On the eve of the fifth plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party, there have been significant personnel changes at the top levels of the Ministry of Public Security of the Chinese Communist Party. In the past two and a half months, three close aides of the Minister of Public Security, Wang Xiaohong, namely Yue Xiuhu, Tan Quan, and Hua Liebing, have been successively reassigned from the Ministry of Public Security. On the contrary, Qin Yunbiao and Gao Qi, who are not in Wang Xiaohong’s inner circle, have been newly appointed as members of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security, with Qin taking on the role of Vice Minister and Gao serving as the Deputy Commissioner for Anti-Terrorism at the vice-ministerial level.
Wang Xiaohong, a close confidant of CCP leader Xi Jinping and a former official in Fujian province, has been the subject of various rumors in the past six months, suggesting that he may step down from his position. His predecessor, Zhao Kezhi, resigned from his position as the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security after the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the CCP, preceding the 20th Party Congress. Speculations are now rife about whether Wang Xiaohong will follow suit and step down after the fifth plenary session of the 20th Party Congress. If he does, who will succeed him remains a burning question.
On September 9, 2026, the state-run CCP media Xinhua News Agency reported a list of appointments by the State Council, including the appointment of Qin Yunbiao as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Public Security. On the same day, the official website of the Ministry of Public Security of the CCP updated its leadership section to show that Qin Yunbiao had been appointed as a member of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security and Vice Minister, while still concurrently holding the position of Deputy Mayor and Director of the Public Security Bureau of Beijing. Gao Qi was also appointed as a member of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security, serving as the Deputy Commissioner for Anti-Terrorism (at the vice-ministerial level).
It is worth noting that both Qin Yunbiao and Gao Qi have no apparent affiliation with Xi Jinping’s faction but rather have close ties to the faction led by Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong.
Qin Yunbiao has served in the public security system in Guangxi for a long time and was a subordinate of Guo Shengkun, the former member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and the current Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress when he was in charge in Guangxi. During Guo Shengkun’s tenure as the Secretary of the Party Committee of the CCP Central Committee for Political and Legal Affairs, Qin Yunbiao was promoted to the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. Guo Shengkun is a fellow villager of Jiangxi and an alleged nephew-in-law of Zeng Qinghong. Peng Qinghua, currently the Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress, is a former colleague of Zeng Qinghong in the Central Organization Department.
Gao Qi has long served in the public security system in Xinjiang and is a former subordinate of prominent figures in the Jiang faction such as Wang Lequan and Zhang Chunxian. Wang Lequan served as the top leader in Xinjiang for 15 years and later became the Deputy Secretary of the CCP Central Politics and Law Committee, serving as the deputy to Zhou Yongkang for two and a half years.
Gao Qi was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department three years ago for alleged human rights violations.
In recent times, several senior officials of the Ministry of Public Security of the CCP have been reassigned. On July 16, 2026, Tan Quan was relieved of his duties as Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Public Security. On July 31, 2026, Tan Quan was appointed as Deputy Mayor and Director of the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing. Tan Quan was a former subordinate of Wang Xiaohong in Beijing. During Wang Xiaohong’s tenure as Minister of Public Security, Tan Quan was reportedly transferred to the Bureau of Network Security Protection under the Ministry of Public Security as early as the beginning of 2024; he was appointed a member of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security and Assistant Minister in October 2025.
Yue Xiuhu, who previously served as a member of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security and the Deputy Commissioner for Anti-Terrorism (at the vice-ministerial level), was appointed as the Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission on June 26, 2026. Since Wang Xiaohong became the Executive Vice Minister and Minister of Public Security, Yue Xiuhu has been in charge of anti-terrorism related matters. Two years ago, Yue Xiuhu was promoted by Wang Xiaohong from the Director of Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department to the Commissioner for Anti-Terrorism of the Ministry of Public Security, responsible for international cooperation on anti-terrorism issues.
Moreover, in early September 2026, the official website of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the CCP updated the Leadership section to show that Hua Liebing, the Party Secretary and Director of the Second Bureau (Economic Crime Investigation Bureau) of the Ministry of Public Security, has been appointed as the Head of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission stationed in Hong Kong and Macao. Hua Liebing has previously held positions in the Henan Provincial Public Security Department, Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the Ministry of Public Security, all under the leadership of Wang Xiaohong, steadily climbing the ranks.
Over the past year, there have been frequent personnel changes at the senior levels of the Ministry of Public Security of the CCP, with Wang Xiaohong’s close aides being reassigned one after another, including several Assistant Ministers of the Ministry of Public Security being replaced.
On March 15-17, 2026, Wang Xiaohong attended the first ministerial-level meeting of the “3+3” strategic dialogue mechanism between China and Vietnam in Hanoi. Following this, from March 18 to April 14, 2026, there were no public reports of his activities, causing a sense of mystery for four weeks. It wasn’t until April 15 that he reappeared at a meeting with Xi Jinping and Su Lin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the President of Vietnam, respectively.
During Wang Xiaohong’s absence, various self-media accounts circulated rumors about his illness, imminent resignation, and even possible investigation.
Additionally, when Wang Xiaohong went on inspection tours outside Beijing on multiple occasions, his focus on economic-related matters raised criticisms of him not fulfilling his official duties.
Wang Xiaohong’s fellow villager from Fujian and the Chairman of the Beijing Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference, Wei Xiaodong, was likewise brought down from his position on June 6, 2026. Wei Xiaodong was considered a political broker for the “Fujian Gang of Five” (Cai Qi, Huang Kunming, He Lifeng, Wang Xiaohong, and Chen Xi). During his tenure as a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CCP and Minister of the Public Security Bureau, from 2017 to 2021, he had interactions with Wang Xiaohong, who was then the Deputy Mayor of Beijing and the Director of the Public Security Bureau.
From mid-April to the end of June 2026, the twelfth inspection group of the CCP Central Committee conducted an inspection of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security. Since the start of the inspection, dozens of senior officials above the rank of Deputy Minister of the CCP have fallen from grace, including high-ranking officials, former Deputy Chairman of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Government, and former director of the Public Security Department, Zhu Changjie.
Wang Xiaohong, born in July 1957, is now 69 years old. Hailing from Fuzhou, Fujian, he is a former colleague of CCP leader Xi Jinping from Fujian province. Since Xi Jinping came to power at the 18th National Congress of the CCP, Wang Xiaohong has been steadily promoted, rising through the ranks to hold positions such as Director of the Public Security Department in Henan Province, Deputy Mayor and Director of the Public Security Bureau in Beijing, and Vice Minister of Public Security. Following the 19th National Congress of the CCP, in March 2018, Wang Xiaohong was appointed as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security and Executive Vice Minister.
A week after the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the CCP in November 2021, Zhao Kezhi, who was 64 years old at the time, handed over the position of Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security to the then 68-year-old Wang Xiaohong on November 19, 2021.
On June 24, 2022, on the eve of the 20th National Congress of the CCP, Wang Xiaohong succeeded Zhao Kezhi as Minister of Public Security and was also appointed as Deputy Secretary of the CCP Central Politics and Law Committee. This made Wang Xiaohong the first Minister of Public Security with a background in public security since 1998.
The 21st National Congress of the CCP is conventionally scheduled to take place in the second half of 2027. With the frequent personnel changes at the senior levels of the Ministry of Public Security and the ongoing rumors of Wang Xiaohong stepping down, the question of whether he will follow Zhao Kezhi’s example and relinquish his positions as Secretary of the Party Committee and Minister of Public Security after the fifth plenary session of the 20th National Congress, as well as who will succeed him, will be answered in the coming months.
For over two decades before Wang Xiaohong, the four Ministers of Public Security, including Zhao Kezhi, Guo Shengkun, Meng Jianzhu, and Zhou Yongkang, were all appointed from their positions as Provincial Party Secretaries to head the Ministry of Public Security without prior background in the public security system.
When various self-media accounts previously speculated about Wang Xiaohong’s imminent resignation, rumors also surfaced about several local officials possibly coming to Beijing to take charge of the Ministry of Public Security, including the current Party Secretary of Hunan Province, Shen Xiaoming, the Party Secretary of Jiangxi Province, Yin Hong, and the former Party Secretary of Hubei Province, Wang Zhonglin.
Wang Zhonglin, a prominent figure within Xi Jinping’s faction and a member of the Shandong Gang, unexpectedly stepped down as the Party Secretary of Hubei Province at the end of May 2026 and was subsequently reassigned as the Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for Environmental and Resource Protection Committee. Shen Xiaoming and Yin Hong both rose through the ranks in the Shanghai political arena, holding positions such as member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, Party Secretary of Pudong New Area, and Deputy Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee and Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee. They have both served as deputies to Han Zheng, a prominent figure in the Shanghai faction and the current Party Secretary of Shanghai.
Furthermore, the current Executive Vice Minister of the Ministry of Public Security, Qi Yanjun, has drawn attention as to whether he will follow the past practice and be promoted to the position of Minister of Public Security, similar to what happened with Wang Xiaohong. Qi Yanjun, born in October 1964, is about to turn 62 years old, with three more years until the mandatory retirement age of 65 for officials at major department levels. When Zhao Kezhi assumed the position of Secretary of the Party Committee and Minister of Public Security in October and November 2017, he was 64 years old; when Wang Xiaohong took over as the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security in November 2021, he was already 64 years old.
Qi Yanjun, a native of Shandong, previously worked in the Shandong Provincial Public Security Department and later served as a subordinate and deputy to Wang Xiaohong in the Public Security Departments of Henan and Beijing.
Before Zhao Kezhi, the forces aligned with Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong had long held sway over the Ministry of Public Security; Past Ministers of Public Security, including Zhou Yongkang, Meng Jianzhu, and Guo Shengkun, were members of the Shanghai Gang, the Jiangxi Gang, and the Petrol Gang of the Jiang Zemin faction, respectively.
Within the current senior leadership of the Ministry of Public Security, besides the newly promoted Qin Yunbiao and Gao Qi who have served in the public security systems of Guangxi and Xinjiang, having close ties to the Jiang and Zeng factions, the Executive Vice Minister Qi Yanjun and the Director of the Discipline Inspection Group of the Ministry of Public Security Ren Airong are both natives of Shandong, associated with the Shandong Gang of the Xi Jinping faction. The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Security and Secretary of the Bureau of Special Affairs, Ling Zhifeng, is from Zhejiang and had a long career in the Zhejiang political arena, being a prominent figure in the Zhejiang Gang of the Xi Jinping faction. These appointments showcase the power struggle among various factions within the CCP jockeying for control of the Ministry of Public Security.
The internal power struggle leading up to the 21st National Congress of the CCP has intensified, especially against the backdrop of the ongoing purge within the CCP military forces. Control over the “gun barrel” in the Ministry of Public Security is crucial. As Wang Xiaohong, who is now 69 years old, contemplates stepping down from his positions as Minister of Public Security and Secretary of the Party Committee, the question of who will succeed him remains pivotal in indicating the direction of the power dynamics among the CCP leadership in Zhongnanhai.
(Source: Epoch Times, September 9, 2026)