【Epoch Times, October 9, 2026】The “National Day” holiday has just ended, and on October 8, 2026, China’s state-run media Xinhua announced that Fan Bosheng, a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee, has been appointed Deputy Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee.
Jiangsu is the hometown of former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin. The newly appointed Deputy Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, Fan Bosheng, was a former colleague of the former Premier Wen Jiabao in the State Council. He has had long-term interactions with several of Wen Jiabao’s secretaries and senior staff members, making his career advancement noteworthy.
According to his public resume, Fan Bosheng, born in October 1969 in Honghu, Hubei Province, had served in the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Planning Commission for a long time. From 2016 till now, he has held various positions including Director of the Development and Reform Commission of Sichuan Province, Secretary of the Suining Municipal Committee, Deputy Governor of Shandong Province, Standing Committee Member of the Shandong Provincial Committee, and Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Suzhou Municipal Committee.
During his tenure at the National Development and Reform Commission and in Sichuan Province, Fan Bosheng had interactions with several of former Premier Wen Jiabao’s secretaries and senior staff members.
Fan Bosheng served in various roles at the National Development and Reform Commission from July 2003 to August 2016, including as Deputy Director and Director of the Personnel Department, Director of the Institutional Cadres Department, and Deputy Director of the Personnel Department. He served for 13 years, under three Directors of the National Development and Reform Commission: Ma Kai (March 2003 to March 2008), Zhang Ping (March 2008 to March 2013), and Xu Shaoshi (March 2013 to February 2017).
During Premier Zhu Rongji’s tenure, Wen Jiabao served as Vice Premier of the State Council from March 1998 to March 2003, overseeing agriculture and financial work. Later, from 2003 to 2013, in two consecutive terms, he succeeded Zhu Rongji as the Premier of the State Council. Within the Chinese State Council departments, the National Development and Reform Commission acts as a macroeconomic planning and comprehensive economic management department, to some extent playing the role of an “economic cabinet,” hence being known as the “mini State Council.”
Fan Bosheng’s former leader Ma Kai was one of the key economic officials in Wen Jiabao’s cabinet, serving as Director of the National Development and Reform Commission during Wen Jiabao’s first term as Premier, and in his second term, he was promoted to State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council, acting as Wen Jiabao’s main steward.
Zhang Ping was appointed Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission in August 2005, and the following year was transferred to the State Council as Deputy Secretary-General (ministerial level), responsible for the routine work of the State Council Office. During Wen Jiabao’s second term, he succeeded Ma Kai as Director of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Xu Shaoshi served as Deputy Minister of Land and Resources Department during Wen Jiabao’s tenure and worked as his subordinate and secretary. While Wen Jiabao was Vice Premier and Premier, Xu Shaoshi served as Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council from December 2000 to April 2007, and subsequently held important positions such as Minister of Land and Resources and Director of the National Development and Reform Commission.
From August 2009 to August 2016, Fan Bosheng served as Deputy Director of the Personnel Department of the National Development and Reform Commission. During this period, from July 2012 to October 2012, he concurrently served as Deputy Director of the Development and Reform Commission of Sichuan Province, from October 2012 to February 2016, he served as Deputy Secretary-General of the Sichuan Provincial Government and a member of the Office of the Party Group, and later from September 2016 to January 2020, he served as Director of the Development and Reform Commission of Sichuan Province.
During Fan Bosheng’s tenure in Sichuan, he had close interactions with Wang Dongming, the Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee at the time from November 2012 to March 2018. Wang Dongming was also a former colleague of Wen Jiabao.
After the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, in November 2012, Wang Dongming succeeded Liu Qibao as Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee. Sichuan was the stronghold of Zhou Yongkang, former member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Zhou Yongkang was officially investigated in July 2014. Wen Jiabao played a significant role in the downfall of Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang. During Wang Dongming’s tenure in Sichuan, many of Zhou Yongkang’s confidants were intensively investigated.
From March 2018 to the present, Wang Dongming serves as Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and concurrently as Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. In June 2025, Wang Dongming’s deputy, Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions Jin Shanwen, was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the State Organs Commission, serving as the right-hand man of Xi Jinping’s close aide Cai Qi. Jin Shanwen’s background and connection with retired elders such as Hu Jintao, Li Ruihuan, and Wen Jiabao raise questions about whether Cai Qi has been sidelined or even put under “supervision”. (For details, please see: [Link to detailed report])
In July 2022, Fan Bosheng was transferred from Secretary of the Suining Municipal Committee in Sichuan to become a member of the Party Group and Deputy Governor of Shandong Province. In April 2024, he was promoted to Standing Committee Member and Secretary-General of the Shandong Provincial Committee.
After more than three years of service in Shandong, Fan Bosheng was once again transferred in November 2025, this time to become a Standing Committee Member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee; in less than a year, he was promoted to Deputy Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee.
Shandong is the hometown of Peng Liyuan, the wife of the current Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Since Xi Jinping took office, a large number of Shandong officials have been promoted to key positions in the party and government system, leading to speculation about their ties to Peng Liyuan.
Amid rumors of Xi Jinping’s power crisis, from late June 2025 to the present, in addition to Ma Xingrui, a member of the Political Bureau and the Governor of Henan Province, over ten senior officials from Shandong have been successively investigated or dismissed from their positions. (For details, please see: [Related report about the removal of high-ranking officials from Shandong]) During the same period, Shandong’s official circles have been cleaned up, including a series of investigations involving officials from Ma Xingrui and Peng Liyuan’s hometown of Heze City. (For details, please see: [Related report about the fall of Yang Xinsheng, Deputy Mayor of Heze City, Shandong])
In September 2025, Liu Xiaotao, Deputy Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee, was promoted to Secretary of the Party Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Government and appointed as Governor of Jiangsu in October.
Suzhou is known as the “strongest prefecture-level city in China,” with its economic output ranking first among prefecture-level cities nationwide for many years. After Liu Xiaotao stepped down, there were various speculations about the successor to the position of Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee.
On October 16, 2025, Jiang Wangzheng, a commentator who has been disclosing personnel movements within the Chinese Communist Party’s upper echelons, revealed that Du Xiaogang, the Secretary of the Wuxi Municipal Committee and a member of the Jiangsu faction, spent 135 million yuan to purchase the position of Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee from Peng Lei, the brother of Peng Liyuan, Cai Qi, and Wei Xidong, the then Chairman of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference.
On November 13, 2025, Jiang Wangzheng again disclosed that the original intention of the Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee was to elevate Wan Nuan, who served as Deputy Governor of Shandong, but Wan Nuan was deemed unsuitable, so the decision was made to appoint him as a Standing Committee Member of the Shandong Provincial Committee. Wan Nuan, a native of Wenzhou and a key figure in the New Jiangsu Army under the leadership of Cai Qi, has a long history of serving in the Zhejiang government and was transferred to Deputy Governor of Shandong in June 2024.
On November 14, 2025, Fan Bosheng, a Standing Committee Member of the Shandong Provincial Committee and Secretary-General, was officially announced as a Standing Committee Member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee. In the battle for the position of Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee, Du Xiaogang of the Jiangsu faction and Wan Nuan of the New Jiangsu Army were defeated.
Wan Nuan, born in March 1971, is currently serving as Deputy Governor of Shandong and has not yet been promoted to be a Standing Committee Member of the Shandong Provincial Committee as speculated.
Du Xiaogang, born in June 1976 and now 50 years old, was just relieved of his position as Secretary of the Wuxi Municipal Committee on September 19, 2026, with his future career path currently unknown. A week before Du Xiaogang’s dismissal on September 12, 2026, Jiang Wangzheng disclosed that Du Xiaogang was under investigation during the interrogation stage.
Within a year, Fan Bosheng successively took over the roles of Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee and Deputy Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee from Liu Xiaotao.
Liu Xiaotao, born in July 1970 in Xingning, Guangdong Province, had served in various positions in the Guangdong government for an extended period. During the tenures of senior Communist Party figures such as Wang Yang (December 2007 to December 2012), Hu Chunhua (December 2012 to October 2017), and the current Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Li Xi (October 2017 to December 2022), Liu Xiaotao was successively promoted to Deputy Director of the State Administration of Taxation in Guangdong Province, Standing Committee Member and Deputy Mayor of Maoming City, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Shaantou City, and Secretary-General of the Guangdong Provincial Government.
In April 2020, Liu Xiaotao was transferred to Deputy Governor of Zhejiang Province, in August 2021, he became a Standing Committee Member of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and Secretary of the Wenzhou Municipal Committee; in October 2023, he was transferred to a Standing Committee Member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Committee; after two years of leadership in Suzhou, he was promoted to Governor of Jiangsu.
The current Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee, Xinchang Xing, born in December 1963 in Huimin County, Binzhou City, Shandong Province, graduated from Qufu Normal University. From July 1986 to September 2016, he served for 30 years in various roles within the State Council’s Ministry of Labor and Personnel, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
During Wen Jiabao’s tenure as Premier of the State Council from March 2003 to March 2013, Xinchang Xing served as Director of the Office of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Deputy Director of the National Civil Servants Bureau, and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
When Li Keqiang was Premier of the State Council, Xinchang Xing was transferred to Deputy Secretary of the Anhui Provincial Committee in September 2016. Anhui Province is the hometown of senior Communist Party officials such as Hu Jintao, Li Keqiang, and Wang Yang. Subsequently, in July 2020, he was transferred to Deputy Secretary and Governor of Qinghai Province, in March 2022, he was promoted to Secretary of the Qinghai Provincial Committee, and in January 2023, he was transferred to Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee.
Over the past year, several high-ranking officials from Shandong have been investigated or dismissed from their positions. However, there have been no unfavorable reports about Xinchang Xing’s career prospects.
Jiangsu is the hometown of former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin. Senior members of Xi Jinping’s camp, Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang and Secretary-General of the State Council Wu Shenglong have previously held key positions in Jiangsu. Ding Xuexiang, close aide of Xi Jinping and current Executive Vice Premier of the State Council, is from Nantong, Jiangsu Province. The official circles and the power structures of Jiangsu are deeply intertwined with the various political factions of both old and new Shanghai.
Over the past two years, amidst rumors of Xi Jinping’s power crisis, there have been unusual changes in the leadership of the Central Organization Department, and senior members of Xi’s camp have been successively investigated or relieved of their duties. Prior to the Fifth Plenum, officials not aligned with Xi, especially former members of Premier Wen Jiabao and Li Keqiang’s State Council staff, have been appointed to important provincial and ministerial positions, reflecting the intense power struggles within the political arena in Beijing. The abnormal developments in the senior leadership of Jiangsu Province serve as a microcosm of the intense internal struggles within the Chinese Communist Party amid Xi’s unstable hold on power.
(Epoch Times, October 8, 2026)