Wake up（371）

371

 

At a gathering at the Cafe Bau restaurant in Hong Kong, Bai Yu, the former dean of the Central Plains College of Humanities, spoke highly of Hu Jintao in a chat. Although psychology professor Shen Zhirui and sociology professor Hong Wenxuan disagreed with him, they did not refute them. Nanyangsheng, Wanru, Qin Xiling, Lin Beixue, Shen Haidong, Zhou Yuzhong and other doctoral students who attended the party just quietly listened to the old dean's high-spirited talk.

Dean Bai Yu, who is full of nationalism, still introduces Hu Jintao's performance in power to the young students at that time in detail with his persistent red ideas.

Dean Bai Yu said:

The first major challenge Hu Jintao faced after taking office was the SARS epidemic, which began to spread in Guangdong Province, China in November 2002. However, the local government did not announce the epidemic in time. Although there was a short-term panic at that time, the official media But rarely reported. The incident did not expand until February of the following year. At that time, the disease spread to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and North America. More and more media began to suspect that the epidemic situation in mainland Chinese cities such as Guangdong and Beijing was more serious than the official report. However, Chinese officials did not initially willing to admit. After the two sessions in April 2003, due to Dr. Jiang Yanyong's public disclosure of the epidemic, the Chinese government changed its previous practice and publicly admitted that SARS had indeed caused serious harm to many provinces and cities in mainland China.

Furious, Hu Jintao dismissed Zhang Wenkang, the minister of health who concealed the epidemic, and Meng Xuenong, the mayor of Beijing, who had just taken office.

The approach of Hu Jintao's new leadership has been widely praised by the international media. The Chinese government also allowed WHO experts to enter China to learn about the epidemic, which is also unprecedented.

Dean Bai Yu sighed: Hu Jintao's firm handling of the sudden epidemic is completely different from the handling methods and measures of the new crown epidemic that has been cleared for three years.

Dean Baiyu also talked about the Hebei flood that flooded Zhuozhou and the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan:

Everyone is very concerned about the flood discharge in Hebei and the flooding of Zhuozhou. When the rivers and rivers in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Northeast regions were overflowing, when the floods were flooding, there was no leader from the central government who was on the front line of the floods. Xi Jinping still followed the usual practice and led the party, government and military officials to Beidaihe for vacation. Xinhua News Agency's long-form report on August 5 covered all Chinese official media: "Through the wind and rain, the people are supreme - the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core is strong and powerful in commanding Beijing's flood control and disaster relief." In fact, even the People's Liberation Army did not send to the scene of the flood to rescue. Why has Xi Jinping never been to the front line of disaster relief? What does the absence of Li Qiang and other CCP members reflect the state of mind of the Xi Jinping government? Is the leadership style of this CCP government "people first" or Xi Jinping first? Dean Bai Yu was obviously angry: the king treats his ministers like dirt, but the ministers treat the king like a bandit. The sky was full of floods, the land was full of vengeance, and whoever the ministers persuaded him to go would seek death.

Dean Bai Yu said: Now China’s domestic Internet and self-media are expressing their dissatisfaction with Xi Jinping by reposting a large number of videos and photos of former CCP leaders such as Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, Zhu Rongji, Wen Jiabao, and Li Keqiang in person on the front line of flood fighting. Some netizens even questioned: Ask Xinhua News Agency, dare to ask General Secretary Xi where he personally directs.

At 14:28:04 on May 12, 2008, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale occurred in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province. It was the most destructive earthquake since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it was also the one with the heaviest casualties after the Tangshan Earthquake. The directly and severely affected areas amounted to 100,000 square kilometers, with a total of 69,227 to 300,000 people killed, 374,643 injured, 17,923 missing, and direct economic losses amounted to 845.2 billion yuan. The earthquake caused a total of 845.1 billion yuan in direct economic losses in the disaster areas in Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi and other provinces. The health, housing, school buildings, communications, transportation, public security, landforms, water conservancy, ecology, and minority cultures in the disaster areas were severely damaged.

Dean Bai Yu said: The earthquake disaster caused a strong response from the people, and the whole of China and even the world donated money and aid, with a cumulative amount of more than 50 billion yuan. The teachers and students of our Central Plains College of Humanities also organized donation aid activities.

At that time, the Chinese military mobilized the largest team since the peace era to carry out disaster relief. A large number of volunteers from the Chinese people and professional humanitarian rescue teams from all over China and other countries in the world also joined in the disaster relief.

In the first seven days after the disaster, the Chinese government set up a national mourning day for the public for the first time. After the earthquake, the Chinese government adopted the principle of "one province helps one county" and spent three years rebuilding the earthquake-stricken area, and planned to basically achieve the goal by 2010. At the beginning of 2012, Jiang Jufeng, the governor of Sichuan Province at the time, announced the completion of the reconstruction.

Hu Jintao's reputation is obvious to all. In order to keep Xiong'an, Hebei was sacrificed, and the flood was released without warning, causing Zhuozhou to be flooded, millions of residents were affected, and countless casualties were lost. The essence is to save the dictator's face!

Dean Bai Yu, who is full of nationalism, seems to have changed. He said angrily: Xinjiang independence and Tibet independence are happening in China now, and ethnic conflicts are intensifying. However, large-scale riots and violent crimes occurred in both Tibet and Xinjiang during Hu Jintao's tenure. Wu Jinghua, who was Secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Communist Party of China at the time, had limited ability to handle local affairs and fell ill continuously due to overwork. In January 1989, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to replace Wu Jingtao as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region by Hu Jintao. Hu Jintao also became the first Secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region without military background.

The situation Hu Jintao faced in Tibet was far more complicated than when he was in Guizhou. Shortly after he took office, the Tenth Panchen Lama Erdeni passed away in Shigatse on January 28, 1989 at the age of 51 due to a sudden myocardial infarction. Although the Central Committee sent people together with Hu Jintao to try their best to organize the rescue of the Panchen Lama when he was seriously ill, visited the upper circles of Tibetan Buddhism, and held a grand funeral for the Panchen Lama, the efforts to appease the society were still limited.

Since then, under the spread of a series of rumors and emotions, people who demand Tibet's independence began to hold demonstrations and a series of riots broke out, making the situation extremely tense. There are still few relevant records about Hu Jintao during the riots in Lhasa, but according to the "Hu Jintao Selected Works", on March 8, 1989, the central government declared martial law in Lhasa, and the Tibetan Party Committee under the leadership of Hu Jintao responded quickly, decisively dealt with the riots, and quickly recovered. Social order was disrupted, and martial law was lifted on May 1, 1990. This incident is said to have made Deng Xiaoping and other top CCP officials believe that Hu Jintao acted resolutely and was loyal to the party and the country, which made Hu Jintao further appreciated and affirmed, and laid the foundation for his promotion a few years later. On April 30, 1990, Hu Jintao delivered a speech, defining the quelling of the riots in Lhasa as a major victory in Tibet's anti-separatist struggle, and pointed out that separatist forces at home and abroad, the Dalai Lama, Taiwan independence and other separatists are still hidden dangers in Tibetan society. As for the anecdotes about Hu Jintao appearing on the streets of Lhasa in military uniform during the riots, there is no concrete evidence to support them, so they are still only rumors.

Dean Bai Yu talked about the Taiwan issue again: now the relationship between the two sides of the strait is tense, and it seems that war is about to break out. Taiwan has become a minefield for the South China Sea issue. However, during Hu Jintao's administration, on March 14, 2005, the National People's Congress voted and passed the "Anti-Secession Law", which is considered to have safeguarded national unity and territorial integrity from a legal point of view. In 2005, Lien Chan, then chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang, visited the mainland. Hu Jintao met and held talks with him. This was the first meeting between the leaders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in 60 years. In the same month, James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, also visited the mainland, and Hu Jintao received him with the same courtesy.

In 2003, when Hu Jintao took office as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait opened direct charter flights for Taiwanese businessmen for the Spring Festival for the first time. After the Kuomintang returned to power in Taiwan in 2008, a series of substantive progress has been made in the cross-strait policy. On the basis of the original "miniature three links", direct charter flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been opened on weekends, and since 2009 the charter flights have been changed to regular flights. In June 2008, the ARATS and the SEF jointly signed the "Agreement on Traveling to Taiwan by Mainland Residents across the Taiwan Strait" in Beijing, and in July of the same year, group tours for mainland Chinese residents to Taiwan were opened. Since 2011, some urban residents have been allowed to go to Taiwan for individual visits.

President Bai Yu talked about Hu Jintao's foreign policy again:

Now China is under economic, technological, financial, military and other sanctions from most countries in the world, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also broke out a Qin Gang incident. But it is worth mentioning that during most of the period when Hu Jintao was in power, the relationship between China and major countries with diplomatic relations was generally stable without relatively large fluctuations. Hu Jintao pursued a policy of good-neighborliness and friendship, advocated all-round diplomacy, and focused on improving relations with China's neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. Relations between China-US, China-Japan, China-Russia, and China-EU are also relatively stable.

On May 9, 1999, Hu Jintao made a televised speech on the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia as the vice president of the country, expounding the attitude of the Chinese government and affirming the rallies and demonstrations in various places.

After 2010, Sino-Japanese relations encountered a series of fluctuations. At that time, Japan detained the captain of a Chinese fishing boat, which caused diplomatic disputes. In 2012, China took a series of countermeasures against the Japanese government’s “purchase” of the Diaoyu Islands; on the South China Sea issue, China responded in a timely and appropriate manner, and at the same time actively promoted maritime dialogue and cooperation with ASEAN countries, effectively maintaining regional stability. Hu Jintao said: "On the issue of the Diaoyu Islands, China's position is consistent and clear. Any means by the Japanese side to 'purchase the islands' is illegal and invalid, and China firmly opposes it. The Chinese government stands firm on the issue of maintaining territorial sovereignty." The Japanese side must fully understand the seriousness of the situation, refrain from making wrong decisions, and work with the Chinese side to safeguard the overall development of China-Japan relations."

Dean Bai Yu said again:

In addition, during the Hu Jintao period, China also dealt with the 2005 bird flu epidemic, the 2008 severe snowstorm in the south, the 2009 H1N1 influenza epidemic, the 2010 Qinghai Yushu earthquake, the 2010 southern and northern severe floods, and the 2010 Gansu boat disaster. Qu extra large mudslides, major train accidents on the Yongwen Line in 2011 and other public events.

Since 2007, terrorist incidents in China have increased significantly. The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has experienced many terrorist attacks on the police and bombings, including the 2008 Kashgar attack and the Kuqa bombing, the 2011 July 18 violent terrorist incident in Hotan, and the Kashgar violent terrorist attack. In addition, there have also been terrorist incidents targeting civilian airliners, such as the attempted bombing of China Southern Airlines flight 3.7 (2008) and the hijacking of Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554 (2012). Most of the terrorist incidents occurred in the early stage of large-scale events in China (such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics) and caused huge repercussions at home and abroad, such as the 2008 Kunming bus bombing and several incidents in Xinjiang. But Hu Jintao has successfully dealt with it.

According to the principle established by the CCP that leaders can serve two consecutive terms at most, the 69-year-old Hu Jintao stepped down as the general secretary of the CCP Central Committee and chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission after the election of a new Central Committee at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2012. Xi Jinping took over. Hu Jintao became the first non-lifetime supreme leader to hand over all power at once after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Since then, Hu Jintao has officially retired, ending his more than 40 years of political career and more than 20 years of career at the top.

After retirement, Hu Jintao seldom appeared in public, but after the death of important people, he can also be seen attending mourning or sending wreaths, such as Wan Li, Qiao Shi, Ni Zhifu, Bu He, Wang Guangying, Sima Yi Aimai Ti, Chen Jinhua, Zhao Nanqi, Qian Qichen, Wang Guoquan, Zhang Zhen, Liu Fuzhi and others' remains farewell ceremony. On December 5, 2022, Hu Jintao went to the farewell room of the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to bid farewell to the late former leader Jiang Zemin, but missed the memorial service held the next day.

Professors Shen Zhirui and Hong Wenxuan agreed with President Bai Yu's evaluation of Hu Jintao. Shen Zhirui added: Although Hu Jintao was Xi Jinping's immediate predecessor, in the past 10 years, he has not had any real power in the party. Hu Jintao is considered a representative of the "Tuan faction" within the CCP. This faction was founded by Hu Yaobang, the former general secretary of the Communist Party of China, after the Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s, Hu Jintao, secretary of the provincial party committee in Guizhou Province, was inspired by Hu Yaobang's democratic reforms. He once led a local "democracy salon" to encourage young people and party members to participate in state affairs and promote democratic discussions at the grassroots level. His training and attention to youth is also another bright spot in his life.