China Briefing | China’s Donald Trump: loud and proud Ren Zhiqiang offers a litmus test for opinion inside the Communist Party
If Donald Trump has a counterpart in China, that person has to be Ren Zhiqiang, a property tycoon who recently retired from a leading real estate company owned by the Beijing municipal government.
Like Trump, Ren is loud, outspoken, and controversial. He appears to enjoy provoking debate by offering sarcastic and contrarian comments on mainland politics, economic policies and social issues. As a veteran Communist Party member, he is supposed to be part of the elite group who have benefited greatly from the party’s policies but he has made his mark as a maverick, offering snide comments, particularly on handling of the mainland’s chaotic property market. For instance, whenever the central government tried to rein in runaway property prices in the last few years, he would counter that the policies were doomed to failure and the poor should feel ashamed if they could not afford a home. His views have earned him the nickname “Big Cannon Ren” and about 38 million followers on his microblogs.
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What is more remarkable is that although his comments often run completely against party policy and invite strong criticism from the official media he has been largely left alone. In fact, has been singled out as a model party member and showered with other commendations, giving the impression that many policy makers are among his followers.
But that is likely to change, judging by the storm of criticism against Ren orchestrated by an increasingly combative group of leftists over his direct questioning of President Xi Jinping’s comments on the role and the purpose of the official media.
On February 19, Xi spent the morning making a high-profile visit to three of the mainland’s most important media groups: Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and China Central Television. In the afternoon he chaired a meeting of top editors of all major media outlets.
His message was clear: all media outlets, from top party mouthpieces to commercial tabloids and social media, must align themselves with the leadership of the party, toe the party line, and embrace the fact that their “surname is the party”. It was widely seen as a signal of the leadership’s intent to exercise tighter control over the media amid slowing economic growth and unprecedented challenges to the party’s legitimacy.