As virus recedes in China, anti-Xi revolt spreads

Party scion attacks 'clown' president amid mounting opposition fueled by public anger over handling of epidemic
by Frank Chen March 23, 2020

Chinese realty tycoon Ren Zhiqiang is known in the Chinese Communist Party for being an outspoken maverick. Ren, former chief of Beijing Huayuan Group, a state-owned developer, again managed to stoke fresh opposition to Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month with an opinion piece that went viral. In his tirade crucifying the top leader, Ren called Xi a “clown” and likened him to the emperor in the famous story by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen.

Ren, a member of the party’s princeling clique whose father served as a deputy commerce minister under Mao Zedong, did not mince his words when deprecating Xi’s handling of the pneumonic plague in a post headlined “An official call to arms against Xi: The clown who insists on wearing the emperor’s new clothes.”

He said it was “a whistle in the wind” for Xi and his underlings to muzzle people’s simmering anger amid the rampant cover-ups and underreporting following the viral outbreak in Wuhan that began at the end of 2019, and that Xi himself deserved a fair share of the blame due to his inaction and measures implemented too late. -- excerpt, rest at link above --