EJ InsightToday, 15:50
As Chinese authorities continue their investigations over a letter published online earlier this month calling on President Xi Jinping to step down, another similar open letter has surfaced on a website this week.
According to Apple Daily, independent news website mingjingnews.com carried Tuesday an open letter that seeks Xi’s removal from office.
The letter, purportedly from a group of 171 Chinese Communist Party members, was published online before being taken down quickly, it said.
The message, which was titled “A note to all members of the party, army and nationals on the removal of duties of Xi Jinping”, first emerged on the website at 6:03 am, according to the report.
The note accused Xi of five serious mistakes, including the building up of a personality cult, damaging the rule of law and exercising dictatorship, and ignoring livelihood issues within China.
It called for an urgent meeting of all party members to demand the ouster of Xi.
The letter quickly vanished from the website, but still got shared widely on the Internet as some readers managed to save the content.
The latest incident follows a similar open letter that surfaced in the first week of March on Wujie News, a website with links to the Chinese state.
In that letter, people claiming to be loyal Communist Party members urged Xi to step down “for the future of the country and the people”.
The letter was also pulled from the website quickly.
Chinese authorities are said to have detained about 20 people in connection with that incident.
In other media-related news, Chinese columnist and former Southern Metropolis Daily editor Chang Ping, who is now residing in Germany, said his family members in China have been “kidnapped” recently by public security police.
The actions came after Chang published articles that inquired about the whereabouts and safety of young columnist Jia Jia, who was believed to have been kidnapped earlier this month at the Beijing airport when he was about to travel to Hong Kong.
Chang said his relatives in China were framed on bizarre charges of causing a hill fire by sweeping ancestors’ graves.
Chang also said that his family members were forced to pass on messages to him that he should not publish any more articles critical of the Beijing administration.
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