Chinese cartoon campaign warns village clans against hindering Communist Party
- Official social media post declares that clans form a ‘state within a state’, with potential for negative social effects
In a cartoon circulating on government websites and social media since last week, a family elder demands that his nephew, a village official, block the construction of a telecommunications tower.
It goes on to say the tower was demolished by the villagers, “causing more than 200,000 yuan [US$28,000] damage” and the village official was expelled from the party.
The illustrated narrative, which was published on August 12 on the WeChat account of the Organisation Department of the eastern province of Jiangsu’s party committee, has been reproduced on the social media accounts and web pages of courts and anti-corruption agencies in different regions of China.
The publication described the cartoon as a “case study”, but did not say whether it was based on a real case – and if so, when or where the incident took place.
The text accompanying the cartoon warned that “in recent years, a small number of people with bad intentions have organised themselves and used the solidarity and cooperation within clans to confront the party and the government”.
In many rural areas of China where people value family heritage, clans – often made up of male relatives with the same surname – hold considerable influence.
