China’s authoritarian reality extends far beyond North Korea.
The disappearance of tycoons and mysterious deaths in prison reveal a regime under Xi Jinping that enforces loyalty through fear and political “loyalty tests.”
At the same time, China wields veto power as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council while conducting anti-Japan propaganda and attempting to confine Japan to a political prisoner’s position.
The international community’s long-standing tolerance of this dangerous structure must now be confronted and questioned.

2017-02-17

The terror of dictatorship is not limited to North Korea alone.
On February 15, a disturbing fact was delivered via the Nikkei Asia online edition.
Emphasis and the asterisk in the text are mine.
On New Year’s Eve before the Chinese Lunar New Year, a prominent Chinese billionaire vanished from an apartment in the Four Seasons Hotel, a landmark on Hong Kong Island.
He is believed to have been forcibly taken to mainland China by members of the so-called “powerful departments,” state authorities that act without regard for the law.
His name is Xiao Jianhua.
He was only forty-five years old.
Under China’s opaque political system, the full truth behind such a shocking incident may never be revealed.
The disappearance continues to have far-reaching consequences.
On February 11, the Chinese economic magazine Caixin reported online that the president of the government-affiliated economic newspaper Securities Daily had been investigated for violations of party discipline and stripped of party membership.
The effective major shareholder of Securities Daily was Xiao Jianhua’s company, Tomorrow Group.
The purge of a media executive is no trivial matter.
Tomorrow Group, led by the enigmatic tycoon Xiao Jianhua, has long been linked to several companies surrounded by troubling rumors within China’s business world.
These include Luneng Group, a Shandong-based conglomerate, and China Minsheng Bank, China’s first private commercial bank.
The Chinese economic magazine Caijing once reported allegations that the son of former Vice President Zeng Qinghong had privatized Luneng for personal gain, sparking major controversy.
Zeng Qinghong, a heavyweight in the petroleum faction, was a close associate of former President Jiang Zemin and a key figure within the so-called Shanghai faction.
Xiao Jianhua is believed to have possessed sensitive information as a “political businessman,” holding secrets involving the relatives of numerous political leaders.
This reportedly included movements connected to the relatives of Xi Jinping himself.
He was, in other words, a man who knew too much.
The Xi administration has, in the past, acted preemptively whenever it sensed danger.
There is a relevant case that sheds light on the Xiao Jianhua incident.
In December 2015, an incident occurred in Shanghai.
Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun Group, a massive Shanghai-based investment firm, suddenly disappeared.
He was taken into custody by authorities at a Shanghai airport.
Guo Guangchang is a regular among the top ranks of China’s richest individuals.
He is often referred to as “China’s Warren Buffett,” after the famous American investor.
Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart, in which Fosun Group invested, acquired one hundred percent of the shares of Hoshino Resorts Tomamu in Hokkaido.
The famous resort operator Club Med is also part of Fosun’s portfolio.
The political message sent by the Xi administration through Xiao Jianhua’s disappearance is singular and unmistakable.
“If you do not side with us, you will pay the price.”
It is a clear threat.
Opportunism will not be tolerated.
This is the slogan of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
In other words, one is being forced to make one’s allegiance explicit.
It is, quite literally, a loyalty test.
In China, even well-known corporate leaders face death if they misjudge how to conduct themselves.
There is precedent.
Dalian Shide Group, based in Liaoning Province in northeastern China, was a major corporation that owned one of the country’s leading professional soccer teams.
Its owner, Xu Ming, vanished into the darkness of political struggle.
Xu Ming had served as the clandestine “treasurer” for Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing Party Secretary who later received a life sentence, dating back to Bo’s tenure as the top official in Dalian.
This “man who knew too much” was imprisoned as part of Bo Xilai’s downfall.
In December 2015, just before completing his sentence and being released, Xu Ming died under mysterious circumstances in prison.
He was only forty-four years old.
*Such a country not only holds veto power as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
It also wages anti-Japan propaganda against Japan, a nation that stands alongside the United States as one of the world’s highest embodiments of intellect and freedom.
It works behind the scenes to confine Japan to the position of a political prisoner.
What, then, was the international community that allowed such a state of affairs to persist for so long?