At the end of the last newsletter, we pointed out that the flooding of Zhuozhou was not to safeguard Beijing, but to protect another little-known city called Xiong’an. Lilaoshi called it “Xi’s toy” in his YouTube video.
The Wikipedia page on Xiong’an summarizes its situation as:
Xiong’an New Area is a state-level new area in the Baoding area of Hebei, China. Established in April 2017, the area is located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) southwest of Beijing and 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of downtown Baoding. Its main function is to serve as a development hub for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jingjinji) economic triangle. Additionally, “non-core” functions of the Chinese capital are expected to migrate here, including offices of some state-owned enterprises, government agencies, and research and development facilities. The city is planned to be erected by 2035, and to be completed by the middle of the 21st century
But the city is more than that. Many people call it the “deputy capital”, or the “sub-center” of China, while Beijing is the center; and it is Xi’s pet project, considered as an important part of his “Millennium” project to revitalize the Chinese nation. The site was chosen in 2016, when Xi himself led a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee to finalize the name of the new city. In 2017 Xi went to the site for inspection and made the plan public. Local authorities had no clue until then.
Resettlement of the local people started in 2018, which was easy since there was a small population in the area. Why? Because the site is next to a big lake that is very prone to flood and has been used as a flood retention area for the Hebei-Beijing area. Since the site was chosen and made public, many articles on the risk of flood have been published by flood experts in the region, as Lilaoshi pointed out.
But ordinary people had been excluded from any discussion on such important national matters. Many Chinese believe that the government must have had a solution to such a well-known issue, right?
Right: the solution is to flood Zhuozhou, a city midway between Xiong’an and Beijing, where water flows through on its way to Baiyang lake (where Xiong’an is), via a few rivers. The levy of the rivers that protect the nearby cities were actively (and secretively) dug during the flood so that water was diverted away from Xiong’an.
Indeed, there is a news report from the Ministry of Water Resources of China, a document that proves that Zhuozhou was flooded for Xiong’an:
We must make sure of the absolute safety of the Beijing Daxing Airport and Xiong’an.
This statement of the minister was reported on August 1st, when the “shining new international airport” was flooded (we included a video in newsletter 129). A photo of Xiong’an on August 4th shows a very clean and tidy but empty city. There are very few residents living in Xiong’an.
Xiong’an government claimed no one was lost in Xiong’an and business continues as usual.
And this is a more recent photo, so modern and clean, and empty, and completely dry:
So, in a system where people have no political power, all government officials rely on their bosses for promotion: pleasing the top boss at all costs is the only way the politicians know to advance their career.
And the cost is: ordinary people. Unfortunately, they will not know it until the moment they become the cost.
That is why the government can be so cruel. Who can stop these officials? No one, not even a genie in a lamp.
To explain the reason the government treated Zhuozhou and Xiong’an so differently, we also need to explain the long-standing regional policy in China.
I remember that for a long long time, people have described the areas near Beijing as the darkest area in China. Because you need to be sacrificed for Beijing all the time. The first time I heard about it was in the 1990s when Beijing was hosting the Asia Games. The rural areas around Beijing were taxed heavily to pay for the games.
Then about 10 years ago, when Beijing was constantly in a fog of polluted air, areas around Beijing were ordered to stop using fuels. On important days, factories all had to shut down. In the winter, ordinary residents were not allowed to burn coals for heating. I remember a few years ago, on Twitter, there were many videos of Chengguan (Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau aka City management) breaking into people’s homes to destroy their coal-burning stoves, which was the only thing people used to keep themselves warm.
But, if you are living in Beijing, you are not using coal to keep yourself warm, you use gas. Why areas around Beijing could not switch to gas? Because it was too expensive compared to coal. Beijing residents were given heavy subsidies to switch to gas, while people in Hebei (around Beijing) were given so little that they could not afford to switch.
Beijing people call the current flood disaster in Hebei province evidence that Hebei government is bad at disaster management, compared to Beijing. Others reminded people of the “coal to gas” disparity to explain that the root reason is the extreme disparity of resource allocation.
Since the founding of the CCP regime, a caste system based on where one lives has been explicitly written into law to control people and give the government ultimate control of resource allocation. Beijing is the highest on the ladder — to CCP, not only because most of the ruling class lives there, but also because Beijing is the face of China to the world. When Beijing’s air pollution was at its peak, it was the headline of international news. Meanwhile, the most polluted cities in China were hundreds of kilometers away, and the pollution was much worse. But only Beijing could shut down factories around it and forced residents around it to stop using coals in the winter.
The lowest on the ladder, are, of course, the residents in rural areas. Zhuozhou is a county/city, the lowest type of county/city. According to the 2021 government census it has 260,000 rural population and 400,000 city population. The most devastated area in Zhuozhou is the rural area, but the city was not spared and, of course, got the most exposure on social media.
So, in China, everyone is on this ladder, and everyone knows where they are on this ladder. If you remember, in Newsletter 25 we introduced this Hukou system, and how people on the top (Shanghai residents) feel justified to look down on others. This system made sure this ladder is implemented in daily life with real and important consequences. The flooding of Zhuozhou and its rural areas is just one of them.
On Aug. 4th, Xi led the national leaders to Beidaihe, the seaside resort in Hebei to have their annual conference. Hebei is the the province of the flooded areas, and the only province that surrounds Beijing. Beidaihe is 3h from Beijing. Zhuozhou is 1h from Beijing. Xi has absolutely no interest to go face the people whom he sacrificed for his toy city.
He opens Beidaihe with no elders but plenty of challenges, according to Japanese media. There were even rumours that Hu Jintao, his predecessor, died already. But anyway, the way Hu was forced out of the party conference showed that Hu had absolutely no ability to constrain Xi.
Now Xi is in South Africa for the BRICS summit. State media is busy kissing Xi’s ass. The president of Xinhua News Agency penned an article claiming:
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is focused on the great changes that have not been seen in the world for a century, a strategic vision for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is a high-level, profound, rich content and a profound scientific answer to the questions of China, the world, the people, and the times, and effectively responding to the “deficit of ideology, metaphor, and leadership ” in the world today. Not only it seeks happiness for the Chinese people, rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, but also for progress for mankind, and commonwealth for the world. It is the essence of the Chinese culture and spirit of the times, as well as the ideological essence of the world’s progress and civilization, and it provides Chinese concepts, Chinese wisdom, and Chinese power for solving the common problems faced by mankind. This idea insists on thinking of the world and establishing oneself to reach out to others, injecting a strong impetus for global development and prosperity; this idea advocates that the world should be one and that we should work together in harmony, leading the right direction for the world to progress hand in hand; and this idea advocates that we should all be beautiful and that we should share the beauty of the world together, providing a spiritual leadership for the progress of human civilization.
The shamelessness of this statement is just impressive, after murdering countless people in Zhuozhou for his pet project.
The joke was originally published on Weibo, but as usual, it was deleted. The account was also killed, just as usual.
I was traveling, and I kicked something. I picked it up, it was a bronze lamp. It was a bit dirty. So I tried to clean it. A genie jumped out, he said he can make any of my wishes come true.
I said: Really? Can you make sososo, sososo?
Genie jumped onto me and covered my mouth: Can this be said?!
The joke went viral. It looks like everyone understands what sososo, sososo (啥啥啥，啥啥啥)means. Do you?
We help you: the second word can be “re mo ved” or “re pla ced” or “e ras ed”… whatever please you.
Have you already heard about the bad economic news from China? We hinted in previous newsletters, now Western media has beaten us to it, the secret is all out about the housing/financial/economic crisis happening to China now.
When I typed “Chinese economy” on google, my first suggestion is: “Chinese economy collapse”. What about your google suggestion?
So my next newsletter will try to give some insight on why all of these are happening.