A Lawyer's Notebook" A typical script for the CCP's purge of media and cultural figures

◎ Chen Yikai

Zhang Jianhong (2nd from left), CEO of Hong Kong Next Media Group, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020. (Central News Agency file photo)

According to media reports, Zhang Jianhong, the former president of Apple Daily, has been released early. When he participated in a visit to Shenzhen organized by the Correctional Services Department, he was interviewed by Chinese state media and said he was "very regretful" for his crimes and now feels "very proud" of his Chinese identity.

This is a typical script for the Chinese Communist Party to purge media and cultural figures. This script contains at least three elements:

1. The target of the purge must express self-denial, publicly overthrow the person he was yesterday, and belittle his or her past positions or opinions.

2. The targets of the purge must praise the sanctity of the party and state and promote the majestic benevolence of the emperor.

3. The objects of purification should cooperate with the performance and be displayed everywhere as a model.

The CCP’s script for purging media and cultural figures contains three major elements: self-denial, thanksgiving and eulogy, and propaganda and display. (Provided by the author, source: BBC, Hong Kong 01)

To put it simply, it means throwing a person's personality on the ground, crushing it, and then putting it back together according to the wishes of the red party-state. After this "transformation", he is no longer the same person, but a model prop used to promote the effectiveness of the transformation.

This is a typical method used by that regime to deal with cultural people.

In this regard, the Cultural Revolution has never really passed in China, it is just being carried out in a more sophisticated and smooth way.

Previously, the Chinese official media launched waves of criticism against Tsai Kang-yong, and they were trying to put pressure on him to cooperate with the performance, and wanted to move the script they had in China to Taiwan. If Tsai Kang-yong "knows the truth", he must follow this script of "self-denial, thanksgiving and chanting, and publicity and display", otherwise he will have to do whatever he wants. In the words of the Chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang: “Are Tsai Kang-yong’s huge business interests in China no longer needed?”

But they didn't expect that Cai Kangyong would just make a farewell statement that was close to "gentlemen break off friendship without making any bad noises", and just like that, he didn't follow the script. The original intention of sacrificing the flag and establishing prestige turned out to be self-defeating.

The previous criticism launched by Chinese state media against Tsai Kangyong was somewhat intended to put pressure on him to cooperate with the performance. However, unexpectedly, Tsai Kangyong only issued a faint farewell statement and did not follow the script. (Central News Agency file photo)

That's why their reaction was so big.

Having said that, Tsai Kang-yong is also able to insist on being Tsai Kang-yong because he is in Taiwan.

No one can exist independently of the political community. If the political community that can protect individual personality no longer exists, no one will be immune to the humiliation and torture of the CCP’s script.

This article is reprinted with permission from a lawyer’s notebook Facebook