Direct translation
"Comrade Xi Jinping" finally disappeared
Editor : Zhongkang / Source: Xin Touke / https://www.aboluowang.com/2025/0415/2205131.html / Image : Some analysts believe that the exchange of positions between Shi Taifeng and Li Ganjie, members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, sends a major political signal that the leader of the CPC Xi Jinping may have lost the dominance over personnel. The picture shows a data map of Zhongnanhai. (Greg Baker / AFP Getty Images)
In late March and early April, two unusual events occurred within the Communist Party of China. These two unusual events involved the position of Xi Jinping, the party's top leader and general secretary, within the party. One could see that the downfall of Xi Jinping, the top leader, seemed to be moving forward step by step.
On 31 March 2025, the Communist Party of China held its monthly Politburo meeting. If one reads carefully the official announcement of the Politburo meeting published on the front page of the People's Daily the next day, one would find something unusual. The term "Central Committee of the Party" appeared about five times in the official announcement, but the previously used expression "the Central Committee of the Party with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" had disappeared. "Central Committee of the Party" had become simply "Central Committee of the Party".
During Xi Jinping's first term, he established himself as the "core of the party". Since then, it has become the standard for official party documents to precede the term "Central Committee of the Party" with the expression "with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core". Specifically, in an article, when the "Central Committee of the Party" is mentioned, at least the first time, the expression "the Central Committee of the Party with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" will be used.
For example, the official publication of the "Comprehensive Report on the First Central Inspection by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" published on the front page of the People's Daily on September 28, 2023, and the official publication of the "Comprehensive Report on the Second Central Inspection by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" published on September 30, 2024, both began with "The Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core attaches great importance to inspection work". In addition, the official publication of the "Comprehensive Report on the Third Central Inspection by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" published in the People's Daily on October 29, 2024 also used the expression "under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" at the beginning.
However, in the latest official publication of the "Comprehensive Report on the Fourth Central Inspection by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" held a few days ago, the "Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" at the beginning disappeared. Although the term "Party Central Committee" is used about five times in the text, the expression "with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" is completely avoided. Judging from past practices, this is unusual and extremely abnormal.
1. Now Xi Jinping is just "one of them"
If you continue to read, on 3 April 2025, the People's Daily published the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the Price Management System" on the front page. However, although this official document uses the term "CPC Central Committee", it does not mention "the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core".
On 3 April 2025, the People's Daily reported on the speech made by Wang Huning, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, at the "Ecological Civilization Construction Symposium". So far, in any meeting, no matter what the content of the meeting, Wang Huning has mentioned "the "two establishments" including "establishing Xi Jinping's core position" at least once, but this old saying did not come out of Wang Huning's mouth at this symposium.
What does this strange change mean? If the keywords such as "the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" and "the two establishments" no longer appear in the official statements of the party or the speeches of the leaders in the future, does this mean that the CPC Central Committee has deprived Xi Jinping of his status as the "core of the CPC Central Committee" based on its own consensus and downgraded him to a member of the collective leadership system?
2. The unprecedented personnel changes are of great significance
On 2 April 2025, another very noteworthy event occurred within the CPC. After the Politburo meeting on March 31, the CPC Central Committee immediately replaced the heads of two important departments: (1) the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, which is responsible for personnel work, and (2) the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, which is responsible for external affairs. Li Ganjie, the former head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, was transferred to the head of the United Front Work Department, while Shi Taifeng, the former head of the United Front Work Department, was transferred to the head of the Organization Department. On April 2, Xinhua News Agency and other media reported on the activities of Li and Shi in their new positions.
Both of them are members of the Politburo, but it is not only unusual but also unprecedented in the history of the Communist regime for a Politburo member to change positions during his tenure. So, what does this mean?
The above two positions, namely, the head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, are both heads of the CPC Central Committee, but their importance in the regime is completely different. The head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee is responsible for the review of personnel and cadres of the entire party, is a key figure in the management of the party organization, and is also one of the most important positions in the Party Central Committee. In fact, there are many examples of people who served as the Minister of the Central Organization Department being promoted to the top leadership of the party, but there are almost no examples of people who served as the Minister of the United Front Work Department being promoted to the top leadership.
In this way, the significance of this position transfer is obvious. First of all, Li Ganjie, who was transferred from the Minister of the Central Organization Department to the Minister of the United Front Work Department, graduated from Tsinghua University like Xi Jinping, and he was appointed as the Minister of the Central Organization Department because of the recommendation of Chen Xi, the former Minister of the Central Organization Department. Chen Xi is also a graduate of Tsinghua University and a classmate of President Xi Jinping. Therefore, Li Ganjie is considered a member of Xi Jinping's faction. For this reason, President Xi Jinping, who consolidated his personal dictatorship at the Party Congress in October 2022, appointed Li Ganjie as the Minister of the Central Organization Department, which is a key position to control the party organization.
Therefore, Li Ganjie's resignation as the Minister of the Central Organization Department means that Xi Jinping and his faction have lost the bastion of control over the party organization.
3. Xi Jinping also lost control over party personnel
On the other hand, Shi Taifeng, who has been transferred to the post of Minister of the Central Organization Department, graduated from the Law School of Peking University and was a classmate of Li Keqiang, a core figure of the Hu Jintao faction. After graduating from university, he taught at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China. In 2001, when Hu Jintao was the president of the Central Party School, he was promoted to vice president, so he is considered to be a person with close ties to the Hu Jintao faction. On the other hand, Shi Taifeng worked under Xi Jinping when Xi Jinping succeeded Hu Jintao as president, so his relationship with Xi Jinping is generally good, but he is by no means a cadre and confidant that Xi Jinping has cultivated from the past.
Therefore, Li Ganjie, who was a cadre of Xi Jinping, was removed from the post of Minister of the Central Organization Department, and Shi Taifeng took over his position. It seems that this is the result of political game and compromise. In any case, President Xi Jinping lost the key position of controlling the party organization in this personnel adjustment, which is of great significance.
With the fall of Miao Hua, Minister of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission in November last year, Xi Jinping lost the key to controlling the military organization. This time, Xi Jinping's faction also lost the key to controlling the party organization = the post of Minister of the Central Organization Department.
Considering this, and the fact that the expression "the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core" has disappeared from the official statement of the Politburo meeting, it seems that the move to "exclude Xi Jinping" is not only in the military, but also in the party step by step.
No comments:
Post a Comment