The number “9” has always had special meaning for the Chinese. It is the biggest one digit number, and the Chinese have always believed that when something reaches the extreme, it will go in the opposite direction.
Perhaps that’s why long before 2019 arrived, people in China started to speculate what the year held in store for China, given the number of challenges communist China is facing now.
A Series of Events in “XXX9”
First of all, they noticed that for several decades, for each year ending with a “9,” a huge, historically significant event happened in China:
In 1949, the Kuomintang (or Nationalist Party) lost the Chinese Civil War and had to retreat to Taiwan. Mainland China was then taken over by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In 1959, the Great Chinese Famine started, and dozens of millions of people starved to death in the following years.
In 1969, the Sino-Soviet border conflict (or Zhenbao Island Incident) broke out. The seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China brought the two communist-led countries to the brink of war.
In 1979, the Sino-Vietnamese War broke out. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam’s invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978 (which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge). Vietnamese sources claimed the People’s Liberation Army had suffered 62,500 total casualties, while China estimated that Vietnam had lost 57,000 soldiers and 70,000 militia members during the war.
A Chinese worker shouts pro-democracy slogans during a mass rally in Beijing’s streets in support of student hunger strikers gathered at Tiananmen Square, in Beijing on May 17, 1989. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images)
In 1989, the Tiananmen Square protests happened. They greatly rocked the regime, and ended with the CCP rolling tanks into Beijing killing thousands—perhaps 10 thousand students and civilians died.
In 1999, the persecution of Falun Gong started, with over 100 million Falun Gong practitioners targeted, along with their families. In order to launch and maintain this nearly 20-years long crackdown, an unimaginably huge amount of social resources have been expended, and the consequences are hard to fathom at the moment. Human rights activists have long since declared this the largest scale human rights disaster in China.
In 2009, the “July 2009 Ürümqi riots” broke out, with at least 1,000 Uyghurs involved in the first day’s riot. The CCP officials claimed that a total of 197 people died during the riots, with 1,721 others injured. Uyghur exile groups say the death toll is higher. Ten years later, it is estimated that 1 to 2 million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups are being detained in prisons and re-education camps in Xinjiang.
So what will happen in 2019? Many Chinese people are holding their breath while they wait and see.
’69 Rule’
The “69 Rule,” attributed to British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, is being widely circulated among Chinese netizens. It was said that Russell once said that no totalitarian rule could last longer than 70 years. And the examples being cited are:
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Saddam Hussein: Born in 1937 and died in 2006, when he was 69.
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Muammar Al Gaddafi: Born in 1942 and died in 2011, when he was 69.
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Kim Jong-il: Born in 1941 and died in 2011, when he was 70.
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Soviet Union: Founded in 1922 and dissolved in 1991, existing for 69 years.
And 2019 will the 70th anniversary of the CCP’s rule of China as well. Will it outlive the 69 Rule? People are eager to find out.
An Uyghur woman protests in front of policemen at a street in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, China on July 7, 2009. (Guang Niu/Getty Images)
Some people in China have joked, “No wonder our Property Ownership Certificate is only valid for 70 years!”
In China, if one buys a property, one doesn’t own the land on which the property stands. Instead, what one owns is the right to “use,” or “occupy,” this piece of land for 70 years.
Intellectuals Call for the CCP to ‘Fade from History’
In the first few days of 2019, an article by Zheng Yefu, a sociology professor from China’s prestigious Peking University, was widely reprinted by a variety of Chinese-language media outlets. In his article, Zheng called for the CCP to “peacefully fade from history.”
“This is the best way forward for the Chinese people, for the party, and for the leaders of the party,” Zheng said. “There is no better way.”
Zheng said political reform is necessary because problems in Chinese society, such as the rampant abuse of power, a deficient legal system, and economic malaise have reached the point of no return.
He also implored Chinese intellectuals to fulfill their duty to expose the truth about the CCP.
Some Uyghur people (C) walk near police as they form a line across a street in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, China on July 8, 2009. (Guang Niu/Getty Images)
Zheng’s bold stance resounded with a lot of Chinese intellectuals and ordinary citizens.
More than 100 Chinese intellectuals published their takes about China’s 40 years of “reform and openness” on the internet. Although the contents were quickly blocked in China, some overseas Chinese language websites had already posted them.
Bao Pengshan, a professor and author from Shanghai, said, “The core question for a nation is that we should not not know our direction. And it is more questionable if we go toward the wrong direction.”
Cai Shenkun, a commentator in Beijing, said, “Reform should not be limited to having everybody fed. It should ensure that everybody dare to speak out, and nobody should feel fearful for speaking out. Reform should have all the people share the economic prosperity, instead of having only a few people robbing and plundering the wealth.”
Hong Zhenkuai, a scholar in Beijing, said, “The true reform should be returning power to the people.”
Cai Xia, a professor of the Party School of the CCP, said, “The historical role of a party is evaluated by what this party does. Whether it will be listed on the Honor Roll, or in the Hall of Shame, is all up to this party itself.”
Chen Baocheng, a media professional in Shandong Province, said, “Without freedom to think and speak, reform and openness are meaningless.”
Chen Tiannan, a former lawyer and judge in Zhejiang Province, said, “True reform should be beneficial to the protection of private property and a free market economy. The direction for reform should be increasing people’s freedom.”
Wang Juntao, an activist in the Tiananmen Square democracy movement and president of the Democracy Party of China, said to The Epoch Times that many people in China wish that the CCP can collapse as soon as possible. But the CCP won’t choose to “fade from history.”
He said just calling for an end of CCP’s rule was not good enough. People should act and organize other people to fight back against the CCP.
Xia Yeliang, a former professor at Peking University, said that although he didn’t know whether China would fall into chaos in 2019 as some people had “predicted,” 2019 would surely be a year when big things would happen.
He said that people all hope that bigger changes would happen in China in 2019. It is possible that the CCP’s rule will start to shake and crumble. He hopes that all the Chinese people can work towards this direction, and 2019 can become a year when institutional changes in China begin.
A student displays a banner with one of the slogans chanted by the crowd of some 200,000 pouring into Tiananmen Square in Beijing on April 22, 1989. (CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images)
Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/will-the-magic-of-9-bring-real-changes-to-china-in-2019_2767255.html
