Hu Liren: Xi Jinping Uses the Yan'an Rectification Movement to Purge High-Level Officials

In this episode, Hu Liren takes an article published by Xinhua News Agency on the importance of the Yan'an Rectification Movement as a starting point, pointing out that Xi Jinping is sending a strong signal and preparing to launch a new round of rectification and purges within the top echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The program reviews the brutal internal struggles and the establishment of Mao Zedong's power during the historical Yan'an Rectification Movement, analyzes the symbolic significance of Xinhua News Agency as a weather vane, and points out that the spearhead of the new "rectification" movement is aimed directly at the top levels of the party, government, and military systems, as well as the Princelings. Hu Liren believes this portends a political storm at the top of the CCP, with Xi Jinping intending to completely eliminate dissidents and consolidate his dictatorial position, which may affect former high-ranking officials and the core of power, having a profound impact on the CCP's power structure.

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Full text: Hello everyone. I just saw an article—I just did an episode for everyone about how the infighting between the Princelings and Xi Jinping is about to intensify. Now, because what Xi Jinping has done previously was widespread, he hadn't truly dealt a fatal blow to the Princelings. It is only in the past two years that he has started to target the Princelings, including Zhang Youxia. Zhang Youxia is also a Princeling and a representative figure of military descendants. Today, just today, Xinhua News Agency published a very important article, which may be a weather vane, titled "The Great Journey: The Yan'an Rectification."

I saw it: The Great Journey: The Yan'an Rectification. In fact, this Yan'an Rectification took place from 1942 to 1945, which were the final three years as World War II was coming to an end. During these three years, the Kuomintang was fighting the Japanese army, the whole world was resisting Japan and Germany, and what was the Communist Party doing? The Communist Party was engaged in internal fighting. The Yan'an Rectification was an internal struggle; it was through this rectification that Mao Zedong established his most crucial core position at the time.

Everything Xi Jinping is doing now is actually something the Communist Party has done before. I have always said that what Xi Jinping is doing now is simply redoing what Mao and the Communist Party did in the past. That is what he wants to do. This is something I proposed many years ago. Look at how they suddenly bring up "The Great Journey: The Yan'an Rectification," calling it a profound Marxist ideological education movement.

So what is the signal he is sending now? That is to say, he is going to start moving against the upper echelons. Moving against the upper echelons doesn't just mean the military; it means the current four major bodies, namely the Party, the government, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the National People's Congress (NPC). These four bodies are what he is going to move against now. One is the Party, the people in the CCP General Office; another is the government, this group of people in the State Council; and there are also the CPPCC and the NPC. These people are actually under his control now as well, but the previous moves were against a small circle of people.

Now, if the Yan'an Rectification Movement is brought up, he is praising and glorifying the Yan'an Rectification Movement, meaning this is a plan he has just proposed. Starting from now, he is going to do one thing: to target the people around him, including those previously promoted who are not his own people but were elevated nonetheless, such as Han Zheng and others. There are still many people from the Hu Jintao era in the CPPCC and the NPC. Now he is about to launch an internal rectification movement within the Communist Party.

Everyone must remember about Xinhua News Agency: the Communist Party is like this, Xinhua News Agency is a weather vane. Back in the Yan'an period, it was the same. To do anything, they would first send up a trial balloon in the party newspaper, saying we are going to do this, and then continuously agitate until, to a certain extent, it is gradually promoted. Because this is a weather vane, once you have a weather vane, it is equivalent to a supreme directive, and the people below know how to act. Without this signal, the people below do not know what to do.

Now Xi Jinping has elevated the Yan'an Rectification Movement to a new height. That is to say, internal purges are about to begin within the party to deal with those who are not completely in sync with him. Those who were completely opposed to him were already cleared out long ago; now he is targeting those in the so-called second tier or those marked for rectification, to purge them from the ranks. This might take a few years. The entire Yan'an Rectification Movement back then lasted for three years, with continuous persecution of people. Do you know how many people died during the Yan'an Rectification Movement? Among high-ranking officials of the Chinese Communist Party alone, around fifty-odd people died by suicide. According to the party's historical records, there are fifty-six named individuals. The Yan'an Rectification was actually a mini Cultural Revolution within the party.

During the Cultural Revolution, many of the deaths across the country were also suicides—people were locked up without trial, which is how things are done within the Chinese Communist Party. They confine you, make you write self-criticisms, and torture you until you can no longer bear it. Some were executed by firing squad; many were shot. The inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party are actually extremely cruel. Later on, some of these people were rehabilitated. So why is Xi suddenly launching a Yan'an Rectification now? He needs a historical precedent to provide a justification for dealing with these people.

In fact, the Yan'an Rectification was later implicitly repudiated within the party, though it was never repudiated in the Chinese Communist Party's public historical records. Many of those who died because of the rectification were later rehabilitated, as they were wrongfully killed. During the Yan'an Rectification, a faction firmly believed in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). They felt that our party's leaders should not be decided by people within the party, but by the CPSU. To establish his own position at the time, Mao wanted to downgrade the ideology of the CPSU, elevate himself, and establish his own unique standing. Some supported him, while others firmly backed the CPSU; those who backed the CPSU were all ultimately brought down.

Some were persecuted to death, some were driven to suicide, and others were tortured to death—this was the true nature of the Yan'an Rectification back then. It is very likely that Xi Jinping is doing the same thing now. As long as someone opposes him or refuses to submit to him—because he wants to build the Xi family dynasty and establish his status just like Mao did—there will inevitably be dissenting voices within the party, and he intends to purge all dissenting voices. This is the most important reason and method behind his launching a new Yan'an Rectification Movement: to force everyone to accept him as emperor. That is what he aims to do.

That is why I just mentioned that the red princelings are actually opposing him from within the party. He now wants to launch a movement similar to the Yan'an Rectification of that era to completely purge these people. You will see that in a short while, there will be a wave of suicides within the party, as well as people being arrested and executed. Of course, the scope of the Yan'an Rectification involved the top echelons, making it much smaller in scale than the later Anti-Rightist Campaign, but the level of officials involved was extremely high—they were all elites. Back then, Mao wanted to establish his status, so this new internal Yan'an Rectification of the party is about to begin.

Xi Jinping even intends to do one more thing: completely repudiate Deng Xiaoping, utterly sever the path of reform and opening up, and establish his absolute sphere of power. From now on, he will gradually close off the outside while purging everyone inside who opposes his dictatorship. This is what he is currently set on doing.

Everyone can go read these articles about the Yan'an Rectification—there seem to be two pieces discussing it, and you can look them up. Over the past few days, there has been renewed propaganda about the Jinggangshan base area and revolutionary museums. Right now, many people inside the party can no longer sleep peacefully. Party movements are first conducted internally and then pushed outward. The rectification lasted from 1942 to 1945, the Chinese Communist Party claimed dominance in 1946, and finally established Mao's dominant position by 1949. Back then, anyone who refused to submit was directly killed. Therefore, the path Xi Jinping is walking today is identical to Mao's.

You can look up the historical records of the Yan'an Rectification Movement to understand this. The Yan'an Rectification was extremely brutal at the time; it basically did not target the lower levels, focusing instead on internal infighting among the high-ranking officials, leading to rivers of blood. The number of high-ranking officials in Yan'an was already small, yet more than fifty people committed suicide, and the rest were either locked up or purged, though all of these people were later fully rehabilitated. The fact that the executed people were all rehabilitated shows that the rectification at the time was ultimately rejected from within.

Yet now, Xi Jinping is dragging these matters back into the light, vigorously promoting the Yan'an Rectification, and attempting to launch a new Yan'an Rectification movement in Beijing. You can check the articles by Xinhua News Agency; there is a special column dedicated to the Yan'an Rectification, not just a single piece, but a whole series.

Alright, thank you all for watching, we will see you in the next episode, bye-bye.