Zhu Rongji rarely "speaks out" and Wang Qishan appears in new position

 Direct translation

Reporters : Ning Haizhong and Luo Ya / Editor : Lin Congwen / Image above : File photo of former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji. (Feng Li/Getty Images)

"News of the death" of the 96-year-old former Chinese Communist Party Premier Zhu Rongji has been reported from time to time on the Internet recently, but Zhu has rarely "spoken" recently. Former Vice President Wang Qishan, who was recently exposed on the Internet, has succeeded Zhu Rongji as the honorary chairman of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management Advisory Committee and hosted a banquet for attendees. Zhu Rongji’s son Zhu Yunlai also attended the event. Analysts believe that these phenomena may be related to Zhu and Wang's refutation of rumours, as well as the internal fighting between Xi Jinping and the elders.

According to the official website of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management on 31 October 2024, on 25 October 2024, the 2024 meeting of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management Advisory Committee was held at Tsinghua University. Zhu Rongji entrusted Tsinghua University President Li Luming to convey his wishes to the advisory committee and specially invited experts to speak. Former Vice President Wang Qishan has succeeded Zhu Rongji as the honorary chairman of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management Advisory Committee and hosted a banquet for attendees.

According to reports, Zhu Yunlai, Zhu Rongji’s son and former president and CEO of China International Capital Corporation, also attended the banquet.

The news also showed that before the annual meeting, Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier, met with representatives of the advisory committee of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing on 25 October 2024. Ding is one of the representatives of the Xi Jiajun.

Zhu Rongji served as Premier of the State Council of the Communist Party of China from 1998 to 2003. He has rarely appeared in public in recent years, including his absence from the 2021 centenary event of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the opening ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He was last seen in October 2020. Photos of him spending his 92nd birthday in a hospital leaked online.

The members of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management’s advisory committee include a number of Chinese and foreign business celebrities, and the chairman is Apple CEO Cook. Zhu Rongji was the first dean of Tsinghua SEM and the honorary chairman of the advisory committee. After Wang Qishan took over, Zhu Rongji became the founding honorary chairman of the advisory committee.

Checking the official website of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, we can see that at the 2023 annual meeting, Han Zheng, Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China, met with the delegates, and in 2022, then Vice Chairman Wang Qishan met with the delegates via video.

The Xi Jinping administration has intensified its crackdown on the financial sector in recent years, and has been considered to be aiming to seize money from the powerful. In the past few years, the number of senior CCP financial officials under investigation has been increasing year by year. Those who were dismissed include Wang Qishan’s former department and former deputy governor of the central bank, Fan Yifei, and Wang Qishan’s former secretary and former president of China Merchants Bank Tian Huiyu. The current secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is Li Xi, a close confidant of Xi.

Current affairs commentator Li Linyi told The Epoch Times that the CCP’s financial system has always been controlled by the CCP’s high-level powerful families. Zhu Rongji and Wang Qishan themselves have deep roots in the financial world and have many former disciples. The Department of Finance has been suppressed so far, and Wang Qishan has also been hit hard. This time he finally found a position in his own territory, and he was also cheering for officials of the Department of Finance on behalf of Zhu Rongji.

As for Ding Xuexiang, he met with representatives on behalf of Xi Jinping. Li Linyi believes that, after all, this is an advisory committee under the name of Tsinghua University, and foreign businessmen are involved, so the Xi authorities cannot interfere too much. Wang Qishan’s high-profile appearance means that Xi’s power is no longer as powerful as before.

It is worth noting that Zhu Rongji and Wang Qishan have recently received negative news during the same period. News of Zhu's death continued to spread on the Internet; "Hong Kong News Agency" broke the news on October 12 that Wang Qishan was "under house arrest at his residence outside the east gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing on the night of the 7th." It was also said that Wang Qishan had amassed trillions of wealth. 

Taiwan media "Shangbao" published a commentary by Du Zheng on 20 October 2024, saying that it was very unusual for the revelations about Wang Qishan to be released on the CCP's external propaganda website. Behind the core figures of this website may be a faction of the Xi family, such as Cai Qi, who is in charge of propaganda, or Li Xi, who is currently in charge of anti-corruption.

Wu Zuolai, a scholar living in the United States, told The Epoch Times that from time to time, some negative things are spread about Zhu Rongji and Wang Qishan, some of which are speculations, but it cannot be ruled out that political opponents hope that something will happen to them.

He said that senior CCP officials have always deliberately exposed their faces in response to some rumors. For example, it was rumoured that Li Yuanchao was arrested in the past. A few days later, photos of Li Yuanchao sitting at home reading a newspaper were circulated, proving that he was fine. Now that Zhu Rongji has "sent out" greetings and Wang Qishan has come out, it proves that they are still fine. "It proves that the information channels of these senior officials are connected with overseas information channels."

Wu Zuolai believes that Wang Qishan was entrusted by Zhu Rongji. They had joined forces in the economic and financial fields back then. Wang Qishan served as the honorary chairman of Tsinghua, like the boss in this field, which shows that the political elders of the CCP have a certain degree of freedom. For example, some time ago, Wen Jiabao and Li Ruihuan began to show up, indicating that Xi Jinping's decision-making failed and that they should seek advice from them. The status of these people has risen and they have begun to have the right to speak.

"Xi Jinping's authority has now lost its authority. Even the people in his Standing Committee have reached a consensus: Xi Jinping's ten years were a decade of failure. Just because these people were promoted by Xi and cannot criticize Xi publicly. In the current system, there are fewer and fewer people within the party saying "two safeguards". When Xi's authority loses its authority, (Wang Qishan) these people come out. In a sense, the opposition within the party is improving their status, so there have been so many rumours since the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and they are not groundless,” he said.