On April 3, 2026, Lin Tao, the former deputy secretary general of the State Council and a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, was appointed as the Party Secretary of the Xiamen Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, replacing the previous secretary Cui Yonghui whose current career path remains unclear. Cui Yonghui previously served as a major aide during the leadership of Yin Li, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo when he governed Fujian province.
Xiamen, located in the southeastern part of Fujian province, is one of China’s important coastal cities and one of the earliest four economic zones to open up to the outside world. It is also classified as a planned sub-provincial city and vice-provincial level city.
According to a report by the Communist Party’s official media Xinhua News Agency on April 3, 2026, the Central Committee of the Communist Party recently approved Lin Tao’s appointment as a member and standing committee member of the Fujian Provincial Committee and the Party Secretary of the Xiamen City Committee.
When reporting on this news, CCTV, the official television network of the Communist Party, provided a brief overview of Lin Tao’s background, highlighting his transfer from the position of deputy secretary general of the State Council to the Party Secretary of the Xiamen Municipal Committee.
Publicly available information indicates that Lin Tao was born in July 1971 in Jieyang, Guangdong province. He has held various positions in Guangdong province, including as a member of the Party Group of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs Office of Guangdong Province, head of the Discipline Inspection Department, and Commissioner of Supervision. Lin Tao served as a member of the Standing Committee and Minister of the Propaganda Department of Shantou Municipal Committee in 2011, and concurrently as the Executive Vice Mayor of Shantou City in 2015.
In 2016, Lin Tao became the Party Group Secretary and Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and in 2019, he was appointed as the Mayor of Heyuan City. In June 2021, he became the Party Secretary of Heyuan City, and in July 2023, he was promoted to Vice Governor of Guangdong Province.
In September 2024, Lin Tao moved to Beijing to serve as the deputy secretary general of the State Council, responsible for assisting Vice Premier Liu Guozhong in his daily work. According to public reports, Vice Premier Liu Guozhong oversees agricultural and rural affairs, as well as healthcare. Lin Tao, in his role as the deputy secretary general of the State Council, often accompanies Liu Guozhong to various research and meeting activities.
For instance, on September 22, 2024, Liu Guozhong attended agricultural-related activities in Lankao, Henan province, with Lin Tao by his side.
On April 28, 2025, the eighth meeting of the Health Ministers of the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held in Xi’an. Liu Guozhong attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech, while Lin Tao was present at the event as well.
The official announcement of Lin Tao’s appointment from Xinhua News Agency did not mention the reasons for the change in the Party Secretary of the Xiamen Municipal Committee, nor did it mention any specific terms regarding the replacement of the former secretary, Cui Yonghui. Cui Yonghui’s current career path remains uncertain.
According to reports from the Xiamen Daily, on April 2, 2026, the day before the appointment of the new Party Secretary of the Xiamen Municipal Committee, Cui Yonghui visited Xiamen University’s Xiang’an campus for research purposes and presided over a symposium.
Cui Yonghui, born in November 1970 in Enshi, Hubei province, graduated from the Political Education department of Huazhong Normal University in June 1991. He later worked in Enshi City and Shiyan City in Hubei Province. After 2002, he held various positions including the Minister of the Organizational Department and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Danjiangkou City, Deputy Mayor of Huanggang City, and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and Mayor of Jingzhou City.
In June 2020, Cui Yonghui was appointed as the Vice Governor of Fujian Province. Five months later, in November 2020, Yin Li was promoted from the Governor of Sichuan Province to the Party Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee. In June 2021, Cui Yonghui was promoted to a member of the Standing Committee and Secretary General of the Fujian Provincial Committee, serving as Yin Li’s chief aide. In October 2021, Cui Yonghui was further promoted as a member of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial Committee and the Party Secretary of Xiamen City.
Yin Li, born in August 1962 in Linyi, Shandong Province, previously held positions such as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health of the Communist Party, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission, Deputy Director of the Food and Drug Administration, Deputy Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee, and Governor of Sichuan Province.
At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party in October 2022, Yin Li was elected as a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party and promoted to the vice-national level. In November 2022, Yin Li stepped down as the Party Secretary of Fujian Province and was transferred to become the Party Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party.