Chinese Tycoon Who Criticized Xi’s Response to Coronavirus Has Vanished (original) (raw)

Asia Pacific|Chinese Tycoon Who Criticized Xi’s Response to Coronavirus Has Vanished

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/world/asia/china-ren-zhiqiang.html

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Ren Zhiqiang appears to be the latest government critic silenced by the Communist Party as it cracks down on dissent over the epidemic.

Ren Zhiqiang in 2012. He recently called Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “a clown who stripped naked and insisted on continuing to be an emperor.”Credit...Color China Photo, via Associated Press

Published March 14, 2020Updated Sept. 22, 2020

His nickname in China was “The Cannon,” and Ren Zhiqiang’s latest commentary was among his most explosive yet.

Mr. Ren, an outspoken property tycoon in Beijing, wrote in a scathing essay that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, was a power-hungry “clown.” He said the ruling Communist Party’s strict limits on free speech had exacerbated the coronavirus epidemic.

Now Mr. Ren, one of the most prominent critics of Mr. Xi in mainland China, is missing, his friends said on Saturday.

His disappearance comes amid a far-reaching campaign by the party to quash criticism of its slow, secretive initial response to the epidemic, which has killed over 3,100 people in China and sickened more than 80,000.

The Chinese government is working to portray Mr. Xi as a hero who is leading the country to victory in a “people’s war” against the virus. But officials are contending with deep anger from the Chinese public, with many people still seething over the government’s early efforts to conceal the crisis.

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