Hu Jintao
His Unknown Face
His own daughter being the Achilles tendon of the dictator
who gained success through the oppression of Tibet
| Kazuyuki Hamada (President, Futurists Forum) |
When you think of “Peking Duck”, you may first think of the Chinese luxury cuisine, but within the internet world, that name represents the online site that specifically deals with ‘behind-the-scene information of Chinese politics’. This site is also treasured by the several billion overseas Chinese as their platform of sharing information.
On November 2003, there was news full of irony posted on the website. The title read, “Symbolic Wedding”.
Hu Haiqing (then 33 years old), the daughter of Hu Jintao, who has just recently taken power as the Head of State, has married the “Internet Business tycoon”, Mao Daolin, or more known as Daniel Mao (then 40 years old) in September 2003.
This sort of news usually brings immediate coverage and celebrations, yet when the marriage took place it wasn’t reported in any domestic news, nor by any international media. However, through a greeting card that the newly wed couple sent to their friend, their marriage became publicized, and quickly led to waves of media coverage not only by Asian medias, but those of the West as well.
So it seems “Peking Duck” beat the race in posting the savory news. However, what’s important is not how fast you bring up the news. It’s the meaning behind the chosen title, “Symbolic Marriage”. From this title, you can understand the skepticism by the older generation of Chinese towards ‘modern China’s youthful spirit’.
Hu Haiqing was known since before as “China’s most famous freelancer”. Having graduated from her father’s alma mater, the highly prestigious Tsinghua University, as well as receiving an MBA in the United States, she has turned down all invitations from famous national corporations and private companies offering her a “special cordial treatment”. Floating around the daughter of the highest authority of the Communist Party was a ‘dangerous scent’ that scorned Communism while glorifying Capitalism. In the past, there was an incident where revolutionary Deng Xiaoping’s daughter went abroad to study in the United States, later giving birth to a son with US citizenship. Such rare cases in the past are now becoming ever more common.
From the Chinese government’s side, this is a subject that they would not want to spread into the public. However, the reality of China has already become a society where they would do anything for achieving wealth, while wearing a mask of Communism only for public appearance. The perfect symbolism of this is portrayed by the lifestyle of the daughter of the Head of State, Hu Haiqing.
The Son-in-Law is the Chinese “Horiemon”
Today, at least within the children of the leaders of the Communist Party, the government and People’s Liberation Army, living abroad as a freelancer under the title of “studying abroad in the US” is very common. The son of Wen Jiabao, China’s Prime Minister, has studied abroad in universities in Canada and the US, now known in the US business world as Winston Wen. The vast majority of children of Party leaders have gone abroad as well.
However, Wen Jiabao’s eldest son, Winston, is a normative case. He has enrolled at the prestigious Northwestern University in Chicago, receiving an MBA, and from there, has established a successful company specializing in internet service and data processing. The problem then is the increasing number of children of top leaders who go abroad on the national budget, and does not study or work. These children are of no use once they go back to their country. In the end, their stay overseas becomes five years, then ten, and finally, in many cases, ‘smuggled’ into a position in their country’s embassies or international organizations like the United Nations.
Hu Jintao was also very concerned about his daughter. After enjoying herself in the US for eight years, she still didn’t want to be employed. Comparing her to his own student life, when he not only excelled in education, but also immersed himself in table tennis and competitive dancing, he finds many faults with her, as if to say “I don’t remember bringing up a child like you!” He experienced difficulties with her, as she wouldn’t lend an ear to his stories about when he gave all he had during his days in the Communist Youth League, or about his difficult times in the rural country side.
Worrying about his daughter’s future, he would tell her to follow the motto of “taking care of thyself”, but with little success, as she would insist by saying “I don’t have any outlook for the future, let me live freely!” However, immediately following her father’s inauguration as the Head of State, to everyone’s surprise, she suddenly married the Americanized founding president of “Sina.Com”.
Her husband, Daniel, brought up “Sina.Com” into America’s NASDAQ market and then put it’s stocks on sale. He now lives a life of leisure as a venture investor. Increasing his assets through investing in IT and Bio related start-up companies centered on Hong Kong and Shanghai, he currently has over 10 billion yen worth of profits. He is the Chinese version of “Horiemon”, so to speak.
In addition to her husband having abundant investment assets, her father being the Head of State has transformed her from a “Lethargic Child of a Leader” to a “Cinderella with a Mind for Business”.
This would be an auspicious event for the Hu family. However, there is a huge problem with the fact that the eldest daughter of the supreme leader, who demands from his people to practice a life of simplicity and frugality, and who challenges the unipolar dominance by the US, has met with an IT tycoon with a Masters from Stanford University, who holds one-third of China’s internet market, and marrying him through a luxurious wedding in Hawaii.
...If only she could be like my son, Hu Haifeng, who keeps a low profile as he takes part in the management of an IT enterprise, administered by Tsinghua University through distributive education...
This must have been the thoughts of Hu Jintao, who climbed up the stairs of the political hierarchy one step at a time, by hiding his original status as an entrepreneur of a small to medium enterprise (which was considered a “Bad Status” in the days of the revolutionary administration where the peasant class was considered the highest class), and by refraining from anything that draws too much attention, later being recognized by the Head of the Party.
Furthermore, Hu Haiqing also drew much attention to herself during her stay in the US. Trying to obtain a Green Card with a fake name in order to hide that she is the daughter of Hu Jintao, she was caught and dismissed every time.
The existence of a child of a political leader of China in the US was like an “unexpected hostage” to the US government, hence her actions were immediately monitored. Who knows when this ‘diplomatic card’ can be put on the table for behind-the-scene negotiations?
However she was unmindful to such things, ignoring every aspect of her father’s concerns, and enjoying every bit of the air of freedom in the US. This was then followed by the sudden news of her marriage. At one time having a name of “Xiaohua” and at other times using a name with the same pronunciation but different Chinese character, Hu Haiqing may have answered to her own actions that she “only took advantage of the chances in life.”
Within the overseas Chinese population, there is a huge move in trying to analyze where this Cinderella couple will be headed in the future. If they could figure that out, they believe that they will be able to make a fortune. The Chinese market by itself is “the fastest growing economy”. If politics and business tied hands, anything can be possible.
Two years have past since their marriage. Daniel Mao’s investment fund expanded and grew like a bubble. The reason behind this is that all the overseas Chinese speculators began throwing their money into his fund.
Being known as a playboy, his surprising decision to become the son-in-law of the Head of State must have had some inner personal intentions. In trying to figure that out, the many overseas Chinese are coming up with speculations, such as, “he’s building a strategy for his internet business by joining hands with the Communist Party” and that “he’s planning a scheme to buyout or make a cyber-attack on America”. For every speculation, the IT and Bio related stocks that he invested in Shanghai and Hong Kong starts to move. As a result, the young couple’s asset-multiplying-plan seems to be successfully on the road.
The Man Responsible for the Tibet Oppression
On the other hand, China carries a serious problem of increasing wealth gaps where corruption is spreading like a disease. Reigning at the top of the children of Party leaders, Haiqing’s overly conspicuous mammonism threatens to shake her father’s political stability. If it becomes public that the daughter of the Head of State and the son-in-law with their political backing has been making huge profits, things will get very ugly.
In order to prevent such dangerous information to be spread through the internet or by the word of mouth, there has been strict and rapid censorship towards the cyber space and the present media. Any internet site that may lead to criticizing the current political regime has been shut down. However, no matter how thorough you try to censor the information going around, you are always left with more to tackle. In the internet age, not even the Great Wall can block free flowing information. This act of trying to censor unlimited information seems to be a never ending process.
In such a case, would Hu Jintao just stand there in a dither, not knowing what to do like those fathers you see on Japanese TV dramas? Definitely not. Hu Jintao irradiates a public image of being the “Smiling Leader”, but one must not forget that hidden deep within this mask is the “tyrant that fears no shed of blood”, as was seen in the Tibet oppression incident.
Depending on the situation, Hu Jintao, the state leader who hides his callousness, may simply cut ties and abandon his daughter and son-in-law.
Hu Jintao’s name became well known in March of 1989. His greatest turning point in his political career was his decision to suppress by force, the ethnic independence movement in Tibet.
At first, the Central Committee of the Communist Party aimed towards a peaceful settlement, hence appointing the young Hu Jintao as the Secretary of the Communist Party Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee.
Devoted to the mission, he decided to wear traditional Tibetan clothing in order to gain the trust of Panchen Lama the 10th, and the other high priests. However, soon after talks began, Panchen Lama the 10th passed away by a sudden heart attack while performing a ceremonial ritual at the generations old Panchen Lama memorial tower, which he himself rebuilt. Among the people of Tibet, rumors spread that Hu Jintao poisoned their leader.
In fear of any unexpected incidents, Hu Jintao called to cancel the celebrated Grand Tibetan Buddhist Mass scheduled to be held in Lasa City. But this only made matters worse. Due to increased ethnic independence movements, the Central Communist Party decided to put a martial law into effect. In great opposition to this call, the people of Tibet held huge street demonstrations. They were suppressed with firearms by the Chinese military, given the orders to do so by no other than Hu Jintao. According to reports by the government in exile of Dalai Lama, this military suppression resulted in more than sixty deaths, and over one hundred wounded.
In the suppressed city of Lasa, heroic photos of Hu Jintao in a military uniform and a metal helmet, the man responsible for the suppression force, were taken by the Xinhua News Agency and sent throughout the country. Once before, Hu Huibang, the man who helped promote Hu Jintao, fell from power by having a weak stance against the student movements. “I shall not repeat his mistakes!” This kind of firm determination can be perceived from the photo of Hu Jintao in his military uniform.
Hu Jintao’s political gains from this act of military suppression are immeasurable. The greatest of all was gaining the attention and trust of Deng Xiaoping. According Deng Xiaoping, “the young Hu Jintao has prospects to look forward to.” With that single comment, Hu Jintao gained entrance to the Central Political Bureau, appointed as the youngest ever member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee. At this point, he was top on the list as the successor of Jiang Zemin.
The True Identity of his Hidden Ambitions
As one can see, Hu Jintao shares a very similar trait to Deng Xiaoping, who suppressed the Tiananmen Square incident by military force, in that they both believe that “you must do whatever it takes to fulfill your goal.”
Zhao Ziyang, who was the Premier during the Tiananmen incident, failed to reach a balance between liberalizing and tightening the state, and was finally ousted for sympathizing too much with the demonstrating students. Hu Jintao learned yet another important lesson from this incident. Liberalization of the economy is important to some extent, but when the Communist Party is threatened, a daring yet determined action needs to be taken to annihilate the enemy. Hesitating in that situation leads to the end of one’s political life.
This idea seems to be rooted deep into the bones of Hu Jintao.
Take for example, the suppression towards Mrs. Rebiya Kadir, who is also known as the Dalai Lama of the Uyghur Autonomous Region. She is not only a mother of eleven children, but has achieved a life of success that is known throughout Uyghur. Her success story tells of a women starting off by working at a Laundromat into becoming the richest family in Uyghur.
Her act of supporting female entrepreneurs and providing donations to the poor gradually established her popularity. At one time, she was chosen to be a committee member of the Political Agreement Conference. However, her repeated voiced opinions against the human rights violations of the Communist Party against the people of Uyghur, calling for increased human rights for the Muslims, Turkish, and other minority ethnic groups, and leading to a direct appeal against Hu Jintao, made her a “suspect of terrorism”, given eight years of imprisonment by a secret court. It was truly an incomprehensible decision.
Furthermore, with the excuse of an “Offense of National Secret Disclosure”, a Chinese journalist was arrested and imprisoned for ten years, for attempting to collect data on the secret memos left behind from the Tiananmen incident, written by Zhao Ziyang, who was recently released from fifteen years of house arrest, and has past away this January.
There was optimism that Hu Jintao may perhaps restore Zhao Ziyang’s honor, but the exact opposite took place.
The news of the death of Zhao Ziyang was censored within the Party’s bulletin, and Hu Jintao didn’t show any sign of wishing to send his condolences to his relatives. On the contrary, as if to fear the resurrection of concerns about the Tiananmen incident, he went as far as to take this opportunity to declare the “Week of Strengthening Communist Party Leadership”.
Hu Jintao has also announced in January 2005, the obligation by all sixty-eight million Communist Party members to submit a “Self-criticism paper of your ideas, actions, and problems found during work”, over a span of a year and a half.
Even though both cases did not attract any attention from the Japanese media, they certainly did attract international awareness. Following these incidents, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were planning that Hu Jintao’s first visit to the US after his appointment as the Head of State, will not be an “Official Visit”. However, Hu Jintao and his surrounding Party members insisted that his visit will be official, emphasizing China’s equal position with the US. As a result, the visit itself was postponed due to Hurricane Katrina.
In addition, in mid-August of this year, China and Russia have collaborated in the biggest military exercise, following the breakdown of the Soviet Union. As the exercise was centered upon realistic landing operations, as if assuming they were attacking Taiwan, sudden increases in wariness within Taiwan were witnessed.
What could have been behind the decision of Hu Jintao, who had a scheduled flight to Washington in September, for going against the international public opinion? Furthermore, China insisted on a collaborative military exercise with Russia, going as far as paying all military expenses for them. In figuring out Hu Jintao’s hidden ambitions, one needs to carefully analyze these past events.
America has a domestic law concerning Taiwan, named Taiwan Relations Law. This law acts as the legal basis for America to protect Taiwan if by any chance it is under military attack by China. Even at the meeting of the “Council of American and Taiwanese Businesses” held in Florida, February 2002, then US Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz announced, “As President Bush has been mentioning several times, America is ready to take any kind of action to assist in the protection of Taiwan”, a clear intent to restraining China from becoming a military superpower.
On the other hand, the American economic world whose expectations are growing over the ever expanding Chinese market, are voicing their discretion if not objection towards the Bush administration for having a favorable stance towards Taiwan, while strengthening their confrontational stance towards China. Led by Microsoft and Boeing, American enterprises are deeply committed to the Chinese market, more than they are with the Japanese.
According to the “Business White Paper of American Enterprises in China” announced by the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China on September 1st of this year, 86% of all 2,000 member enterprises are showing successes in the Chinese market, and are hoping to increase their investments in the future. Furthermore, 93% of these American enterprises answered that “China’s economic reform are improving in a favorable way to American enterprises, and that business towards China looks promising for the next five years.”
...Even if China shows a move to merge Taiwan with China by force, that is a domestic affair of China. Although the “Taiwan Relations Law” does exist, it will not be the best choice for America to militarily intervene during the Taiwan emergency...
If the majority of American businesses think this way, not even the Bush administration with its many anti-Chinese diehards, can easily choose to take a military move against China. This possibility of military action would decrease, much less if the Democratic Party comes back to the White House, as they have a history of pursuing a policy of reconciliation with China.
The recent collaborative military exercise with Russia must have been a test to see how the US or Japan will react. As Japan was too caught up with its own political elections, the US also, with its ever growing influence by its economic world, did not go beyond than insisting that Hu Jintao’s visit would not be official due to human rights issues, and has not mentioned anything striking about the military exercise nor its assistance to North Korea.
Holding Down on Inequality through Confucianism
The problems facing Hu Jintao are mostly domestic. As the author clarified in his recent work, “Hu Jintao’s Anti-Japanese Plan of Action” (Shodensha), Hu Jintao has, from his days as the Secretary of the Communist Youth League twenty-two years ago, enthusiastically preached a “Virtuous Nation Building”, a teaching that crushed beneath it, the teachings of the Analects of Confucius. The author was very surprised to see Hu Jintao, who lived through the Cultural Revolution, to all of a sudden be preaching Confucianism, a teaching that was the cause of much of the rebellions in the past. After taking full power in 2004, Hu Jintao immediately strived towards no other than the “creation of an international Confucius Network, and the promotion for teaching domestically, the Analects of Confucius.”
Having led the political suppression in Tibet, Hu Jintao recognizes better than anyone, that due to increased disappointment by the outcome of the Communist Revolution where societal equality was promised, the reality of “ever increasing wealth gaps” and “a society restrained from freedom of speech and belief”, has increased the numbers of anti-establishment religious groups, including the over one hundred million Falun Gong believers. Accordingly, Hu Jintao came up with the conclusion that in order to evade international criticisms while establishing domestic stability, the resurrection of traditional Confucius values was inevitable.
At any rate, if the present capitalism expands while continuing to wear the “mask of socialism”, not only will the problems dealing with pollution and the environment worsen, but the human spirit will become rotten as well.
Seized by this sense of impending crisis, the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao leadership have begun to support the implementation of Confucius teachings in schools and regions. By heightening morals and ethics, their aim is to suppress “Mammonism” and a “material oriented economy”. In order to increase international reputation prior to the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, they have begun to teach enthusiastically along with English, the teachings of “the Analects of Confucius”. And just when Hu Jintao is beginning to do all this, his own daughter above all people, decides to marry the IT bubble tycoon, together pushing forward towards nothing other than money-making. Wen Jiabao’s son is also a badger in the same hole. This issue can’t be left untouched forever.
Diplomatically, the “Confucian National Union” is quietly making progress. The plan is to create an economic alliance with the Korean peninsula, Japan, Taiwan, and the other Asian countries. An executive from the Chinese Communist Party once said that “if you look at Confucianism and Communism, they have a common feature of stressing importance of the family, society and the state. Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung, and Ho Chi Minh were all alike as revolutionaries. This way of thinking comes from Confucianism.”
Though it’s difficult to suddenly agree with this comment, one should keep in mind that based upon China’s interpretation of Confucianism, “the Confucian Union would be effective in suppressing Japanese militarization.”
The Roots of the Hardcore Anti-Japanese Sentiments
What we Japanese have to keep in mind is the fact that Hu Jintao by no means holds a harmonious stance towards Japan. He may even have more of an anti-Japanese sentiment than Jiang Zemin.
In April of 2005, numerous anti-Japanese demonstrations spurred throughout China, endangering Japanese embassies and consulates. In response to Japan’s request for apologies and compensations for damages, Hu Jintao summoned Prime Minister Koizumi during the Bandung Conference to his hotel on April 23rd, telling him that “Japan is responsible for everything”, as if looking down upon Japan. Afterwards, many news of how Hu Jintao restrained the numerous anti-Japanese demonstrations throughout China were being told in a heroic manner, but these are all misunderstandings.
Right after the fury of anti-Japanese demonstrations thrived in places like Beijing and Shanghai, Hu Jintao participated in an international conference sponsored by the American economic magazine, Fortune, and openly denounced Japan, far more than Jiang Zemin or Li Peng did in the past. “Historically compared, China has far better DNA. Therefore, Japan’s age has already come to an end”. Hu Jintao spoke as if to say that there is no point apologizing to Japan whose fate is to perish.
According to the Nanfang Dushi Bao report, there is a sign at the entrance of a hospital in Haikou City of Hainan province, where there are many Japanese enterprises and tourists. The sign read, “Japanese must first apologize before entering. Japanese who do not apologize may not enter.” The head of the hospital declares that, “there is a need for the Japanese to recognize the crimes done by the Japanese military as they invaded China. To those Japanese who come here to receive medical treatment, we won’t provide them with the common medications if they don’t apologize.” He is surely practicing the teachings of Hu Jintao very faithfully.
On August 15th of this year, Hu Jintao presented a speech at the 60th Anniversary Celebration of the Victory over Japan, reaffirming anti-Japanese sentiment by stating that, “China does not fear war for the achievement of peace...The young generation of China must learn to love their nation, and recognize once again, the glorious history of our ancestors who have freed our nation from the invasion by Japan.” Why does Hu Jintao, from time to time, insist on referring to such anti-Japanese sentiments?
Jiang Zemin has once publicized how his father had been killed by the Japanese military, stirring up anti-Japanese emotions, but was later revealed that he was actually working in cooperation with the Japanese military. On the other hand, Hu Jintao’s case is covered by a very different veil of anti-Japanese sentiments.
It is said that Hu Jintao grew up by being told by his father who ran a retail business of tea leaves, that “the Japanese military is responsible for your mother’s premature death.” (Yang Zhongmei, “Zhong Gong Xin Ling Xiu : Hu Jintao”)
Surely, being born in the invaded Shanghai and having experienced first hand the invasion, a strong sense of “anti-Japanese” has been deep rooted within Hu Jintao. He later has two younger sisters named Jinrong and Jinlai, but their mother who was a teacher, suffered from overworking and malnutrition. Despite their father’s hard efforts of nursing, she passed away while leaving behind the young children. Hu Jintao was seven years old at that time. (“Who’s Hu? Assessing China’s Heir Apparent, Hu Jintao”, a report by The Heritage Foundation)
Ever since then, he was told numerous times by his father that, “if it wasn’t for the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, our hereditary business would have succeeded, and my wife would have recovered fine after giving birth. The one responsible for all of our misfortunes is the Japanese military.”
Since the time he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in 1992 up until now, Hu Jintao has made only one trip to Japan. That was in April of 1994, when he had to prepare for then-Head of State, Ziang Zemin’s visit to Japan. After that, he has made frequent trips to America, Russia, the European nations, and the neighboring Asian nations as well, but seems to be avoiding Japan, a country separated from China by only a narrow path of water. It can only be thought that there is some sort of deep rooted anti-Japanese sentiments working his decisions. It is the trauma that the Japanese military killed his mother, and how young Hu Jintao wasn’t able to receive his mother’s love when he most needed it.
The cool-headed, or rather the cold-hearted stance that Hu Jintao showed during the Tibet oppression, and the Tiananmen incident, may be derived from his father’s repeated stories of the cruelty of the Japanese military.
Hu Jintao, the “Smiling Leader”, has a face that we do not know of. In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly this year, he repeated the word “peace” thirty times. This should be thought of as an attempt to camouflage the many acts against peace that are being committed.
Japan and the international community needs to measure out a moderate distance with China, and cooperate with each other by covering the nation with democratic rules, in order to prevent China from running wild. Natural disasters are enough for unexpected sufferings.
Hu Jintao analyzes himself by saying that “if I was to relate myself to an animal, I would not be a horse, but rather a tiger.” It doesn’t matter if you are a tiger or a lion. If you are going to be howling, roaring, and acting all violent, you should only do so within a cage. It would be necessary for Japan to see through Hu Jintao’s true feelings, and to pursue close information sharing with the neighboring Asian countries as well as with Europe and America, to establish a safeguard position against any unexpected situations.
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