In March 2016, an anonymous open letter, entitled The Open Letter about Calling for Comrade Xi Jinping's Resigning from His Leading Posts of the Party and the State (Chinese: 关于要求习近平同志辞去党和国家领导职务的公开信; pinyin: guānyú yāoqiú Xí Jìnpíng tóngzhì cíqù dǎng hé guójiā lǐngdǎo zhíwù de gōngkāi xìn), purporting to be from unnamed "loyal Communist Party members", allegedly resulted in the detention of dozens of Chinese citizens, including (temporarily) six relatives of two overseas dissidents.
[7] Professor Xiao Qiang of the University of California, Berkeley, agreed the phrasing is unusual: "Bluff or true, this tone sounds more like coup plotters talking to the leader they want to depose, rather than an open letter with dissenting political views."
However, Comrade Xi Jinping, we have no choice but to point out that, precisely due to your gathering of all power into your own hands and making decisions directly, we are now facing unprecedented problems and crises in all political, economic, ideological, and cultural spheres.
Meanwhile, the stationing of Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission patrols in work units and state-owned enterprises has created a new system of power, leading to a lack of clarity at all levels of government, and confusing the decision-making process.
In the diplomatic sphere, your abandonment of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's consistent "hide your strength and bide your time" policy, has not only failed to create a favourable international environment, but has allowed North Korea to complete successful nuclear tests, creating an enormous threat to China's national security; has allowed the United States' successful return to Asia, forming a united front with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and South-East Asian countries to jointly contain China.
The excessive consumption of foreign exchange reserves, and renminbi devaluation cycles, has made everyone's confidence decline, has brought the national economy to the verge of collapse.
On the ideological sphere, your emphasis of the "Media's Party surname" has disregarded the media's character of representing the people, and the entire country is stunned; your support of Zhou Xiaoping and Hua Qianfang as representatives on the literary front has left countless literary and art workers in bitter disappointment; your direct condoning of cultural units to sing your praises, and the appointment of your wife Peng Liyuan's sister as director and producer of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, has turned the once popular Gala into your personal propaganda tool.
Comrade Xi Jinping, your carrying out a high-pressure anti-corruption campaign to correct unhealthy tendencies in the Party has had a helpful effect, but, since there are no supporting measures or objectives, it has given rise to an abundance of "slackness" at all levels of government, with officials too afraid to work, discontent openly voiced by the people, and the deterioration of our economy exacerbated.
[11] The report that ten of the detained employees worked for the technology company spurred speculation that perhaps the letter was published on Watching by a hacker, or alternatively by some sort of web-crawling software that republishes content.