foreign [Music] game plan I'm gauri dwivedi and in this episode I will take you through the weaknesses and anxieties plaguing China and its top leadership rapidly falling population growing inequalities and increase skepticism of XI jinping's policies are just some of the social tensions that China is undergoing XI jinping's aim to further tighten his grip over China is inching him closer towards a totalitarian regime where individual rights and personal space is under siege are celebrities companies business tycoons just about anyone who has the power to mobilize ordinary Chinese citizens [Music] foreign [Music] if there is one
fear that the Chinese Communist party has it is the narrative that popular groups and individuals with large fan following can shape being popular is now an anathema in she's China simply because one is perceived as a challenge and a threat to the political and Social Status Quo it is not a coincidence that popular celebrities actresses and Sport stars have all been silenced and she's China the fear gripping leaders in chongnan high is that these influential voices could become catalysts for a larger political movement that may threaten the delicate balance between the party and the people
is the extremely private compound in Beijing where Chinese leaders live in complete secrecy can do it and the top question on their mind is whether they're packed with the post-economic boom generation in China is still tenable since then drop in opened gateway to economic Prosperity the party has advised citizens to choose access to Services over political accountability and Democratic freedom this Unwritten quote between the Chinese people and the Communist party has been tested in the past but the Communist Party leadership has been able to tide over such social crisis Xi Jinping is also making a
similar attempt with the launch of the common Prosperity program that is meant to reassure citizens that they will prosper only under his leadership and continued tenure but even the out of bounds chongnan Hai cannot contain the discomfort the Chinese Communist leadership have due to the shaky nature of the decades-long political balance which till now had been the Hallmark of Chinese governance following XI jinping's clamped down on political dissent social activism and the slightest sign of ideological liberalism widespread and extensive crackdowns are now The New Normal one of the biggest casualties have been women celebrities one
are regularly being targeted by the Communist Party the crackdowns which began from 2019 were intended to wipe out some of the biggest movie stars in Chinese entertainment industry on 27th of August 2021 one of China's most prominent actresses Chao Wei was suddenly scrubbed off the internet overnight her fan page on weibo which is China's heavily censored version of Twitter was also shut down movies and television shows ciao had starred in were taken off streaming platforms with even her name removed from the credit lists overnight the Angelina Jolie of Chinese entertainment industry was deleted from the
internet but way was not alone broadcasters and video sites were also instructed to remove the works of Zheng shuang she is another top draw in Chinese entertainment circuit who was fined a whopping 46 million dollars in a tax evasion case she was caught in a surrogacy scandal in 2021 and months later the punitive fines showed the extent of damage it had caused to XI jinping's carefully crafted common Prosperity pitch surrogacy is banned in China though the law is silent on going overseas to have children through surrogacy Chang's decision was perceived as violative of the party's
efforts to boost birth rates and incentivize women to have more children China's entertainment industry has repeatedly fallen into the crosshairs of the ruling Chinese Communist Party following president XI jinping's desire to rule forever which requires complete and total control of China well it's the entertainment sector which is always the one that sort of runs wild because these artists you know you just can't control them they're they're wacky people they don't have they have a sense of moral value but they don't actually have a great political Acumen so uh I remember I mean this is in
China I can I'll divert to Iraq for a second and I was having this conversation when Saddam was in power with a a university Professor down in Basra and the same thing was happening but it was the other way around so that this University was under sanctions from the UN so it couldn't get books and it couldn't and and he couldn't get an instrument for his student and he said well I don't know why they don't let this happen because if you're going to have a revolt against a government like this it will begin in
the universities it will begin with the music and the literature and all of that sort of and the art so I think that you know if you're a civil servant sitting in Beijing and you're told you know you must stop any risk of spreading anti-trainage propaganda you're going to go after the writers and the musicians and the artists even though they might not know what on Earth is so bad and they're just rap people or something like that Charles Erasure came as a list of out-of-line celebrities that were ostensibly blacklisted by China's authorities surfaced on
the social media obviously mochao and Zhang were on the list incidentally Canadian pop star Chris Wu who was arrested on rape charges was also on that list but it wasn't just mainstream entertainment that has attracted red iron Chinese authorities also took aim at the growing celebrity fan culture which has resulted in fandoms that are gripping China's youth you'll need the cyberspace administration of China or the CAC came up with a slew of measures to weaken the hold of fan clubs on the popular psyche of Chinese youth celebrity fan clubs were ordered that they could no
longer rank celebrities based on their popularity talent agencies and fan club accounts were brought under strict red vigil and idle talent shows which provide instant stardom to youth were canceled collectively these measures cut to size any Larger than Life celebrities and stifled the entertainment industry no popular figure should be able to give a Clarion call against the Communist party and president Xi Jinping that was the plan Clarion calls that the country has not witnessed since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests but even the bosses at chongnan high know that it cannot stop all avenues for public
opinion forever ladies and gentlemen from China please welcome this explains the discomfort that benchwa's allegation against Chang gauli caused in the higher echelons of CCP Eng's Celebrity Status allowed her to take on the high and mighty and even start a global campaign for accountability as a member of The Pollard Bureau standing committee Chang was one of the top seven politicians who ran China from 2013 to 2018. they told them clam Downs are not new in China during the 1990s the CCP feared the Believers of falun gong and other such groups due to their ability to
organize and possibly revolt the CCP hounded these groups with brute force and fury but the social fabric of China was not remolded as is being done today additionally successive leaders stayed away from the temptation of building their cult status but in she's China the social equilibrium is freeing because celebrity worship is a bad word but strong man worship is not by cracking down on fandoms and celebrity culture the Communist Party hopes that the Vigor of celebrity worship will be very conveniently redirected towards president Xi Jinping by projecting him as the embodiment of Chinese ethics and
values but the present generation which is exposed to American styled capitalist lifestyle and freedom cannot be reshaped like their forefathers China's leaders May decry a commercial internet culture in which everyone wants maximum eyeballs but just three days before the CAC issued new regulations on fandom culture Chinese education Ministry announced that the study of XI jinping's personal governing concept will be part of official education curriculum ostensibly to help China's youth build faith in Marxism well the CCP also wants maximum eyeballs of China's obsessed youth on which hinges its future legitimacy and possibly its existence but it
wants its youth fan base to be pliable and indoctrinated 30 year old billionaire King Austin Lee nicknamed lipstick King because of the thousands of lipsticks he sold in a minute faced ccp's Roth on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests Lee's live stream was halted because he showed a tank-shaped cake for Xi Jinping celebrities like Lee and Peng raise alarm Bells due to their millions of followers and their ability to seek accountability from a regime that has almost erased taneman Massacre from popular mindset but celebs like Lee also break the mold of socially correct norms and
conventions which form the backbone of the imagery and perception built by Xi Jinping as a celebrity who applies makeup to sell it Lee's personality conflicted with XI jinping's strongman public persona and his imagery of the ideal Chinese male with a big family this takes us to the other big challenge that China is experiencing that of extremely unfavorable demographics falling population is no longer just a concern but a real worry more so since real population figures in China look Bleaker than what the official figures suggest world population prospects the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs has
predicted a drastic fall in Chinese population by the turn of the century in the best case scenario the fall will be by a fifth in the base case scenario the decline will be by 46 percent to 770 million in the worst case scenario Chinese population Could Fall by nearly two-thirds to sub 500 levels this is far worse than the American best case scenario of population being over 540 million um effect s numbers both data published by China's national Bureau of Statistics points to massive dip in births since 2016. ironically 2016 was the year when the
one child policy introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to control population was replaced by a two-child norm failing to address the consistent fall in birth rates policy was further relaxed to three child in September 2021 it's now an accepted fact that these relaxations will at best slow the population decline but will not be able to reverse it countries that struggle with falling population open doors to migrants but China does not have this option for the simple reason that almost none of the worlds would be migrants want to move there High Cost of property ownership and
better avenues for women are primary reasons for lower fertility rates reasons that are still largely outside the realm of propaganda induced behavioral patterns numbers foreign [Music] foreign oh in fact the high cost of schools English tuitions and extracurricular activities are now a major aspect of the common Prosperity Spiel and a key domain where XI jinping's propaganda Factory hopes to retain its control as it wishes to control the minds of Youth schools and colleges in China are no longer centers of learning and excellence for the party these are treated almost as battlegrounds and for the people
the college entrance exam is a make or break moment in their lives both school and colleges serve the ccp's end goal which is to dominate the minds of the youth this in turn will ensure the party is dictat is unquestioned it's whitewashed history accepted and excessive invasion in privacy unchallenged around the world universities are the most fertile ground for any protest to begin China is no different fearing a repeat of the Tiananmen Square protests the CCP has always kept a tight control over them starting indoctrination early has its advantages by the time students finish school
in China they would have learned the teaching of Xi Jinping thought by heart this is now mandatory for all students from primary school all the way through University in August 2021 foreign textbooks were banned in primary schools and middle schools even English language learning which was once considered a gateway to Western universities and American lifestyle is now out of favor there are now suggestions that English language should be removed from the core subjects taught in schools and from University entrance examinations these measures will make future Chinese students inward looking and in sharp contrast with a
globalized world that she and his generation have benefited from [Music] the private education industry which president Xi Jinping condemned in March 2021 as a stubborn Melody has thrived on Ambitions of learning English and aspirations of migration but the severity of the government's action against it showed how Xi Jinping envisioned the future of China and the extent of pressure it is putting on China's existing social framework the tutoring industry is staring at bankruptcy new Oriental one of the largest centers let go of thousands of Staff members education group once known for training students in math Olympiad
style courses transitioned towards quality education it replaced calculus with calligraphy one of China's largest education companies pivoted towards sale of winter jackets in curtailing private tutoring the government had multiple goals it wished to reign in unchecked capital in the education system and relieve the pressure on overworked students and parents it was also meant to address the sluggish birth rate on the premise that cheaper education would force couples to have more kids but to assume China's youth can be made to learn XI jinping's speeches by wrote can be discouraged from learning English and can be easily
made to idolize the president as their icon is to underestimate the impact that crackdowns have had on the psyche of the youth [Music] for over three decades now since 1979 China has been living the first half of a famous saying by Deng Xiaoping let some people get rich first it was under the second half of President XI jinping's second term that marked a shift into the second half of the saying for the purpose of achieving common Prosperity faster the old market-driven neo-liberal thinking of Deng droppings era is out and XI jinping's top down tightly controlled
vision of Equitable development is in common Prosperity could be the new second cultural revolution a kind of ideological cleansing of the decadent Western values that China had experienced during the tumultuous tenure of Mao Zedong common Prosperity seeks to end vested influence in education family values and the social hierarchy of the traditional Chinese Society irrespective of the semantics between the common Prosperity aim and the cultural revolution program The Perils are too many both Mao and she brought in purges when they feared the Chinese population was veering away from their control and faced challenges within the Communist
Party both brought in harsh crackdowns to turn the tide in their favor the cultural revolution lasted a decade it's still early days to find out how long will the common Prosperity program last before something in China's social fabric snaps the Communist Party relies on a combination of social credits that grades citizens on the basis of their loyalty and credit worthiness to exert further control over Chinese Society but even with world-class facial recognition technology China could not stop the repeated virus attacks from spreading or from ordinary citizens questioning the party's leadership the decades-old social and political
contract in China is now being tested like never before [Music] [Music] foreign
