Competing Cliques in the Chinese Government

I am headed to the Daoist Conference in Los Angeles this weekend, hope to see some of my readers there.

I have posted before about Xu Xiaodong and his conflict with the Chinese Government over Traditional Chinese Martial Arts. He says he is trying to save the arts by exposing frauds. He was recently forced to pay $58,000 to Chen Xiaowang, the Government’s official Representative of Tai Chi. He called Chen Xiaowang a fraud, obviously, but the evidence of exactly what he said has been swept from the internet by Chinese censors. Xu is being punished by having to wear Chinese Opera make-up and call himself “Xu the Northern Melon” when he fights and he has to take the slow train everywhere he travels, which in China means he basically has to live on the train if he wants to travel to take (or make) fighting challenges.

Obviously, in my way of seeing things Chinese Opera make-up is a return to China’s Traditional sources of martial prowess. But in the age of perpetual humiliation it is being played as a punishment. Chen Xiaowang is a tragic figure. He is oblivious of the history of the art which he represents to the world. As I document for the first time ever in my book, Tai Chi is the dance of the Daoist Immortal Zhang Sanfeng. Chen need only to have challenged Xu Xiaodong to a fight in Slow Motion to have defeated the challenge. But that is outside of the scope of acceptable views in China today. Both are fighting for ownership of the YMCA Consensus, the Christian Secular Normative Model, also called Pure Martial Arts.

This reminds me of Qigong Fever, which we know in hindsight was the result of a conflict between two Cliques in the Chinese Communist Party. This is almost certainly happening again, and will likely end in bloodshed, as happened with Falungong in the 1990s.

Read about the make-up here.

This video is informative.

This is the best one, 220 pound MMA fighting Xu Xiaodong starts CRYING at about the 9:30 mark.

This footage is either from the late 2016 or early 2017. That was the time in Xu Xiaodong's life when he was getting de-platformed from all major Chinese social media and the entire traditional martial arts community in China saw him as enemy number one.

This article about the Trade War also gives me the sense that China is torn between two invisible Power Cliques. A lot of commentators view China through the lens of a country which wants to rule the world. I also wonder if we simply can’t read what is going on because the competing Cliques confuse the message?