Relying on his regularly updated Twitter and YouTube accounts, exiled billionaire Guo Wengui continues to gather fans both inside and outside the Great Firewall as he hurls allegations of corruption at business, political, and media leaders in China. Meanwhile, his adversaries this week continued their work presenting Guo as the truly corrupt one: Caixin published an article detailing Guo’s leveraging of his connections with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to raise money from Abu Dhabi royalty for an attempted takeover of Chinese securities giant Haitong Securities; and SOHO chairman Pan Shiyi announced plans to sue Guo over allegations of bribery and bid-rigging that Pan claims are false.
On Twitter yesterday, Guo shared a picture of himself in a new armored vehicle, highlighting his growing concern for his personal safety:
https://twitter.com/KwokMiles/status/867835379340242944
Today my associate gave Wengui [me] a bullet-proof B9 armored car. I truly felt that I didn’t need it. But he told me there were still three more that were about to arrive. Honestly, I am not happy. I don’t wish for them to look at my country in this way. I also don’t wish for them to be so concerned for my safety! I still hope that we can resolve my issue internally! He said I am too naive.
Guo’s many Twitter fans replied, praising the “hero,” imploring he do his upmost to maintain his personal safety, and comparing the following he is gathering to the 1989 pro-democracy movement. CDT Chinese editors have collected a large sample of supportive reactions to Guo’s tweet, a few of which have been translated here:
@KwokMiles 說明老郭的朋友重義氣，值得交往。老郭，你的朋友說得對，小心為妙。你想想，一個可以把坦克開去壓死學生娃的政府，什麼殘暴的事做不出？
— 曼迪 mendy ✊️✊✊ (@mendy_red) May 25, 2017
This means your friends are loyal and worth sticking with. Old Guo, your friends are right. You can’t be too careful. Think about it: if a government can crush children under tanks, what horrific things wouldn’t it do?
@KwokMiles 一個連手無寸鐵的學生們都用坦克鎮壓的流氓國家還有什麼做不出來的。
— 推友们，我们明天会更好✊✊✊ (@wangqishan444) May 25, 2017
If a rogue state executes unarmed students with tanks, what wouldn’t it do?
@KwokMiles 从郭先生爆料的第一天开始，你和中共之间就已经不是“内部问题”，也不存在“内部”解决方案了。从中共的角度而言，你是他们体制内生长出来的恶性“毒瘤”，必除之而后快。
— John Lee（李骏） (@johnlee1021) May 25, 2017
Mr. Guo, from Day One of your leaks you and the CCP no longer had an “internal problem,” and there’s no “internal” plan to solve this. The CCP sees you as a malignant “cancer” growing inside the system, and they have to eliminate you, and fast.
@KwokMiles 金正恩能把金正男弄死，西朝鲜跟东朝鲜有啥区别啊？ 文贵一定要小心，你跟土共是你死我活的斗争了
— gaopx (@gaopx) May 25, 2017
Kim Jong Un knocked off Kim Jong Nam. What’s the difference between West Korea and North Korea? You’re in a deathmatch with the TG.
@KwokMiles 普京三年前杀掉反对党头涅姆佐夫，几乎是明着来的，现在怎么样了？谁还记得？他们不会在乎你暴不暴料，不要脸的不会怕这个。建议你清理他们海外资产，让美国政府没收，成立刺杀组织来制衡。
— Susu Chen (@SusuChen4) May 25, 2017
Putin killed opposition party leader Nemtsov three years ago. Everyone was shocked, but now what? Who remembers it? They don’t care whether you leak or not, they’re shameless. I suggest you sort out their overseas assets, make the U.S. government expropriate them, and set up an assassin squad to keep things in check.
@KwokMiles 哈哈哈哈，以后解放了，得给 这些车弄个 展览馆，具有历史意义?
— 弘燚✊✊✊ (@jennifer84cn) May 25, 2017
Ha ha ha ha, after liberation they’ll have to put those cars in a museum because of their historical significance
@KwokMiles 郭总就安心笑纳吧，你防的是子弹，可以王岐山孟建柱傅政华为首的盗国贼们防的是老百姓的嘴，由此可见，等他们需要防子弹的时候，估计那时候他们已经不存在了
— Danny 监察委大轮胎✊✊✊ (@alpha_dannyz) May 25, 2017
Just rest easy and say thanks, General Guo. You’re stopping bullets. The leaders of the traitor-thieves, Wang Qishan, Meng Jianzhu, and Fu Zhenghua, they’re stopping the people’s mouths. When the time comes that they need to stop bullets, I don’t think they’ll be around anymore.
@KwokMiles 小心谨慎是必须的！每天最重要三件事: 吃饭 睡觉 看文贵✊✊✊
— Fighter✊✊✊ (@Fighter71004446) May 25, 2017
You’ve got to be careful! The three most important things to do every day: eat, sleep, and watch Wengui
The supportive responses to Guo show that while Zhongnanhai regards the man as a villain, his followers outside of the Great Firewall are seeing him as more and more of a hero capable of taking on the CCP, and appear to have faith that he can back up his allegations against top Party leaders.
As Guo’s memetic catchphrases have been found on Chinese social media even amid standing censorship directives forbidding unsanctioned commentary on the sensitive character, outside of the Great Firewall his fans have begun comparing him to heroes from Chinese history, literature, and film.
He has been cast as a modern-day Jing Ke, a would-be assassin of the King of Qin. Jing Ke finagled his way into the Qin court with a poison-dipped sword hidden in a map of territory Qin could conquer. When the king unfurled the map, Jing Ke grabbed the sword, but hesitated, his plans unraveled, and the king survived to conquer the warring states and become the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Netizens invoke Jing Ke as a brave martyr to his cause, forgetting (or disregarding) his mediocre swordsmanship and nervous habits. They think instead of Jing Ke’s appearance in the 1998 film “The Emperor and the Assassin,” then mix their metaphor with the Zhao family, a code name for vested interest taken from Lu Xun’s 1922 novella “The True Story of Ah Q.” Riffing on the film’s Chinese title, “Jing Ke Assassinates the King” (荆轲刺秦), netizens have coined a new title for the sequel: “Wengui Strikes Zhao” (文贵伐赵).
Guo Wengui as a modern day Jing Ke.
Guo doesn’t mind the comparison at all. He even pinned a Jing Ke look-alike image to his Twitter feed, as he again hinted at his imminent “global news conference”:
https://twitter.com/KwokMiles/status/867811445223940096
Respected Twitter friends: tomorrow is May 26, then comes 27, then 28. I have a lot of important business to attend to related to the global news conference. At the same time, I also wish you all a safe weekend with your families. So for these three days I’ll only be able to send tweets announcing that I am safe and sound. Wengui hereby reports to you!
Guo has also been likened by his fans to other historical and folk anti-heroes, such as Wu Song, the drunken bandit who kills a tiger with his bare hands…
…Dahai, the miner who serves his own form of justice to greedy officials in Jia Zhangke’s 2013 film “A Touch of Sin”…
…And even Zorro…
For his part, Guo has tweeted an image himself in the likeness of Guerrillero Heroico Che Guevara:
https://twitter.com/KwokMiles/status/865695160272912384
He has also added English to several of his posts to appeal to a global audience:
Post translated and written by Anne Henochowicz and Josh Rudolph.
