Rectification in the politics and legal affairs system; Xi and Putin talk; TikTok; Wang Wei 王維

Something is going in the politics and legal affairs system. Things have seemed especially weird recently, and now there is going to be a pilot program to educate and rectify the cadres of political and legal affairs system. Chen Yixin, Secretary General of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, announced the new campaign in a meeting of the National Political and Legal Affairs Team Education and Rectification Pilot Office, of which Chen is the head.

The language in the announcement of the campaign is quite harsh, and its reference to the Yan’an Rectification Movement is chilling. The original Yan’an Rectification Movement was brutal and bloody, with thousands killed. As harsh as today’s language sounds I do not think it will be anything like that; it looks like it will be one more purge of the people inside the politics and legal affairs system who are not totally loyal to Xi.

There have long been rumors that Meng Jianzhu, secretary of the Central Politics and Legal Affai…