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Comment by theplumber | Hacker News Reader

I don't see the chinesse people raising against CCP for this. Not even if the olympics are cancelled.

It's well-known that CCP leaders are untouchable in China just like Kim is untouchable in NK.

On the other hand if you look a bit to our politics, how affected was Trump by the rape/harrasment accusations? Certainly a big part of population would still vote for him even if the rape would be recorded. I don't defend China or CCP but we should put things in perspective.

The most disturbing issue in China I believe is the censorship and persecution of the victims.

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> I don't see the chinesse people raising against CCP for this.

There doesn't need to be a popular riseup. Zhang Gaoli's enemies in the CCP now have some ammunition they can use to convince the people in the CCP who don't give a shit about Zhang Whoever that it's best to get rid of him. Then it's all up to how many true allies he has. (Probably not many, as a has-been.)

I've seen a lot of reporting on Peng Shuai's public appearances or lack thereof, but little on Zhang Gaoli's whereabouts. My guess is that he's under house arrest while the party leadership decides how to deal with him.

No CCP leader is untouchable; they're all reliant on the support of their allies to remain in power. If that support ever runs out, they quickly find themselves stripped of all titles, at the wrong end of a corruption investigation and risk getting executed in the end.

In theory, that could be true. It could even be that China is doing due diligence and trying to avoid tarnishing a reputation of an individual before enough evidence is collected: he's probably lost the support even if everything that happened was deemed "consensual" (not sure if you've read the original message from Peng, but there was a description of an encounter where his wife was in a room next door: I can't imagine that being considered commendable in any way).

But they would probably mention that because this has become such a hot topic: "investigations into Peng's accusations are ongoing" should not be such a hard thing to mutter out.

But even if they did do something proper yet invisible, the obvious pressure on Peng to withdraw her claims and act as if nothing happened are alarming. As is the attempt to rewrite history of the case. They did not even make her say something like "I was under duress/drunk/whatever" or "somebody else stole my phone and wrote that": there is obviously some respect for her public stature, but the main concern is with "health of the nation". By making it all a lie.

Here's a bit of evidence for the last statements, and it doesn't even include Gao Gang and Bo Xilai as major targets (though it does mention the latter):

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/in-its-100-years-who...

> censorship and persecution of the victims.

Having her "disappeared" by the government is a step far beyond what usually happens in the West, but suppression of the victims in some way is still an extremely big problem and is what the whole "#metoo" movement was about.

> On the other hand if you look a bit to our politics, how affected was Trump by the rape/harrasment accusations?

Biden would be a better example. Biden made a point to market himself as a feminist and someone who "believes women [accusers]." Trump did not.

Trump was a bit of a special case, for whatever reason. No other presidential candidacy would have made it thirty seconds beyond the "Grab 'em by the pussy" scandal.

Seems like in the West we allow ourselves has a lot of "special cases". Maybe too many to bring to mind.

You mean like Clinton/Lewinsky case? I mean sure, being more eloquent and better mannered is all the difference.

And did you mean the same Clinton/Lewinsky that killed his political career? Meanwhile Trump 2024..

He served his full second term, afaik, even after admitting to lying to the Supreme Court. Trump still has another go if he ever wins it (I doubt it, though).

There's plenty of political work after his presidency too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton#Post-presidency_(...

No, consent makes all the difference. But thanks for playing.

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