River water flows east ...
James Palmer reminds us in Foreign Policy that deaths of CCP leaders are
sometimes … inconvenient. Announcement of a death may be delayed
by hours or days while CCP figures out what the death means. Deng
Xiaoping’s death was not reported immediately. Jiang Zemin was not
nearly so popular as Deng, but he was known as not-so-loyal opposition to
Xi Jinping. His death amid virus-related protests including denunciations of Xi
everywhere in China requires some … consideration.
On November 30 Shanghai blogger Qin Feng reported – pointedly,
again, in the same words - jiang shui dong liu qu the river water flows
to the east. She had posted that on November 13 and her wechat
was immediately blocked by CCP. She posted it again yesterday.
I have no information about any relationship of Qin Feng to the Jiang family.
It is possible that she is the daughter of an acquaintance of the family from
many years ago, or that someone in her family worked for Jiang at one time.
It is possible that she is just making stuff up. There has been a Jiang death
watch for years now. He was 96.
No matter. Since we are returning rapidly to an information-free China, when speculation and
conspiracy theories are all we have to go on, I'm going with this. Qin had some inside
information from about two weeks ago. Her post was odd – what could it mean? The Jiang could be
a reference to Jiang Zemin. This odd post was then blocked by CCP. When she regained her
access to wechat - after Jiang's death was announced - she posted it again.
There is the joke about eastern European political intrigue, when nations were competing frantically
both publicly and surreptitiously. Deception was the order of the day. A meeting was scheduled
between two fierce opponents, meant to clear the air at least a little. Hours before the meeting,
the chief negotiator on one side died. Hearing of the death, the lead on the other side mused.
"Died? I wonder what he means by that."
Et tu, Jiang.
