be said that he’s a spectacle, and at home and abroad there are those who loathe China’s political system and get a kick out of political rumours enjoying taking in this spectacle.”