＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・中国共産党最高幹部や中国の富裕層の「愛人のいる生活」が明るみに出る理由
<Added 2021/11/23> Could this “affair scandal” be a “conspiracy” or “power struggle” orchestrated by Xi Jinping?!
On the November 23rd episode of TV Asahi’s “Hatori Shinichi Morning Show,” international journalist Kosuke Takahashi quoted a veteran China watcher from the Washington Times who said, “This is related to a power struggle in China.”
In other words, this “affair scandal” may be a “power struggle” or “conspiracy” orchestrated by Xi Jinping to eliminate Premier Li Keqiang’s faction. The speculation is that the aim was to oust and purge former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, a member of Premier Li Keqiang’s faction, through this affair scandal.
1. The affair scandal between former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, a top official of the Communist Party of China, and a famous female professional tennis player.
On November 2, 2021, Peng Shuai (35), a famous Chinese professional tennis player, posted a message on the microblogging site Weibo, confessing by name that she had had an affair with former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (75), a member of the Communist Party’s top leadership. Although the post was immediately deleted, its contents spread rapidly online, causing widespread shock due to its extremely unusual nature.
Initially, I thought this was part of the “Me Too movement” that was popular in the United States for a time (a social media term meaning “me too,” using a hashtag (#) to describe and share experiences of sexual harassment and assault).
There was also the story of Alfred Hitchcock, the film “The Birds,” and the sexual harassment of actress Tippi Hedren.
However, in this case, while there seems to have been a history of sexual assault, it appears that Peng Shuai, who was having an affair with former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, exposed the story on social media out of spite after he abandoned her.
Incidentally, Zhang served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the highest leadership body of the Communist Party, from 2012 to 2017, under General Secretary Xi Jinping (President). Peng has also won the women’s doubles titles at the Wimbledon Championships and the French Open, two of the four major tennis tournaments.
2. Extreme “Wide Gap Between Rich and Poor” and “Common Wealth”
While we often hear stories of Chinese Communist Party officials having mistresses such as actresses and newscasters, it seems that many of China’s wealthy also have mistresses.
It appears that China has now become divided into a very small number of “wealthy people” who are incredibly rich, similar to or even richer than those in capitalist societies, and the vast majority of “ordinary people” and “the poor.”
President Xi Jinping’s recent frequent use of the term “common prosperity” is likely a manifestation of his serious concern about social polarization. “Common prosperity” was originally a slogan advocated by Mao Zedong.
Incidentally, I believe Japanese Prime Minister Kishida’s use of terms like “growth and distribution,” “a robust middle class,” and “the Reiwa version of the income doubling plan” stems from similar reasons. “Income doubling” was originally a slogan advocated by Ikeda Hayato.
While rural areas of China remain poor, even those considered poor no longer struggle to obtain food. Televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines are becoming widespread, and some people are even beginning to own cars. There are no longer any regions in China that can be called “absolute poverty.”
The current problem is “urban inequality.” Approximately half of the Chinese population lives in cities. Beijing and Shanghai each have populations of 20 million, and adding the populations of other major cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Chengdu, and Hangzhou brings the total to approximately 200 million.
In China, where the gap between urban and rural areas is stark, simply living in a major city was once considered a sign of happiness. However, serious inequality has emerged even within these major cities, due to soaring housing prices. The Chinese real estate bubble became apparent around 2000, but it has not burst until now.
As a result, real estate prices in China have skyrocketed to astronomical levels. In Beijing and Shanghai, a typical apartment costs over 200 million yen (approximately $200 million USD). Even apartments in the suburbs, requiring 1.5 to 2 hours of public transport to reach the city center, cost around 100 million yen. Since the average income of Chinese people living in major cities is about half that of Japanese people, owning a home has become an unattainable dream for ordinary people.
However, the debt crisis at Evergrande Group could potentially cause the real estate bubble to burst.
3. The “Life with Mistresses” of China’s Wealthy
The real estate bubble allowed a select few involved in real estate and finance to amass enormous wealth. If the business leaders who amassed immense wealth were saints, Xi Jinping would never have uttered words like “common prosperity.” However, most of the people who amassed vast fortunes during the bubble were not saints.
Recently, the keyword attracting the most attention among China’s wealthy is “mistress.” This isn’t unique to China, but those who amass immense wealth in a short period of time often acquire mistresses.
In January 2021, Lai Xiaomin, the head of a state-owned financial enterprise, was sentenced to death for massive corruption. While death sentences in China are often suspended, effectively resulting in life imprisonment, Lai Xiaomin’s sentence was carried out relatively soon after the verdict. It was rumored that Lai Xiaomin had as many as 100 mistresses. This story symbolizes a social situation that casts a dark shadow over Chinese society, creating a situation where Xi Jinping felt compelled to speak of “common prosperity.”
4. Reasons why the “lifestyle of mistresses” among China’s wealthy is coming to light
(1) The spread of the delivery business
The reason why the mistresses of the wealthy have become a social problem is due to the rapid spread of the delivery business.
China has long been a society with significant inequality; this is nothing new. However, until the delivery business became popular, this inequality was concealed. Ordinary people rarely set foot in areas where the wealthy lived. Even if they did, they could only admire the mansions from afar. In such a situation, ordinary people did not truly feel the inequality.
However, with the spread of delivery services, delivery personnel now go right to the doors of apartments where the wealthy live. They sometimes peek inside through the doors. And that’s when they see the mistress. The internet age has created a society where the mistresses of the wealthy are visible to delivery personnel.
It is said that women who become mistresses in China are often beautiful but lack ethics and diligence. Such women are also often bad at cooking. Their husbands, who have many mistresses, rarely visit their apartments. Then came COVID-19 and the internet age.
They can order luxurious meals online anytime. These women have become regulars of luxurious delivery services. And she treats the delivery people with arrogance. This doesn’t lead to a good reputation.
“That woman who lives in that luxurious apartment always orders extravagant meals. Her attitude when receiving them is haughty. Her clothes are sloppy.”—Such rumors spread rapidly among the delivery people. The age of online delivery services has arrived, allowing ordinary people to directly glimpse the lives of the wealthy. It’s not a Japanese TV drama that was popular a while ago, but it’s the Chinese version of “The Housekeeper Saw It.”
(2) The Existence of the Chinese “Shukan Bunshun Cannon”
There is an online media outlet that has been consistently publishing scoops that have shaken the Chinese Communist Party, and is sometimes called the Chinese version of “Shukan Bunshun Cannon.” According to Beijing-based journalist Norihide Miyazaki, “The internet media outlet ‘People’s Supervision Network,’ which exposes corruption among bureaucrats, is uncovering scandal after scandal through investigative reporting. Among them was a bureaucrat who ‘kept 47 mistresses.'”
Zhu Ruifeng (pictured above), who founded the People’s Supervision Network in 2006, had exposed “more than 80 cases of corruption and wrongdoing” by October 2013, according to an interview with Norihide Miyazaki.
Zhu’s achievements became widely known within China, and consequently, various pieces of information regarding corruption and wrongdoing began to pour in.
“(Their downfall) was an inevitable consequence. As journalists, we simply report the facts. Whether or not to impose sanctions is up to the disciplinary commission and the government,” Zhu Ruifeng said.
5. The Chinese Communist Party’s Fear of “Urban Riots”
Currently, people involved in delivery in China are not limited to migrant workers. While the work is hard, it is said that a monthly income of 10,000 to 12,000 yuan (approximately 160,000 to 12,000 yen) can be earned by working diligently in the delivery service. Since the average monthly income of a typical office worker in a major city is around 6,000 yuan, working hard in the delivery service can earn about twice as much as an office worker. Therefore, even people with urban household registration who have graduated from university are working in the delivery service sector.
In China’s major cities, the disparity between people with urban household registration and migrant workers is no longer a problem. The serious issue is the disparity between the wealthy few who benefited from the bubble and everyone else. Many urban residents who missed out on the bubble have developed a strong resentment towards those who, along with the migrant workers, benefited from it.
A society in major cities where people with urban household registration harbor resentment towards the wealthy, together with migrant workers, is a terrifying prospect. A large-scale riot could break out in the cities at any time. This would shake the very foundations of the Communist Party’s rule. Currently, the Chinese Communist Party is scrambling to address this.