The Communist Party of China (CPC) has erased Zhu Hengpeng.  Mr. Zhu once held an economist’s position within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).  (Top Economist in China Vanishes After Private WeChat Comments – WSJ)  CASS provides strategy and produces propaganda for the CPC.  Some say CASS also trains operatives for the Ministry of State Security, a CPC organization compared to the US CIA and FBI with massive funding.  His position with the organization makes Mr. Zhu prominent among the prominent.

He could not have achieved and held his position without demonstrating faithful obedience to the CPC.  Yet, discussing ideas in private, which were necessary for his job as an advisor to the CPC, appear to have led him to disappear.

Chinese tolerate pervasive government surveillance.  They do so expecting the PRC, in return, to tolerate private communications with a reliable degree of constancy.  The CPC governance model, however, features capricious changes in enforcement or policy as a tool of state.  For long periods, the CPC may allow certain conduct then suddenly deem that activity dangerous.

And yet, the CPC itself relies on the steady application of law, or an aspiration to avoid arbitrary application of laws, from the United States.

A company that the CPC controls, Xiaomi, found itself on a US government naughty list that prohibited Americans from investing in the company.  Xiaomi sued the United States arguing that the US government had placed the company on the list arbitrarily, or capriciously.  Endangering US service men and women, the US government chose not to present evidence of Xiaomi’s role in augmenting People’s Liberation Army weapons systems.  In the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Xiaomi won.

US political leaders should know and tell stories like this repeatedly and loudly.  Doing so raises expectations among countries around the world that even the CPC should act to protect people.  Even its own people like CPC loyalist and economist Zhu Hengpeng.