He spoke of Xi as if he were an ordinary person in a private conversation: the Chinese economist disappearing into thin air.

His name is Chu Hengpeng.He is 55 years old and until recently was considered one of the most capable economists at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, “Temple” Search in Beijing. There has been no news of Chu since last April. Or rather, he writes. Wall Street JournalIt is known that the researcher has placed Under investigation, arrested and then isolated From his positions as Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics and Director of the Center for Public Policy Research.

Meanwhile his works All references to his career have disappeared from the website of the Academy and other relevant research centers. As if it never existed before. Why all this? Silence, as is usual in China, surrounds the fate of Zhu Hengpeng. But, and this is also typical, Rumors about his “crime” spread among researchers, serving as a major warning to anyone who would want to imitate him.Because Zhou – perhaps inspired by the climate of relativism, the freedom of criticism granted to members of the Academy, perhaps the most prestigious and listened to institution in the Celestial Empire, with direct access to the State Council (government) in Beijing – He stumbled. (Badly) on the taboos of taboos in these new Maoist times.

Criticism of new leader Xi Jinping and his thinking. Nothing is known about the scholar’s words, but his “criticisms” will be worded in a closed group WeChat, the app that is replacing WhatsApp in China. This is also “said”, which would have referred to “Something is dead.”This was enough to erase all trace of his passage to Olympus’s Mandarin search.

The important point here is that the People’s Republic has entered a period of relative economic stagnation, caused by a The real estate bubble that seems about to burst but is being politically managed by the government.The rise of Xi Jinping has seen a gradual tightening of entrepreneurial freedom with a return to the “supremacy of Marxist theory” with accents that have brought back into vogue (but not the excesses) Mao Zedong Thought, now more appropriately identified as Xi Jinping-thought. The economy has taken a beating. Restrictions on overly bold entrepreneurs (see Disappearance of Jack Ma (From the economic scene) It was accompanied by an ideological stranglehold, with guidelines that went beyond classical communist rhetoric.

What is at stake is the stability of the empire, which has been measured for centuries by the aura of harmony that should emanate from society. Translated in simple words No one in China can criticize the management of public affairs.Not to mention the (taboo!) Supreme Leader. Whose choices are by definition indisputable and flawless. Even when reality sends different signals: they should be ignored, Under penalty of arrest and oblivion.