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Xi loyalists take control of China’s national security

Xi’s loyalists from Fujian and Zhejiang factions take charge of China’s national security

With Xi Jinping firmly at the apex, the rest of the chain of command of ultra-loyalists will pass through Cai Qi, China’s new security Tsar, reports Atul Aneja

Riding on the wave of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which gave the Chinese President unbridled power, Xi Jinping has earnestly begun to position trusted loyalists in key positions of power.

So far, the line up of new chain of command on the security side are visible in plain sight.

The new line up shows a clear-cut pattern. Most of the officials belong either to the Fujian and Zhejiang factions. Both Fujian, and Zhejiang on the Chinese coast, are provinces where Xi had earlier served in senior positions at the provincial level. Incidentally Fujian’s capital Xiamen was the venue of the ninth BRICS summit which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended. Zhejiang is a trading hub, with its capital Yiwu, the source of much of the merchandise which heads into wholesale markets in India.

Leading the pack of Xi’s loyalists is Cai Qi. Cai, a part of the seven-member standing committee of the Politburo – China’s top leadership – has virtually become Xi’s Chief of Staff. Officially, he heads the party’s General Office. This is a break from the past for the director of this office was usually drawn from the 24-member Politburo, the second layer of leadership in the party-state after the standing committee.

Xi Jinping was unanimously elected Chinese president for the third time. (Photo: Xinhua)

Incidentally, Cai was conspicuous in the recent Xi-Putin summit in Moscow, where he sat next to the Chinese president at the high-table.

Cai is now the gatekeeper of security – both external and internal, the latter coming in sharp focus by the “white paper movement” which publicly opposed Xi’s zero-covid policy.

With Xi paying a premium on loyalty, it is not surprising that Cai served in the eighties with Xi when he was in Fujian between 1985-2002.

The thread continued when Xi moved to Zhejiang for a five-year tenure from 2002.

The Xi-Cai linkup also became evident when the former became President in 2012. After Xi assumed presidency, Cai moved to Beijing, becoming deputy director of the Office of the National Security Commission – a body that Xi setup in 2013, becoming the centrepiece of national security policy.

Others drawn from the Fujian and Zhejiang factions include Chen Wenqing who heads The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, was also a senior official in Fujian. The commission oversees the police, judicial and intelligence divisions, making Chen a key official in the Xi’s tightly controlled security setup.

Xi Jinping arrives for the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)

Another official, Wang Xiaohong also belongs to the Fujian faction. Wang is the minister of public security, is also a state councillor – a vice premier-level post.

Besides Xi has promoted He Weidong, who once served as chief of staff of the 31st Group Army – a unit based in Xiamen, facing the Taiwan Strait. He is now the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).

Song Tao, the former head of the international department of the CPC, who is now director of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, a critically important post at this juncture, once worked at the Fujian International Trust and Investment Corporation.

With Xi firmly at the apex, the rest of the chain of command of ultra-loyalists will pass through Cai, China’s new security Tsar.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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Li Qiang appointed new premier of China

Chinese President Xi Jinping nominated Li Qiang for the post of premier during the ongoing first session of the 14th National People’s Congress.

China’s Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang became the new premier on Saturday after being nominated for the post during a session of the 14th National People’s Congress, Global Times reported.

Earlier today, Chinese President Xi Jinping nominated Li Qiang for the post of premier during the ongoing first session of the 14th National People’s Congress. Li Qiang will replace Li Keqiang, who became premier in 2013 with high hopes that he would usher in liberal reforms. But his power was curbed by Xi, who increasingly sidelined Li Keqiang and placed allies in key strategic positions over him.

Yesterday, Keqiang took his final bow as the country’s premier, marking a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer the world’s second-biggest economy in favour of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty to China’s most powerful leader in recent history, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.

After exiting the ruling Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in October, despite being below retirement age, Li’s last major task was delivering the state of the nation address to the rubber-stamp parliament on Monday. The report sought to reassure citizens of the resiliency of the Chinese economy but contained little that was new.

Xi Jinping was unanimously elected Chinese president on Friday at the ongoing session of China’s national legislature. (Photo: Xinhua)

Li Qiang, who joined the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee in October, is considered a novice in China’s complex central government administration encompassing 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, according to Nikkei Asia.

The 63-year-old politician served for four decades in his home province of Zhejiang and became a secretary to Xi when the latter was a top official in that industrial region in eastern China.

Li was later promoted to become party boss of Jiangsu and later Shanghai, where his reputation plunged during the financial centre’s gruelling two-month COVID lockdown last year.

Even so, Li is rising to become the second most powerful Chinese official after Xi in the country’s intricate system of governance.

As per Nikkei Asia, Li earned a degree in executive business administration from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2005, decades after he graduated from Zhejiang Agricultural University in 1982.

Meanwhile, Zhang Youxia and He Weidong were nominated as candidates for vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reported Global Times. (ANI)

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Xi consolidates power as Li Keqiang retires

Xi Jinping delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in Beijing, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)

Take the role of the premier, the person managing the world’s second-largest economy and, in theory, second only to Xi in the power structure.

The National People’s Congress, which starts this weekend, will be the symbolic culmination of Xi Jinping’s epic power grab, the media reported.

China’s leader has overhauled the Communist Party placing himself at the core and nobody else has even a remote chance of challenging him, BBC reported.

The starkest representation of this will be in the shift in personnel to be announced at the annual political meeting, a rubber-stamp session of nearly 3,000 delegates, BBC reported.

Take the role of the premier, the person managing the world’s second-largest economy and, in theory, second only to Xi in the power structure.

Outgoing premier Li Keqiang will take centre stage on day one. Then, at the end, a new premier, almost certainly Li Qiang, will occupy the limelight.

They’re two very different people, especially in terms of their loyalty to Xi, who started an upheaval a decade ago with his anti-corruption crackdown, cutting a swathe through the ranks of rival party factions, BBC reported.

Outgoing premier Li Keqiang

At last October’s Communist Party Congress, new appointments to the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee meant the most powerful group in the country now had only Xi loyalists.

At this gathering, it is the heads of various departments and ministerial positions which will be replaced. They are all expected to fall into the same camp.

“On the one hand this might mean Xi can really get things done with his new leadership but, on the other, there is a danger of him being stuck in an echo chamber,” an experienced business figure told the BBC.

If Li Qiang is indeed the new premier, sitting up there on the last day of the NPC, taking screened questions at the annual press event, it will have been a meteoric rise for him.

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Xi tightens grip on power

Delegates to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China - Xi Jinping.(photo:Xinhua/IANS)

Xi, 69, is widely expected to be reaffirmed this weekend as the party’s general secretary, paving the way for him to gain a norm-breaking third term as Chinese president.

China’s President Xi Jinping has strengthened his power as leader and elevated his status within the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) history, with major political resolutions announced on the final day of a key political meeting.

On Saturday, the CCP congress approved amendments to its constitution, including the so-called “Two Establishes” and “Two Safeguards”, aimed at enshrining Xi as being at the core of the party and his political thought as its underpinning ideology, the Guardian reported.

A list of reappointed delegates also confirmed premier Li Keqiang would be retiring from politics, as well as several other senior party figures.

The President began his closing speech around midday, as party officials announced the confirmation of the amendments, which all but confirmed that the President will remain in power for another term.

Xi, 69, is widely expected to be reaffirmed this weekend as the party’s general secretary, paving the way for him to gain a norm-breaking third term as Chinese president.

Xi Jinping arrives for the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)

“Dare to struggle, dare to win, bury your heads and work hard. Be determined to keep forging ahead,” he told those gathered.

The week-long conclave sees thousands of CCP delegates, ostensibly representing the hundreds of millions of party members, meet in Beijing, the Guardian reported.

The purpose is largely to rubber-stamp reshuffles of senior party positions and constitutional changes likely decided on long before the meeting began. The meeting is highly choreographed and mostly behind closed doors.

However, shortly before Xi’s speech began, former leader Hu Jintao was escorted out of the room, without explanation.

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has further consolidated his individual power, including spearheading the elimination of term limits in 2018.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang

Prior to those changes, he would have been stepping down as leader this week, but instead has the potential to be leader for life, the Guardian reported.

Analysts are watching this weekend’s events keenly, to see if Xi is also formally given the title of “People’s Leader”, an honorific not officially used since Mao Zedong.

There has also been speculation that the role of party “chairman” could be reinstated.

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Will Xi tighten his iron grip on 20th Party Congress?

Picture courtesy: Twitter@merics_eu | Picture alliance: Xinhua News Agency_ Li Xueren

During the course of the 20th Party Congress, Xi is expected to further consolidate his hold over the 86 million strong CPC by handpicking a new leadership line up, a report by Atul Aneja

China goes into its once in five years huddle on October 16. The Great Hall of the People in Beijing — an imposing heavily pillared Soviet style structure, within the eyeline of the famous Tiananmen Square — will be the venue of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Every five years at the Party Congress the General Secretary of the CPC, in this case Xi Jinping, will present a work report — a thematic summing of the lofty achievement, real or otherwise, of the previous five years. It is also an occasion to declare the strategic goals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for the next five years or more. For instance, at the 19th Party congress which took place in October 2017, Xi loudly declared that the PRC will pursue what he described as — two centenary goals. By 2022, marking 100 years of the formation of the CPC, China would become a “moderately prosperous” society, Xi said. This meant that the PRC would eliminate extreme poverty countrywide. For statisticians, it entailed doubling the PRC’s GDP with 2010 as the base.

The second centenary goal was the realisation of the “Chinese Dream” of turning China into a world leader in all aspects of human endeavour, ranging from military, economy and culture. This was to be achieved by 2049, a year marking 100 years of the formation of the PRC, when the CPC led by Mao Zedong had established complete control over China, through what has been dubbed as the “people’s revolution”.

The 20th Party congress is expected to connect the dots, and unveil practical incremental steps for the next five years to help achieve the grand strategic goals framed by the second centenary goal.

During the course of the 20th Party Congress, Xi is expected to further consolidate his hold over the 86 million strong CPC by handpicking a new leadership line up.

This will be achieved through the formation of a new Central Committee where Xi’s loyalists will dominate, though others from rival factions, such as the Communist Youth League, will also be included. This minority co-option from the rival camp is necessary to soften and manage the internal opposition within the party ranks. Currently the Central Committee comprises 205 full members and 171 alternate members, that is a pool from where vacancies in the full-member core can be filled during the course of five years, whenever required.

Xi Jinping arrives for the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)

From the 200 plus feedstock of the Central Committee, Xi will handpick the more important and powerful politburo, comprising 25 members. Finally, he will skim a standing committee of the politburo, comprising China’s top leaders. With Xi at the helm, China will be ruled by 7-9 people, including the General Secretary of the CPC.

Who will comprise the new Standing Committee of the Politburo?

This is anybody’s guess but few important names are circulating in CPC circles. So far, there has been an unwritten rule that Standing Committee members retire after attaining the age of 68, but with Xi rewriting the script, this template may no longer be cast in stone.

Some of the prominent names to watch out for, who could become part of the standing committee include Hu Chunhua among others. Of course, Hu’s inclusion will partly depend on whether Xi, who has turned 69, wants to groom a successor, form a youngish pool at some point, possibly, after 2027, when the 21st Party Congress would be due.

Hu is not exactly Xi’s favourite. He has been part of the Communist Youth League (CYL) — the habitat of many of the “princelings” or second-generation leaders of the PRC helmsmen — a group that Xi has not been particularly fond of. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, whom Xi has heavily side-lined, belongs to the CYL. Hu to his credit has served in Tibet, and is part of the 25-member Politburo.

Then there is 62-year-old Chen Min’er. Xi has chosen him in the past as a firefighter. He was moved from the poverty infested Guizhou province to the lucrative Chongqing, where in 2017 he replaced the city’s powerful party boss, Sun Shanghai, who was once considered the President’s rival. Chien also is part of the so-called Zhejiang faction, composed of Xi loyalists. Xi had once served as the party secretary of Zhejiang province and many of his lieutenants have been drafted into positions of power because of that legacy.

Others to look out for are the 60-year old Ding Xuexiang. He has been Xi’s chief of staff and the two go back to 2007 when they worked together in Shanghai during an anti-corruption drive.

China watchers are also focusing on 63-year-old Li Qiang, a somewhat controversial party secretary of Shanghai because of pursuing a draconian anti-Covid approach. But chances of being elevated to the hallowed circle remain as, apart from other attributes, he belongs to the pro-Xi Zhejiang faction.

The name of Xi’s propaganda chief Huang Kunming is making the rounds among Beijing’s chatterati as the Party congress nears, which in the end, could spring many surprises.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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China’s illegal police ops in foreign soil target critics

One of the key operations the police service centers are involved in is the “persuasion to return” process, in which pressure is brought to bear on activists overseas using threats and retaliation…reports Asian Lite News

China is carrying out illegal, transnational policing operations across five continents, targeting overseas critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with harassment, threats against their families back home and “persuasion” techniques to get them to go back, according to a recent report.

Chinese police are currently running at least 54 “overseas police service centers” in foreign countries, some of which work with law enforcement back home to run operations on foreign soil, the report from Safeguard Defenders said, RFA reported.

Initially started as a pilot scheme by police in Qingtian county, Zhejiang province, in 2019, the overseas stations were ostensibly set up to help Chinese nationals overseas with administrative tasks, the report said.

“But they also serve a far more sinister and wholly illegal purpose. Some official anecdotes of official operations explicitly cite the active involvement of Hometown Associations on the ground in tracking and pursuing targets indicated by [police or public prosecutors in China],” the report said.

Hometown Associations are community based groups of people from the same town in China, and are connected to the hierarchy of the CCP’s United Front Work Department, which runs outreach and influence operations both in China and overseas, RFA reported.

One of the key operations the service centers are involved in is the “persuasion to return” process, in which pressure is brought to bear on activists overseas using threats and retaliation against their loved ones back in China.

“In the mere 15 months between April 2021 and July 2022 alone, a staggering 230,000 Chinese nationals were returned to face potential criminal charges in China through these methods, which often include threats and harassment to family members back home or directly to the target abroad either through online or physical means,” Safeguard Defenders said.

The “persuasion to return” campaign was rolled out as a pilot project across 10 provinces in 2018, and official guidelines include denying targets’ children the right to education in China, or targeting their family members for harassment.

“The combination of an absolute absence of minimal judicial safeguards for the target and the association by guilt methods employed on their families, as well as the illegal methods adopted to circumvent official international cooperation mechanisms and the use of United Front Work-related organizations abroad to aid in such efforts, pose a most grave risk to the international rule of law and territorial sovereignty,” the report found, RFA reported.

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