09/27/2013, 00.00
CHINA
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Xi Jinping re-launches Maoist" self-criticism” greeted with irony online

The Secretary-General of the Party participates in first session, imposed on Hebei leadership. An official: "I cried ashamed of what I have become." But "the masses" give vent online: "Begin by criticizing your bank accounts and then we'll talk". One blogger "like children trying to hit each other . Much ado about nothing ."

Beijing ( AsiaNews) - The campaign of " criticism and self-criticism " launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hebei province has sparked the irony and anger of cyber- users, who compare the government's efforts against corruption "to two children who fight without ever touching. Lots of fuss over nothing". The campaign is one of the flagships of the new leader of China who has imposed it on the 25 permanent members of the Politburo during a secret session .

The sessions of "criticism and self-criticism" was one of the key pillars of the policy of Mao Zedong, used with violence during the Cultural Revolution to purge even the great communist leaders - potential opponents of the president - who were accused of being "bourgeois" , " counter-revolutionaries" or " revisionists ." Many innocent religious leaders also paid dearly during the great purges. Maoist -style Xi urged national officials to "get back in step with the masses," or apply a model of government "in close contact" with the grass roots of the population.

The Secretary-General himself led the first public session (see photo) , imposed on the members of the Provincial Communist Commission of Hebei. During four consecutive afternoons , which began on September 23 , Xi urged officials to denounce their " political sins " and those of their colleagues. One of them, interviewed by the official Xinhua , said: " While I was preparing my confession I realized what kind of person I've become, and I started to cry ."

The sessions do not seem to have convinced "the masses" , who, at least on the internet, have used controversy and irony to avert this attempt at indoctrination. On Weibo , the microblogging site that has become hugely popular as a stage of national discontent ,one user writes: "This campaign is a perfect example of bureaucracy for its own sake . Why not start criticizing the size of their bank account and assets that they have in all the country? " .

Lighter than the comment of another user , which compares Xi Jinping sessions to a joke in which a woman calls her husband and her lover in the same room : the lover tells her husband to better control the woman, who is behaving "strangely " . Another clip posted on line has gone viral, it shows two young children, kitted out for taekwondo, flapping about trying to hit each other with no success. The commentary reads: "criticism and self-criticism like much ado about nothing ."

 

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