Who is Cai Xia, the lady who dared to criticise Xi Jinping?

Team Udayavani, Aug 24, 2020, 1:30 PM IST

A former Chinese Communist Party member, Cai Xia, has accused Chinese president Xi Jinping of making the “world an enemy”

Cai Xia is among a cluster of Chinese dissenters who have recently decried Xi’s policies, including his handling of the coronavirus outbreak

The Central Party School in Beijing, where Cai taught for 15 years until 2012, announced that she had been expelled from the Communist Party after she denounced both the party and Xi in recent speeches and essays.

She is an expert in Marxism and Chinese communist party theory. In an interview to The Guardian, Cai said “Chinese Communist Party is not a force for progress for China. In fact, it is an obstacle to China’s progress”

Cai belongs to an elite class known as the hongerdai or second generation red  and was raised within the military in Jiangsu province in eastern China. Her parents taught her the importance of equality and stripped away any semblance of privilege.

She served as a professor at the higher education institution for top CCP officials, for 15 years. According to Taiwan times, In June, audio of Cai giving a speech to a private group where she denounced Xi for “killing a party and a country” was leaked online. She described the Chinese leader as a “mafia boss” and said the country is “beyond repair” under his regime

Cai was expelled from the party for damaging its reputation, with Central Party School cutting off her pension and retirement benefits

But, Cai is not bothered as she says that she is “delighted” to be expelled from the party.