A former Chinese property tycoon and a staunch critic of the way the Chinese government has handled the coronavirus pandemic was recently slapped with “serious violations of law and discipline” by the Chinese Communist Party.
Ren Zhigiang, a former top executive of state-controlled property developer Huayuan Real Estate Group is now being held by the government and is undergoing disciplinary review and supervision by the Beijing discipline inspection commission.
The Chinese Communist Party, however, did not state in detail what Ren Ziqiang’s violation was.
The announcement came after Ren published an essay on March 12 criticizing the way the Chinese government responded to the coronavirus pandemic before disappearing.
He also aired his sentiments against the government through the popular social networking platform, Weibo. His postings against the government caused his Weibo account to get suspended.
In the essay, Ren criticized the initial cover-up of the outbreak as well as the way the government is now promoting the successful way that they’ve handled and controlled the outbreak.
The CCP’s announcement did not specifically state that the essay was the reason why Ren is being slapped with disciplinary violations.
Ren branded the virus outbreak as a crisis of governance within the CCP. The outbreak, which started in China, has become a global pandemic registering a total of more than 76,000 deaths worldwide to date.
Ren also said that the crisis would have been prevented or handled sooner if there was freedom of speech in the country.
It is a well-known fact the Ren is a staunch critic of the Communist Party as well as the government’s efforts to control the property market.
Ren also regularly calls for more freedom of speech and less government media control.
This is also not the first time Ren Ziqiang is facing disciplinary action from the CCP. Previously, he was placed under probation due to his social media posts that are said to conflict with the ideologies of the Party.
He even challenged the Party’s views that state media should be aligned with the perspectives of the CCP.
