SinoInsight 1
Huang’s frankness in approaching the aforementioned topics, the snippets of personal background information mentioned (at least one person appears to be from a military family), and the familiarity of the others with him about politics, science, and technology suggest that those at the gathering either belonged to or moved in the Party’s elite circles.
Highlights of the audio recording include:
1. Huang Wansheng said that people in the highest echelons of the CCP paid 170,000 yuan (about $26,815) for a one-way ticket to rush him back to China from the United States in July 2020, a period when the pandemic and lockdowns were in full swing. He later described the pains and delays he went through to fly his wife to China some time after he arrived.
Huang notes at some point in the recording that he reports to PRC vice premier Liu He and is part of a PRC Ministry of Science and Technology’s epidemic prevention project that is “personally led by Xi Jinping.”
2. Huang Wansheng is critical of the state of the CCP regime’s epidemic and control measures. “The Chinese people are afraid of death, Chinese officials are afraid of losing their jobs, and Chinese experts are afraid of taking responsibility,” he said. “Those three things have brought China’s epidemic situation to this current state.”
Huang blames “massive interest groups” in the pharmaceutical business and government for taking advantage of the pandemic to rake in billions. He gave the example of how certain companies doing nucleic acid testing made 670 billion yuan because local governments have been ordering compulsory mass testing after the emergence of “one or two” positive cases. Huang added that the 670 billion yuan represents only 1 percent of the 67 trillion yuan generated in revenue by China’s anti-epidemic economy, citing research by Peking University’s health economics professor Li Ling. He also noted that interest groups are behind the mass vaccinations and booster shots. A person at the gathering remarked, “this is a huge problem; the health issue has become a political issue.”
Huang recommended that the authorities seize the opportunity to overhaul China’s primary care system. He also remarked that the CCP regime’s medical system is too heavily reliant on foreign countries, with core medical equipment “basically imported from abroad” and 88 percent of reagents used in testing being imported.
In commenting on COVID-19, Huang observed that Omicron affects only the upper respiratory tract (i.e. mild symptoms) and is therefore “the best chance of [the Chinese people obtaining] natural immunity, a rare thing, an opportunity given to mankind by God.” He reckoned that Omicron is the reason why the U.S. and Europe are removing COVID restrictions, and estimated that those countries could reach herd immunity in March.
3. Huang Wansheng gave an educated breakdown of cellular technology, the internet, and genetic engineering. He noted the scientific and technological advances in the U.S. and elsewhere, before observing that China greatly lags behind those countries. “All core technologies are in the United States,” Huang said, adding that the Chinese made “no contributions” to developing the internet’s basic algorithm. “We have been using other people’s algorithms to write programs,” he said.
Huang also remarked that Huawei’s 5G technology is not up to par. “That is why [the U.S.] recommended to the EU not to use Huawei stuff,” he said. “Most importantly, [Huawei’s] technical requirements do not meet the technical specifications required for long-range 5G control. However, we completely turned [Huawei’s inadequacies] into a political issue, a bottleneck issue.”
A person at the gathering said Xi Jinping has a global domination complex (“world boss complex”) and those around him have pounced on this complex to sell him the idea that “China’s 5G is number one.” Huang replied, “cutting-edge technologies, disruptive technologies, that’s all fluff” (the terms “cutting-edge technologies” and “disruptive technologies” appear often in CCP propaganda). He added that Wang Huning, the Politburo Standing Committee overseeing propaganda, “does not understand natural sciences in the slightest.”
Huang said that he reported the trend in the U.S. of computer science and biological science merging to Liu He. He then implied that while Xi might not understand the implications of this development, his advisers will “create a commotion” in the hopes of getting him on board.
4. Huang Wansheng spoke about Marxism, communism, and socialism from the perspective of an idealist and a fundamentalist. “The socialist movement started out by caring about the moral consciousness of the individual. [Now] socialism has nothing to do with the individual,” he said.
Huang also observed that the structure of communist regimes meant that at the top level, “there is nothing but class struggle and power consolidation.”
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After the audio recording made the rounds, Beijing-based dissent journalist Gao Yu tweeted on Feb. 10 a WeChat group conversation about how Huang Wansheng was both angered and concerned about the leaked recording and was “prepared for jail time.”
Gao believes that Huang was likely just expressing his displeasure at the situation with his “jail time” comment, and noted that “it will be difficult to hear Professor Huang’s recordings in the future.”
OUR TAKE
The recording of Huang Wansheng at the private gathering sounds authentic and not something that was staged. The clarity of the conversation suggests that it was recorded either by someone seated close to Huang or via surveillance devices (including personal smartphones).
The details revealed by Huang in the record suggest that he was hired by the Xi camp via Liu He to serve as an adviser or consultant. Huang’s residence in America and observations about the coronavirus, science, and technology indicate that he was likely tapped as an “outside expert” to inform the top leadership on how the U.S. and European countries are responding to the pandemic, as well as figure out how far the Western powers are ahead of China in science and technology. Huang also appears to be genuinely frustrated with how “interest groups” in the PRC are profiting off the pandemic at the expense of the Chinese people, and how the dysfunctionalities and highly political nature of the CCP system are affecting governance.
There are several possible explanations for the leaked audio.
The most mundane explanation is that someone at the private gathering merely wanted a recording of Huang Wansheng’s remarks to use as reference later in conversations with others who move in the Party’s elite circles. Indiscretion or carelessness in handling or sharing the recording by some parties, however, led to it being leaked.
A second explanation has public security officials obtaining the recording when doing regular surveillance, but the recording was leaked owing to various reasons, including factional struggle, personal grievances, etc.
A third explanation sees Party elites disgruntled with the Xi leadership leaking the recording to call attention to the incompetence of Xi Jinping and his government. Those elites, however, would be taking a calculated risk if they happen to belong to the “interest groups” fingered by Huang.
A fourth explanation has Huang, those with him at the gathering, or other concerned actors seeking a way for the views expressed in the recording to be heard—and hopefully acted upon—by Xi and Zhongnanhai. Leaking the recording while expressing anger and worry at the incident after it was picked up by the public is certainly one way to get the Xi leadership’s attention. However, Huang and those at the gathering may not escape scrutiny and trouble if Xi Jinping is suspicious and is looking to make an example of those who have embarrassed him.
Fifth, Liu He, the person seemingly responsible for getting Huang Wansheng back to China, could be experiencing difficulties in getting his counsel through to Xi Jinping and was searching for an unorthodox channel to reach out to the latter. Leaking the recording of Huang and others at the private gathering is a novel, but not risk-free, way of getting important messages through to Xi while giving him reason to take action to resolve crucial problems threatening regime security.
Finally, the Xi camp could have arranged for the recording to be leaked as they seek to harness the public sentiment to achieve political goals. Xi could be laying the groundwork with Huang’s recording and even the KingMed incident in January to later move aggressively against “interest groups” and factional rivals interfering with Beijing’s governance and roll out measures to overhaul the dysfunctional CCP system. This is not to say that Huang was a willing participant in the Xi camp’s scheme; Huang could have been lured into a sense of false security at the private gathering, giving him the confidence to speak without inhibition about what he had always been advising the Xi leadership on, but failed to see reflected in policy.
It is hard to say at present how the Huang Wansheng recording leak incident will turn out for the parties involved. The fate of Huang Wansheng and Liu He, as well as the Xi leadership’s subsequent actions on epidemic prevention and control, the anti-corruption campaign, and the “self-revolution” push, will ultimately provide an inkling as to what the leak really meant.
SinoInsight 2
Party mouthpiece People’s Daily published a commentary piece titled, “Correctly Understand and Grasp the Characteristics and Behavioral Laws of Capital” (正確認識和把握資本的特性和行為規律).
The article mainly emphasized the points about controlling capital that were raised at the Central Economic Work Conference last December, including:
- Preventing the disorderly expansion of capital does not mean rejecting capital, but ensuring the orderly development of capital;
- The clarifying of rules, drawing of bottom lines, and setting up of “traffic lights” serves the purpose of guiding and urging enterprises to obey the Party’s leadership, as well as obey and serve overall economic and social development;
- The profit-seeking nature of capital means that it both creates value and grows savagely. Which aspect capital will take depends on whether the behavior of capital can be correctly and effectively guided.
Qiushi, the CCP Central Committee ideological journal, published Xi Jinping’s speech at the 35th collective study session of the 19th Politburo on Dec. 6, 2021. The theme of the study session and Xi’s speech (堅持走中國特色社會主義法治道路 更好推進中國特色社會主義法治體系建設) was building the so-called “socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics.”
In addressing the issue of accelerating legislation in key areas, Xi noted issues that the Chinese people “strongly reacted” to, including telecom and network fraud and crimes pertaining to new drugs. He also pointed out the “outstanding problems” in the entertainment industry like “cult-style” fan chasing, “chaotic” fan communities, and “yin-yang contracts.” Xi added that regulation of those problems must be undertaken with the goal of improving the law, closing loopholes and shortcomings of supervision, and not leaving the matter unheeded.
Xi also said that the problem of disorderly expansion of capital has become more prominent over the years. He noted that the brutal growth of platform and digital economies, as well as a lack of supervision, have brought much trouble. Xi said there was a need to accelerate revisions to the PRC’s anti-monopoly law and the anti-unfair competition law, and expedite the improvement of relevant legal systems.
On the topic of deepening reform of the rule of law, Xi emphasized a need to deepen the education and rectification of political and legal reform teams, continue to crack down on corrupt practices in the field of law enforcement and justice in accordance with the law, and promote the normalization of eradicating gangsterism and pernicious elements (掃黑除惡).
OUR TAKE
The latest propaganda from major Party mouthpieces indicates that Xi Jinping is focusing his efforts on “rectifying” the remaining strongholds of the Jiang Zemin faction in the regime, including the political and legal affairs apparatus, the financial sector, and the entertainment industry. This is in line with the trend that we have been tracking since the Sixth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee last year.
Xi is currently prioritizing domestic affairs, and particularly political and factional struggle matters, as he moves to secure a norm-breaking third term at the 20th Party Congress near the end of the year. Xi also presently has the upper hand over his factional rivals and other opponents in the Party elite. Should the current balance of power remain in Xi’s favor, he will unlikely consider an invasion of Taiwan this year given the associated risks and how the move would benefit the domestic and external “anti-Xi coalition.”
Xi’s laser focus on purging his factional foes and “rectifying” their strongholds would explain the Jiang faction’s recent “lash out” and political mobilization against the Xi leadership via the 40,000 character “Objective Evaluation of Xi Jinping” article. Xi’s determination to enter “deep water territory” and “scrape poison off bone” with regard to his political enemies could also explain the recent leaking of the Huang Wansheng audio recording (see SinoInsight 1); the Xi camp could be deliberately exposing the rot in the CCP system to later hold accountable Jiang Zemin and the Jiang faction as the ones responsible for China’s ills today.
