On November 23, 2013, Zhang Ziyi won Best Leading Actress at the 50th Golden Horse Awards for Wong Kar-wai's film The Grandmaster, and combined with her previous awards she became a grand slam winner of the five major Chinese-language Best Actress honors.
Xi Jinping had his last face-to-face meeting with Bo Xilai in Qincheng Prison. The two discussed power struggles and women, with Bo Xilai lamenting his loss.
On October 19, 2013, New Express Daily reporter Chen Yongzhou was criminally detained across provincial lines by Changsha police on suspicion of damaging commercial reputation after publishing reports critical of Zoomlion; the newspaper subsequently ran "Please release him" on its front page.
On October 1, 2013, Xia Junfeng was buried on the seventh day after his death; his family went to the Shenyang Memorial Cemetery, and besides relatives and friends, hundreds of netizens came to see him off; the authorities blocked and deleted related news.
On September 25, 2013, after the Supreme People’s Court approved his death sentence, Xia Junfeng, a street vendor from Shenyang, Liaoning, was executed by the Chinese Communist Party’s evil regime. Earlier, while setting up his stall on the street, he was beaten by chengguan and forced to draw a knife in self-defense, killing two chengguan. The court categorically refused to admit the defense’s eyewitness testimony, sparking years of joint appeals by legal scholars, lawyers, and citizens across the country to “spare his life.” Before his death, Xia Junfeng left these last words: “I will never accept this even in death; I was acting in self-defense.”
Bo Xilai was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013. The video claims he later met with Baozi (Xi Jinping) in Qincheng Prison.
On September 13, 2013, Beijing police criminally detained venture capitalist Wang Gongquan on suspicion of assembling a crowd to disrupt order in public places. He is a major supporter of the New Citizens' Movement, and his Weibo account had previously been deactivated.
In 2013, the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a judicial interpretation stipulating that online commentary reposted 500 times or more can be prosecuted as the crime of defamation.
On the evening of August 23, 2013, 13 days after attending the Social Responsibility Forum for Internet Celebrities, Xue Manzi, who had 12 million followers on Weibo, was arrested in a residential compound in Anhuibeili, Chaoyang District, Beijing on suspicion of soliciting prostitution, and was subsequently forced to make a televised confession of about 10 minutes, stating that he had spread false information.
On August 19, 2013, internet promoter Qin Zhihui (online alias Qin Huohuo) was criminally detained by Beijing police on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble and illegal business operations, becoming the landmark case of that year's special campaign against online rumors.
China has begun a crackdown on major online influencers, issuing regulations such as the “Seven Bottom Lines for Cyberspace”, and Ren Zhiqiang foresaw the danger of speaking the truth in his book.
Lu Wei, head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, presided over the Social Responsibility Forum for Internet Celebrities and put forward seven bottom lines; afterwards, internet big-V Xue Manzi was arrested in Beijing on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes and was forced to make a televised confession.
On the afternoon of May 7, 2013, at 5 pm, 18 days before the wedding date, the demolition team of the Beigaoying Village Committee forcibly demolished Jia Jinglong's wedding home with an excavator. His father was restrained, relatives were beaten, Jia Jinglong was injured in the head, and the engagement was later broken off.
The CCP issued Document No. 9, designating constitutional democracy, universal values, and six other ideas as cultural symbols to be vigilant against and eliminate.
In his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Xi Jinping indirectly denied the possibility of democratization in China with his "shoe theory."
On January 14, 2013, the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Guangdong Provincial Committee deliberated and approved the list of members of the 11th Provincial CPPCC Committee, with Stephen Chow among them; on January 22 he did not check in in person, and his secretary collected the attendance badge on his behalf.
While delivering a speech at a seminar for newly promoted members of the CCP Central Committee, Xi Jinping stated that the historical period after reform and opening-up cannot be used to negate the historical period before it, and vice versa.
The first session of the 12th Liaoning Provincial People's Congress elected 102 deputies to the National People's Congress; it was later discovered that 45 of them were involved in vote-buying. Among the 619 provincial deputies, 523 were implicated and eventually resigned or were removed from office.
Ren Zhiqiang actively interacted with netizens on Weibo, and his influence rapidly expanded, making him a public figure with immense public opinion power, even capable of influencing the stock prices of listed companies.
To acquire three companies including Century Partners, Beijing Culture raised approximately 3.3 billion yuan through a private placement, of which Fude Life Insurance subscribed for over 1.3 billion yuan, becoming Beijing Culture's largest shareholder with a 15.81% stake.
Qi Qiaoqiao, the elder sister of Xi Jinping, and her husband Deng Jiagui sold their 50% stake in a Beijing investment company to a company founded by Xiao Jianhua, removing their names from the assets.
According to business registration records, the Houde Qianhai Fund was established in 2013, with Foresea Life Insurance (then known as Life Insurance) contributing 9 billion yuan, accounting for 89.5%.
In 2013, while Iran was under international sanctions, Huawei smuggled equipment through Xintong, a shell company in Iran, whose employees used Huawei email addresses and ID badges. Meng Wanzhou later confessed to this matter in exchange for an agreement not to be prosecuted.
On the second day after the conclusion of the First Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, Hu Jintao stated at an enlarged meeting of the Military Commission that Xi Jinping was a qualified General Secretary and Chairman of the Military Commission. Xi Jinping, in turn, highly praised Hu Jintao for voluntarily stepping down as Chairman of the Military Commission, marking the official completion of the power transition.
The First Plenary Session of the 18th CCP Central Committee has concluded. Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan, and Zhang Gaoli have become the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Among them, Li Keqiang is the only representative of the Hu Jintao faction, while the Jiang Zemin faction holds the majority.
After the First Plenary Session of the 18th CCP Central Committee on November 15, 2012, Hu Jintao stepped down as General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, with Xi Jinping succeeding him, becoming the first non-serving-for-life top leader to hand over all of his power in one go.
On November 15, 2012, the First Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party elected Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
The New York Times published a world-shaking investigative report revealing that relatives of Wen Jiabao's family secretly controlled assets worth approximately USD 2.7 billion.
Following Ling Plan's departure, Li Zhanshu officially assumed office as the Director of the CCP Central Committee Office on September 1, 2012, stepping into the core power circle of the General Office in advance.
After Li Zhanshu took over as director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee in 2012, he defined the office as a "political organ," transferring and demoting in batches the cronies installed by Ling Jihua on the basis of political loyalty, and remade the General Office into an institution answerable only to Xi Jinping.
In the early hours of August 26, 2012, on the Baomao Expressway in Ansai County, Yan'an, Shaanxi, a double-decker sleeper bus rear-ended a methanol tanker and caught fire, killing 36 people and injuring 3.
On August 7, 2012, in the men's 110 metres hurdles heats at the London Olympics, Liu Xiang fell at the first hurdle. He was diagnosed after the race with a ruptured Achilles tendon and never competed in an official event again.
Toutiao, founded by ByteDance, released its first version in August 2012, using a data-mining recommendation engine to recommend news to individuals based on their behavior.
Bloomberg publishes an investigative report revealing that relatives of Xi Jinping control $376 million in assets, kicking off the high-level political power struggle on the eve of the 18th National Congress.
In the early morning of March 18, 2012, Ling Gu, the only son of Ling Jihua, died in a Ferrari crash near the Baofusi Bridge on Beijing's North Fourth Ring Road. Two young women in the car were severely injured, triggering high-level political maneuvering and intensive news censorship.
On March 15, 2012, Bo Xilai was dismissed from his post as secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the CCP, and three days later Ling Gu died in a car accident in Beijing. These two incidents became critical turning points in the restructuring of the top leadership power structure of the Chinese Communist Party on the eve of the 18th National Congress.
On March 14, 2012, Wen Jiabao delivered a speech at the Two Sessions Chinese and foreign press conference, emphasizing that without political structural reform, economic structural reform cannot succeed, and warning that the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution could happen again.
In March 2012, Wen Jiabao spoke about reform of the system of Party and state leadership at his final press conference as premier, warning that if political reform stalled, the gains of economic reform could be lost again and even a historical tragedy such as the Cultural Revolution could happen once more; the next day, Bo Xilai was removed from his post as Chongqing Party Secretary.
Wang Lijun, disguised, fled and broke into the US Consulate in Chengdu, marking the collapse of Bo Xilai's political empire.
The sum of GDP figures reported by provinces and municipalities in 2012 was 57.66 trillion yuan, about 10% higher than the 51.93 trillion yuan calculated by the National Bureau of Statistics; the bureau said the difference was mainly due to double counting in the tiered accounting system and differences in raw data.
Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012; online rumors claim that Xi Yuanping was thereby regarded as a “prince” and that capital accelerated its penetration into the entertainment industry, a claim for which no public reports provide confirmation.
A Federal Reserve study says the total net worth of U.S. households exceeded its pre-2007 financial crisis peak at the end of 2012 and has continued to grow since then.
During Li Zhanshu's tenure as director of the CCP Central Committee General Office, the General Office successively issued rules targeting retired cadres, requiring that they not hold private gatherings, not make reckless comments about the Central Committee, not interfere in personnel arrangements, and that retired cadres obtain approval from the General Office before leaving Beijing.
On December 25, 2011, the State Council investigation team released its report on the Yongwen line accident, confirming 40 deaths and 172 injuries; prior to this, pits had been dug at the accident site to bury the locomotive, sparking public questioning.
During the expanded meeting of the Central Military Commission, Liu Yuan brought into the hall a photo of Gu Junshan's luxurious general’s residence built in Puyang, Henan, and demanded an investigation into related issues.
When the project building was nearing completion and about to start collecting rent, Shenzhen Metro Group transferred its entire 60% share to Yuanwei Enterprises.
US FBI official Sarah submitted an encrypted email to Xi Jinping detailing Wang Lijun's monitoring of calls between central leaders. Upon learning of this, Xi Jinping decided to handle the matter personally.
On July 28, 2011, the sixth day after the Wenzhou train crash, Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao rushed to Wenzhou and responded to outside questions about the timing of his arrival.
In the early morning of July 24, 2011, at the site of the Wenzhou train crash, bulldozers crushed fragments of the derailed carriages and dug pits to bury them on the spot, triggering a fierce public reaction. The Ministry of Railways later acknowledged that it had buried the locomotive.
On the evening of July 23, 2011, CRH trains D301 and D3115 on the Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway collided in Wenzhou, sending several carriages off the bridge; much of the information was sent out by passengers via Sina Weibo.