’Should have known better’: Illicit affair engulfs China’s Communist Party as ‘innocent’ video goes viral

He’s a married executive of an enormous state-owned corporation. She’s his 25 year-old secretary. And not even the CCP can contain the fallout.

He’s a married, middle-aged executive of an enormous state-owned corporation. She’s his 25 year-old secretary and a daughter of an influential family.

When video caught them holding hands for a shopping mall social media account, not even the might of the Chinese Communist Party’s all-pervasive censorship could save them.

This is not what Xi thought.

The chairman-without-limits of Chinas’s single-party administration has been campaigning hard to entrench the credibility of his regime. He insists the Communist Party is all-seeing, all-knowing – the font of all knowledge and the paragon of all virtue.

Even when it isn’t.

When Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused Communist Party former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli and his wife of coercing her into sex, she was “disappeared”.

Upon her reappearance a year later, she retracted all allegations and retired from public life.

Hu Jiyong isn’t part of the Communist Party’s executive. But he is one of its biggest beneficiaries.

Peng Shuai was ‘disappeared’ after accusing a former CCP executive of coercing her into sex. Picture: Yifan Ding/Getty Images

He is the chief of a significant subsidiary of the enormous oil-and-gas conglomerate PetroChina.

That means he is among the best the Chinese Communist Party has to offer.

Little is known about his secretary besides her surname “Dong” and her taste for the finer things in life.

But both should have known better.

An innocent clip of the romantic couple wearing matching pink outfits during a shopping spree in Chengdu, Sichuan earlier this month has caught the public’s eye – and ire.

The original video was removed within hours.

But not even Beijing’s censorship regime could contain the ensuing scandal.

What Xi Jinping thought

Since he acceded to an unprecedented third term as the Chinese Communist Party’s paramount leader last year, “Xi Jinping Thought” has become compulsory reading and study material for all 97 million party members.

And just in case you’re not convinced it’s so central to how Beijing does things – the primacy of “Xi Thought” has been written into the Chinese constitution.

It’s a lot to absorb.

Chairman Xi has published more than 40 books on subjects ranging from history and Communist theory to economics and ethics. And then there are the collections of all his speeches.

PetroChina executive Hu Jiyong and his secretary – known only by her surname “Dong" – were outed in a viral video. Picture: YouTube

They’re all about “The Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation”, “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era” and the “Common Destiny of Mankind”.

Then there’s “Xi Jinping in Thought on Rule of Law”.

And “Outline for the Implementation of the Moral Construction of Citizens in the New Era”.

And while the scandal-wracked couple may not have reached that part of the reading list yet, many of China’s “netizens” have.

Executive director, party secretary and general manager of the state-owned Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation Hu Jiyong was stood aside for a “disciplinary committee” investigation last week before being “terminated”. Ms Dong has gone to ground.

And state-controlled media is calling for an end to street photography.

Stepping out into the fallout

The videographer was just doing their job.

They’re a regular feature of Chinese shopping hubs. They’re there as street fashion photographers, social media content creators and marketers.

It’s something to expect when stepping out in style in Chengdu.

“The Chunxi road is a famous commercial street known for its bustling shopping and entertainment scene, as well as its modern architecture and lively atmosphere,” says the Global Times.

“It became a hub of street snaps for Chinese influencers, youngsters and trendsetters.”

It’s all about the commercial imperative to capture an image of youth, wealth, romance and joy.

On the surface, Hu and Dong fit the bill precisely.

But only if you didn’t realise who they were.

One of the viewers did, however. And the clip was soon sent soaring to the top of China’s trending lists.

It was a viral success story: the Communist Party’s algorithms appear to have thought the attention was actually about street fashion.

China’s social media quickly established Dong was carrying an $8000 Lady Dior handbag and wearing a body-hugging $100 dress. Online stores offering the design reportedly sold all 4000 available items overnight.

All Chinese journalists must sit a written “Xi Thought” exam from July 1 in order to keep their jobs. Picture: Thomas Peter/Pool/AFP

When the political implications were realised, it was too late for the censors.

In an online feeding frenzy, China’s netizens uncovered and distributed the couple’s phone numbers, addresses and career records among a host of other revealing online material.

Some included pictures of Dong posing in lingerie and in bed.

Within a week, the scandal had generated more than 200 million hits.

“In the eyes of the Chinese public, which is accustomed to online virality as a tool to expose unscrupulous bureaucrats, state-owned enterprise (SOE) executives are no different from public servants in terms of expected accountability,” says Jordan Schneider of ChinaTalk.

‘Implementation of Moral Construction’

“According to the Party regulations, a disciplined lifestyle is one of the six main disciplines that follow political, organisational, integrity, public and work disciplines,” reads a China Daily editorial addressing the scandal.

“A violation of lifestyle discipline may also result in integrity and work disciplines, taking into account possible corruption.”

It says such “misbehaviour” among “senior officials” was “a cause for concern”. It concedes the image and credibility of the Communist Party is at stake.

Which is why all Chinese journalists must sit a written “Xi Thought” exam from July 1 in order to keep their jobs.

“Chinese reporters, if they were allowed to dig and publish, would unearth all sorts of incredibly unseemly stuff that would surely shake people’s faith in the Party,” writes Schneider.

“After all, the relative freedom to uncover official misdeeds allowed in the (previous chairman) Hu era helped convince Xi that the Party needed to crack down both on corruption in the system and reporters who helped expose it.

The scandal was covered in a cartoon in the China Daily.

“So, for now, what we’re left with is glimpses under the curtain when officials are too stupid to hide their misdeeds.”

But Chinese state-controlled media has been quick to jump on the “bigger picture”.

It’s emphasising privacy concerns. And it’s asking whether or not online enthusiasts have a role to play in enforcing the Communist Party’s policies – at least when it comes to corruption, morality – and copyright.

“Unauthorised snapshots may infringe on portrait rights,” the state-controlled China Daily intones.

“Whether street photography and filming constitute infringements of privacy and portrait rights was the topic of heated discussion on Chinese social media platforms over the past week after a former state-owned enterprise official was filmed in public holding hands with a woman.”

It says that China’s civil code allows the “right of portrait”, which essentially gives a subject copyright over any image.

“All the lawyers interviewed have called for street photographers to abide by the law and respect the legitimate rights of passers-by, and suggested prudence while working on the street to ensure their behaviour complies with the law, ethics and morals,” the article asserts.

According to the state-controlled Global Times, the original photographer voluntarily removed the original video just hours after posting, adding that “Hu and the woman contacted him or her after the issue went viral”.

It also reports the photographer has closed their business social media account.

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @JamieSeidel