No More Excuses: Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, and the Entire CCP Share the Blame for China’s Authoritarian Descent

 

In the sanitized revisionism of Communist Party propaganda, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are now portrayed as gentle technocrats, obstructed by “hardliners” like Zhou Yongkang, Liu Yunshan, or the remnants of Jiang Zemin’s clique. This narrative claims that the Hu-Wen era's repression, censorship, and human rights abuses weren’t their fault—but rather the result of factional infighting or rogue actors.

It’s a convenient fiction. And it's time to destroy it.

Let’s be clear: the oppression, corruption, and authoritarianism of the 2000s were not the result of factional power struggles. They were the direct consequences of a system designed to protect the CCP’s monopoly at any cost. Hu and Wen were not victims of it. They were its stewards.

The CCP is Not a Victim of Factions. It is the Faction.

The idea that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao were “good men” sabotaged by Jiang Zemin’s loyalists or the “security state” under Zhou Yongkang is pure fantasy—propaganda manufactured to create the illusion of reformist legitimacy.

But even if one accepts that certain ministries (such as state security or internal police) were heavily influenced by rival factions, this excuse collapses under scrutiny:

Personnel is policy in the CCP. If Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao lacked control over state organs, they should never have accepted or remained in power. Their willingness to preside over a machine committing abuses—while benefitting politically—makes them fully complicit.

They never once broke ranks to oppose the system. Wen Jiabao gave flowery speeches about “reform” and “democracy,” but these were empty gestures. He never lifted a finger to implement them, nor did he ever stand up publicly to call out abuses by his own government. Instead, both Hu and Wen oversaw:

The 2008 arrest of Liu Xiaobo, and the crushing of Charter 08

The brutal response to the 2009 Urumqi riots and ongoing repression of Uyghurs

The expansion of the Great Firewall

The crackdown on rights lawyers and NGOs

The CCP's structure makes excuses irrelevant. It is a Leninist party, built for top-down control. Everything operates under the principle of “Democratic Centralism”—decisions made at the top are binding on all members, and leaders are responsible for what happens under their watch.

Factional fights are not a bug in this system. They are part of the mechanism for consolidating power without accountability. Every faction—from Jiang to Hu to Xi—serves the same goal: preserving the Party’s monopoly and crushing any challenge to its rule.

Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao Were Not Outsiders. They Were the System.

Let’s not forget the personal benefits Hu and Wen reaped from this system:

Their families became immensely wealthy. Investigations (such as those by The New York Times) revealed that Wen Jiabao’s relatives accumulated billions in assets through their ties to state-backed firms. That doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a direct byproduct of political power in a crony state.

They made no reforms to decentralize power. If Hu or Wen truly wanted to restrain the “Zhou Yongkangs” of the world, they had the ability to propose and implement structural reforms: rule of law, judicial independence, Party transparency. They chose not to. Why? Because the CCP’s survival requires centralized, unaccountable control, and they were loyal to it.

Hu Chunhua, their hand-picked successor, followed the same authoritarian playbook. No reforms, no dissent tolerated, just more “stability maintenance” and Party supremacy.

The Core Issue: The CCP’s Leninist System Must Go

It is no longer credible to argue that China’s problems stem from “bad leaders” or “corrupt factions.” That narrative is designed to preserve the real cancer: the CCP itself.

The CCP is a Leninist vanguard party—not a political party in the democratic sense, but an authoritarian machine built on:

Permanent one-party rule

Mass censorship and thought control

Political persecution of dissent

Collective leadership without accountability

There is no “reformist” path within such a system. There is no “good faction” inside a dictatorship. Every so-called moderate serves to pacify unrest while ensuring the Party survives another day.

No More Myths. No More Excuses. No More CCP.

China’s future does not depend on waiting for a “good emperor” to save the people from a bad one.

It depends on rejecting the entire myth of moral leadership within the CCP.

Hu Jintao. Wen Jiabao. Xi Jinping. Jiang Zemin. Zhou Yongkang. Liu Yunshan. Hu Chunhua. Different faces, same system.

Until the Leninist structure of the CCP is dismantled, China will remain a nation of surveillance, suppression, and stolen futures—no matter who’s in charge.

The time has come to stop fighting over which tyrant was “less bad” and start fighting to end the tyranny itself.