What happens to Chinese Celebrities after they're Disappeared?
Happy New Year everyone! Sorry the world is still an awful place
This week, news reached us that Jack Ma, arguably China’s most important businessman, hasn’t been seen since his company Ant Group’s IPO was blocked by the Chinese government in October. Apparently, Ma is laying low and hasn’t been officially detained or arrested on any charges.
Even if he is just ‘laying low’, you can probably bet that he’s been ‘strongly advised’ to do so by the CCP. It’s quite unlikely that after being so vocal about problems with China’s financial system he would simply elect to drop out of the public eye altogether, even missing out on the finale of an African Business Talent show that he started.
There are plenty of sources for the story, which is still unfolding. But we’re not going to dive too deeply into what’s going on with Ma in particular (you can see the previous newsletter for more on that story), but rather look at the general topic of ‘missing’ people in China. The CCP seems to have a proclivity for locking up irritating famous people - politicians, celebrities, business people, activists - and it’s quite interesting to explore what happens to these people once they are detained and (if they’re lucky) released.
Why the CCP detains people
I’m probably just overthinking it, but I think I’ve spotted a pattern in the different types of disappearances. So, taking for granted that all cases of the CCP disappearing people are politically driven, you’ve basically got two reasons why people go missing:
A high profile figure such as a politician or celebrity may be engaging in behaviour or an activity that reflects badly on the CCP or China generally. As the Party has given itself the position of being responsible for the actions of all its citizens, removing those who reflect poorly on their effort to create an unblemished appearance is a priority.
CCP needs to quell potential political unrest, usually at the root cause before it develops into even a potential threat. This can be seen in cases such as the Beijing University Marxist Student Union 2019, and the ongoing situations in Xinjiang and the 12 Hong Kong protesters detained in China.
I think we can agree that Jack Ma falls squarely into category one, but a more interesting question is what determines whether or not you come out of detention alive and cowed, or are potentially never seen again. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
1. Don’t embarrass us
Do you guys remember when China’s highest paid actress Fan Bingbing disappeared for 4 months in 2018 and it turns out that she had been put under house arrest and forced to take a reeducation program and give a public apology all because she had lied about her taxes?
Now, to the simple Western mind, the answer to this problem may just have been to politely ask Fan to... pay the correct amount of taxes. An apology may or may not have been forthcoming, but it certainly would not have been coerced by the state. I certainly can’t imagine Brad Pitt being scooped up by the CIA (or IRS??) and take a course on responsible spending before being allowed to attend the Oscars.
In China, however, celebrities are not just actors or singers or people who are famous for no reason. They are considered to be people with tremendous social influence, whose public demeanour and expression is strictly controlled by the Party so that it adheres to the correct standards of socialist morality. Fan was not just guilty of tax evasion. She was guilty of ‘distorting social values’ and promoting the worship of money, two highly objectionable qualities that the CCP is keen to stamp out.
An important thing to remember is that Fan reappeared, which was in fact the whole point of her disappearing in the first place. There was no way anyone was going to miss the country’s most famous actress suddenly vanishing. The whole point was to cause a scene, instill fear, and to warn others by setting an example. It can also be interpreted as a message to the public and the world that detention and thought reform can lead to true reformation of character, and the production of correct behaviour and upstanding citizens.
In the words of Fan Bingbing herself: "It may be a trough I encountered in my life or in my work, but this trough is actually a good thing. It has made me calm down and think seriously about what I want to do in my future life."
2. Don’t try and overthrow us
The case of political dissidents is slightly different however. When it comes to people subverting the grip of the CCP on the Chinese nation, the party takes a more hardline approach to getting rid of troublemakers, often permanently. While they do sometimes get to poke their head out long enough to make a televised apology, there’s no neat court case with a convenient admission of guilt that ticks all the boxes of a civil proceeding. Instead, names are redacted, family and friends silenced, and all mention of the incident squashed until it fades from public memory.
While there are a good few well-known cases in the past few years we can point to, I thought it would be nice to highlight a probably much less known example of this kind of activity by the CCP.
In the summer of 2018, around a dozen student Marxist activists from Peking University were arrested for helping workers at a Jasic factory in Shenzhen organise a trade union in order to demand better working conditions and pay. One of the activists who has gone missing is Yue Xin, who has been a prominent activist in China after rising to fame in 2018 for her participation in #MeToo protests at Peking University.
Now, being self-proclaimed Maoists, and touting rhetoric taught in mandatory classes at Chinese universities, it may seem surprising that these students were targeted. However, their crime is not adhering too closely to state ideology, but rather using that ideology to undermine the state itself, and doing a pretty good job of it too.
Instead of acknowledging the workers’ rights abuses taking place at the factory, the government gave no official response, allowing the main organisers to be fired and the students to be abducted by plain-clothes officers. As revealed in this anonymous blog post by a fellow student, the whole terrifying situation involved intimidation tactics, covert operatives, and manipulation of family members.
In January of 2019, having not heard from their classmates for almost half a year, student activists at different elite universities were forced to watch taped confessions of the detained student activists, a further effort to demoralise student-led movements on campus. The students in the videos confessed to trying to subvert the state, and some to working with foreign powers to hurt China’s image.
Today, there are no updates about the students. There’s been radio silence on Yue Xin and her classmates since January 2019, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.* In case you’re interested in hearing more about activists currently detained in China without visibility or trial, the Made in China Journal has a list that you can access here.
A case of privilege?
So what’s the difference between the two categories? On the surface it seems as if there’s one rule for famous people, and one rule for ordinary folk who have no money or power. Personally, I don’t think it’s quite that straightforward. There have been celebrities who have left China permanently for fear of what may happen to them, knowing that if they were caught by authorities they would never be seen again.
After all, former Premier of China Zhao Ziyang was put under house arrest for the rest of his life after annoying people in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square. Liu Xiaobo is another example of a Chinese celebrity (prominent writer) who never managed to outrun the CCP, and ended up dying in prison, the circumstances of his death hidden from his wife, and his body cremated without ceremony. I think it’s more a case of the kind of crime committed, and the fact that no matter who you are or where you are, the long arm of the CCP will get you.
To elaborate, we can look to the case of Meng Hongwei, former Interpol President and head of Public security in China. In an article less about Meng and more about China and Interpol that I read, the author writes about how China shouldn’t even be let in to the organisation, let alone be allowed to run the show, as it basically uses the agency as a way to sniff out dissidents and political stowaways, track them down, and ship them back to China.
He adds that in China, there is no distinction between a common criminal and a political one, both are charged under the same rubric and, in some cases, being a political criminal is much, much worse. He adds that Meng’s abduction had nothing to do with his alleged corruption, as if he was corrupt so was everyone else who got him to that position and, besides, everyone in the CCP is basically corrupt (you have to be to get that high up) so that term is completely meaningless.
The problem was that Meng was a threat to Xi Jinping’s power, a member of a different political clique, one belonging to another high ranking party member who was very conveniently brought down as part of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign. It’s long been rumoured that the campaign is just a means for Xi to get rid of potential rivals. I think this is partly true, though I do think it’s also a very important legitimacy stunt for the party as well. Either way, the abduction and disappearance game in China basically boils down to politics.
So where does Ma fit in? While he doesn’t pose a threat to the CCP’s regime as a whole, as an outspoken critic of market socialism and someone who would arguably have more control over personal finances in China than the government in 10 years’ time, he is certainly a threat of sorts. The CCP’s play will probably be to curtail Ma’s powers, limiting the capacity in which his businesses are allowed to operate, and forcing Ma to bend the knee and cow him through public apology.
While it’s not the end of the road for the billionaire by any means, it will certainly be a harsh change in trajectory, and a strong warning to anyone wanting to make changes to any aspect China faster than the CCP is willing to go.
So here’s a tip. If you’re planning on going to China and embezzling huge sums of money, trying your hand at a bit laundering, or just don’t feel like paying your taxes, just make sure you don’t criticise the CCP or inadvertently try to topple the political regime in the process. It could be the difference between having to give an embarrassing public apology and never seeing your loved ones again.
[*Knowing that it would yield absolutely no results, I decided to search for any news of her on Baidu, China’s answer to Google, using both the romanised spelling and Chinese characters of her name. All I could find were some obscure articles referencing a sex-ed talk she gave to some rural students back in 2015. No mention of recent events, no mention of her current whereabouts.]
References
Al Jazeera, China: Trials begin for 10 of the ‘Hong Kong 12’ detained at sea
Business Insider, Fan Bingbing appears to thank China for disappearing her for 4 months: 'It has made me calm down and think seriously'
CNN Business, Where is Jack Ma? Tech tycoon silent as China gets tough with his business
Made in China Journal,Lest We Forget: The Missing Chinese Activists of 2019
Made In China Journal,Remembering Liu Xiaobo One Year On
Sky News, Jack Ma: China's troubled technology tycoon 'laying low' after clash with Beijing
The Guardian, Fan Bingbing’s mysterious disappearance: what it means for China’s elite
The Guardian, Where is Jack Ma? Chinese tycoon not seen since October
The Heritage Foundation, Why China Shouldn’t Run Interpol