By Zhong Yige

The simultaneous Two Sessions [the annual, coinciding sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference] are about to be held, and in preparation a high-pressure stability-maintenance campaign has been launched across the country. Many petitioners and human-rights activists have been detained one after another, and the police at major intersections leading into Beijing have been on high alert, in order to demonstrate a so-called political peace to the outside world. As conflicts between officials and the public gradually increase, even under these high-pressure tactics by the Chinese Communist Party, undercurrents are surging everywhere among the people.

On the eve of this year’s Two Sessions, CCP authorities hastily promulgated the “National Emergency Response Plan” to create a so-called “harmonious society,” in order to further consolidate their regime.

It is worth noting that Party authorities issued this plan knowing that “loyalty incidents” had occurred frequently in various places over the past year, and an inexplicable yet stark fear had already formed in the hearts of the people. Furthermore, with the economic recession becoming increasingly obvious, people’s livelihoods are already in question.

At a recent press conference, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the CCP stated that “it will severely crack down on vicious social incidents.” The authorities in particular cited the serial murder case of 35 people in Zhuhai, Guangdong last year and the fatal murder case at a university in Jiangxi. Statistics show that there were such murder cases almost every month in China in the second half of last year.

CCP authorities have issued many similar plans in the past. Yet under the current situation in Chinese society, episodes of civil unrest may occur at any time, and public opinion is one of the main reasons why the CCP will eventually fall from power.

That’s exactly why the CCP has always ignored public opinion. On the one hand, they continue to tout the rise of the brainwashing film “Nezha 2” [full Chinese title 哪吒之魔童闹海, an animated sequel that in 2025 is proving successful inside and outside of China] roughly under the banner of so-called patriotism, which many knowledgeable young people sneer at. On the other hand, the cadres who “lie down” and do as they are told have failed one after another in order to protect their own position rather than consider the interests of the people. These so-called “prosperous and peaceful times” are nothing but the country advancing and the people retreating [a play on words for the economic policy in recent years of state-owned firms advancing and market firms declining]; the so-called economically strong country is ultimately nothing but false prosperity.

Judging from all available data, these days of foreign-capital withdrawal and shrinking private enterprises are not easy. In such a crisis-ridden situation, the CCP’s promulgation of such a plan is nothing more than tilting at the wind.

At the same time, in this plan the CCP also acknowledged its embarrassing situation in the social environment. The plan states that “social-security incidents mainly include criminal cases and terrorist, mass, ethnic and religious incidents, as well as financial, foreign-related and other emergencies that affect the market and social stability. Various emergencies are often interrelated, and may occur at the same time or trigger secondary and derivative events.”

Events such as the arrest of Ma Yuwei, a well-known imam in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, by the CCP police, which led to a large gathering of local Muslims, and the diagnosis of public dissident and Jiangxi woman Li Yixue as mentally ill, which prompted people from all over the country to respond to this stability-maintenance program, all show that the plan was issued precisely because of rising public anger, which has made the eunuchs who once trampled on the people worried, fearing that they will be liquidated in the future.

For the Chinese Communist Party, which strictly implements a policy of maintaining stability, the issuance of this plan also indicates that this work will become increasingly arduous during the Two Sessions as well as in the future. However, under the serious current situation in which fiscal revenues at all levels are insufficient to cover expenditures, the burden on grassroots CCP police will only increase, and they will eventually become overwhelmed by the need to maintain stability.

From the perspective of consolidating the CCP’s own power, the plan is also a form of self-protection in the event of a regime crisis. In the context of economic depression, this kind of self-protective behavior cannot be acknowledged by many CCP grassroots police officers, who only care about their own economic interests. Young police officers who grew up in the Internet environment will also continue to accumulate resentment in their hearts because of the chaos among officialdom and the low income they receive, and eventually waves of opposition from within will continuously increase.

Thinking about the CCP’s political history, there has never been a period that was not full of crises. The fundamental reason is that the CCP would rather continue to put old wine in new bottles and walk the old path in new shoes than embrace the world with a normal mindset.

Li Wenliang, the doctor from Hubei who blew the whistle on the COVID-19 outbreak in China, once said, “A healthy society cannot have only one voice.” During the three years when the new coronavirus was raging, the CCP also realized that its ability to deal with emergencies had long since failed, especially because the extreme lockdown of the new coronavirus epidemic eventually caused people in Beijing, Shanghai and other places to take to the streets to express their demands, which shocked the international community.

The CCP has ruled the country for decades, and many accumulated ills in society have now erupted. With the unemployment wave, the collapse of the real-estate market, local governments’ high debt, etc., people’s lives are  becoming more difficult at this time. After experiencing three years of extreme lockdown policies due to the epidemic, the Chinese people also know how to think about making change, and the thing the CCP is most worried about will happen.

Often, when a social crisis breaks out, the slavish public servants at the bottom will ignore the opposition of the people and merely amass empty political achievements to lay the foundation for their future career. But “while water can carry a boat, it can also capsize it.” Any plan that does not get to the root of the problem and induce actual change will only end up making matters worse

This piece was translated from Yibao Chinese. If republished, please be sure to add the source and link  https://www.yibao.net/?p=247971&preview=true before the text when reposting.

The author’s point of view does not necessarily represent that of this journal.