A former member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued a rebuke of Chinese President Xi Jinping and alleged the country’s leader faces widespread opposition within the party in an interview Tuesday.
“Under the regime of Xi, the Chinese Communist party is not a force for progress for China. In fact, it is an obstacle to China’s progress,” former CCP official Cai Xia told the Guardian in an English-language interview.
Cai also said that Xi’s “unchecked power” had made China “the enemy of the world” and blamed him for failing to take action against the coronavirus. “He killed a party and a country,” she said according to the transcript of the interview.
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蔡霞遭開除黨籍，取消退休待遇。 pic.twitter.com/y7IeCRUDGv— 仇志榮 (@chauchiwing) August 17, 2020
Cai was expelled from the CCP Monday after a leaked audio recording appeared online in June, the Guardian reported. Her speech denounced Xi without mentioning him by name and blamed him for for turning the CCP into a “political zombie.” (RELATED: Pompeo Blames Chinese Communist Party For Global ‘Suffering’ Due To COVID-19)
“We’ve chosen this individual [ruler] — or, I should say, those at the top propped such a person up to the leadership position,” Cai said in reference to Xi. “What does this tell us? This tells us that this system is going nowhere. It is useless to try and change it. Fundamentally speaking, this system must be abandoned.”
Cai was also a prominent professor at the Central Party School in Beijing, a higher education institution that specifically trains CCP officials, until she left for the United States last year. The school referred to Cai as “vile” and said she “maliciously smeared the image of the party and the country” in a statement obtained by the New York Times.
Cai told the Guardian she was “happy to be expelled” and said she believed there were others who wanted to leave the CCP. “I believe I am not the only one who wants to leave this party. More people would like to withdraw or quit this party,” she said. “I had intended to quit the party years ago when there was no more room to speak and my voice was completely blocked.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at The Great Hall of the People for the opening of the National People’s Congress on May 22, 2020 in Beijing, China (Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images)
Experts say that China has become more authoritarian under Xi, according to The Washington Post. The CCP removed presidential term limits and enshrined the ideology of Xi Jinping Thought in the constitution during the 2018 National People’s Congress.
Xi has also been viewed as the central figure behind China’s growing censorship and anti-corruption programs that target domestic and international dissidents, Business Insider reported. The detention of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and a power grab in Hong Kong have occurred under his presidency as well.
“Those within the party have experienced the last 20, 30 years and they understand which direction is right and which is a dead end,” Cai said.