Few second chances

IN RED CHINA, the land of the un-free, folks who run afoul of the all-powerful Communist Party do not get second chances. This was further highlighted by a recent sentencing for a billionaire who upset the fragile ego of those in charge, a most serious offense:

“A Chinese billionaire who criticized President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been jailed for 18 years on corruption charges, a court said Tuesday. Ren Zhiqiang, a retired real-estate tycoon with close ties to senior Chinese officials, disappeared in March after he allegedly penned a scathing essay that month criticizing Xi’s response to the coronavirus epidemic. He was later charged with corruption-related offenses,” CNN reported.

The prisoner must have thought he was safe in his money, or he wouldn’t have been foolish enough to critique the all-knowing oppressors for a second time, for the network reported this wasn’t his first brush with trouble:

“In 2016, he was disciplined after questioning on social media Xi’s demands that Chinese state media must stay absolutely loyal to the party. He was put on a year’s probation for his party membership and his wildly popular account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, was shuttered.”

China’s court system has a conviction rate of around 99 percent. Authoritarian regimes are efficient.

Red China has lots of people, lots of manufacturing, lots of surveillance, but few second chances.

And no thirds.