Chinese People Weren't Supposed to Know About This

The family of Chinese leader Xi Jinping is reportedly full of millionaires, but that leaves a flawed impression of the flawless Xi and therefore can’t possibly be true. Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell. There are few locations on Earth as heavily censored as China. Except for maybe a live feed of a nude beach. Year after year, China features among the countries with the most state-imposed restrictions on media freedom and freedom on the internet – often in the cozy company of states like Iran, Russia, and North Korea. All kinds of subjects end up on the wrong side of the heavy hammer of state censorship in China, From Chinese men accused of being too girly, to anything even remotely related to the Tiananmen Square Massacre — or as it’s officially known in China, “The what now?” But no topic is more taboo on the Chinese internet as the glorious Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, From illustrations comparing Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh – like this one and this one. Don’t share these. It’d make him super mad. To a slew of creative nicknames for Xi, such as “The Driving-in-Reverse Emperor”, “Xissolini”, and “The Devil Mao Incarnate”. Wow! There are a lot of layers to that one. In fact, thousands of words and phrases referring to Xi have been banned over the years, with 500 extra added to the list in the span of just two months in 2020. The number of banned words for Xi is larger than the entire vocabulary of the average teen on TikTok. Yes, it seems like a lot of China’s censorship machine is laser-focused on things having to do with Xi Jinping, especially anything that puts him in an unflattering light. Though I’m not sure there is a flattering light for this guy. Which is probably why one of the most guarded topics in China concerns the wealth of Xi Jinping and his family. The American media company, Bloomberg, learned this the hard way when it started to look into Xi’s financial situation in 2012, after it became widely suspected that he would be China’s next leader. Bloomberg only managed superficial coverage on the matter before the entire news organization was reportedly threatened with total expulsion from China, after which it abandoned the topic. Few media organizations have openly dared to approach the subject since then – least of all those with people and ties in China. But then last month, a US intelligence report came out saying that Xi’s family holds millions of dollars in business interests, raising suspicion that they might have benefited from Xi’s position. Which is shocking… this report says “*might* have.” This should surprise no one. It has long been a feature of the Chinese party-state system – and all communist regimes – that those in high positions of power, and those close to them, are given ample opportunities to enrich themselves and protect their wealth. Or as I like to call it, “The communism in practice vs the communism in principle… principle.” It's also an old story that authoritarian leaders and their families often end up at the head of vast fortunes during their time in power. Especially when that power lasts decades… or across multiple generations. Because — and this may come as a surprise — power hungry, murderous authoritarians… don’t have a lot of scruples. Most of these authoritarian leaders seem to have no problem flaunting their opulence, like Mswati III of Eswatini with his bejeweled Rolex… or President Erdogan of Turkey with his humongous 1,100 room presidential palace that was inaugurated in 2014. Still waiting for the MTV Cribs episode on this one. But Xi is different. Because he has a carefully cultivated reputation to uphold. You see, Xi is not a jet-setter with golden tastes. He is just a simple man of the people who makes dumplings, presses pastries into baking molds, and rolls them up nicely, too – while the cameras are flashing all around him – you know, the way life is for average Chinese people, that hire 12-man film crews to document their every move. He’s also the guy that has called for common prosperity, said that he wants to spread China’s wealth more equitably and vowed to adjust the excessive incomes of the super-rich. Which I assume he said while looking at family members and winking. In many ways, Xi’s rhetoric has less in common with his immediate predecessors, like Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, and more in common with China’s first Communist leader, Mao Zedong. So, as a man of the people — with 12-person film crews — and an heir to Mao’s strict Marxist-Leninist legacy, stories of Xi’s millionaire family strike a very different note that’s completely out of tune with the rest of his image - and therefore cannot stand. Because being called a murderous authoritarian is one thing. But a hypocrite? That just hurts his feelings. At the same time, Xi has taken another page out of Mao’s book and launched a flurry of anti-corruption campaigns since he came to power, resulting in the prosecution of more than 2.3 million officials by 2023. Despite more than a decade of these campaigns, Xi said earlier this year that corruption is the biggest threat to the Chinese Communist Party, and late last year, he urged the Party to turn the knife inward to tackle corruption. Which, again, I assume he said while looking at family members and winking. So, if it became public knowledge in China that during all this time, Xi’s family has been able to use Xi to shield their wealth or even increase it, it would shatter his whole public persona. And that would really be a bummer for the Chinese government, since it’s a persona that it has spent years meticulously developing. They’re running out of words to ban. At this point, very little about Xi’s public appearances is natural or spontaneous. Instead, much of it has been carefully choreographed. It’s as organic as an influencer posting a picture of themselves in heavy makeup and saying, “Woke up like this.” That includes everything from his involvement in top political engagements to his interactions with the Chinese public. It's often the same on the international stage, where events hosted in China place Xi at the center of events, with other world leaders often positioned as back-up dancers in his show. This careful cinematography is a part of boosting Xi’s grand public profile as a Chinese leader that has launched a new era. In this era, Xi is not only leading the drive to build a strong China, which will inevitably lead to China’s national rejuvenation. He is also building a better world with a shared future, charting a path for the global economy, and outlining the structure of a new world order. As easily as he changes lines on maps. And we’ve seen how smoothly that’s worked out. As the man embodying China’s destined rise towards the heavens, Xi is beyond reproach, as is his family, and any stories indicating that they could have done something as earthly as taking advantage of Xi’s position for personal enrichment need to be subjected to swift censorship or more. So, understandably, very few in China have dared to criticize Xi, with those who have… feeling the searing consequences. This aura of godhood that the Chinese state has bestowed upon Xi has also been extended to many of his policies, leading to disastrous consequences. For example, Xi tied himself closely to China’s zero-COVID policy from the beginning of the pandemic, and even after the rest of the world started to abandon strict lockdowns and quarantine systems, Xi vowed to stick to the strategy. Because as every professional gambler will tell you, always double down, and never change your strategy, no matter how badly you lose. When more infectious COVID variants came along, though, the state faced the unsustainable prospect of having to lock down more of the country for longer to combat the spike in infections. But Xi was adamant, and since he can’t be wrong, instead of adjusting the policy, Chinese authorities just enforced it harder, sending China deeper and deeper into a lockdown hellscape, with over 300 million Chinese people forced into lockdown at some point. As more and more Chinese people across the country began to resist the draconian COVID measures, this left the Chinese government in the untenable position of being anchored to a catastrophic policy through their perfect leader. When people eventually began taking to the streets at the end of 2022, calling for the CCP and Xi to step down, the central leadership eventually cracked, and the zero-COVID policy was quietly dismantled. Well, as quietly as can be done on something affecting *300 million people*. However, the government’s sudden capitulation exposed how poorly it had planned for the time after zero-COVID - the virus subsequently surged through the Chinese population, infecting tens of millions in a matter of weeks, with two million excess deaths occurring in the two months after the end of the policy. We still have no idea how many people died in China because of Covid. The Chinese COVID endgame was an unmitigated disaster by any measure. ) But in a staggering sign of Xi’s influence and power within the party, the Chinese government didn’t abandon him. A few months after the chaos settled, Xi came forward and announced a decisive victory over COVID. He made no apologies, admitted no mistakes, and expressed no repentance whatsoever. But hey, Perfect doesn’t make mistakes, it just makes different shades of victory. And Perfect clearly doesn’t have family members sitting on million dollar fortunes, either! If you don’t believe me, then you clearly need to have some sense knocked into you by “Xissolini”, or “The Devil Mao Incarnate”, or whatever you choose to call this guy. And if you like YouTube censorship, great, click away now. But if you don’t like it, here’s how you can subvert YouTube’s refusal to notify people about new episodes: Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. The next one comes out in just a few hours. Click below or visit chinauncensored.substack.com Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.