Following the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee, the ongoing purge within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to unfold. On November 6, official reports announced that Yu Yanhong, the former head of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has “voluntarily surrendered” and is currently under investigation. Just two days earlier, she had been stripped of her qualifications as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Yu is closely associated with Zeng Yixin, who is often referred to as the personal physician to CCP leader Xi Jinping.
On the same day, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission released a report stating that Yu Yanhong, once a member of the Party Leadership Group at the National Health Commission and secretary of the Party Leadership Group at the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, is being investigated for “serious violations of discipline and law.”
Prior to this, during the CPPCC Standing Committee meeting that concluded on November 4, Yu had her status as a CPPCC member revoked.
Publicly available information indicates that the 64-year-old Yu Yanhong is an expert in obstetrics and gynecology. She worked for many years at Southern Medical University, where she held various positions, including Vice President of Southern Hospital (formerly the First Affiliated Hospital of the First Military Medical University), and later served as Vice President and President of the university. Starting in January 2018, she was appointed as the Vice Governor of Guangdong Province. By June 2018, she had assumed multiple roles within the National Health Commission, including member of the Party Leadership Group, Party Secretary, Deputy Director, and eventually Director, while also serving as Vice Chairwoman of the All-China Women’s Federation. Yu was a member of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.
In recent years, Southern Medical University has been embroiled in a corruption scandal. During Yu’s tenure as Vice Governor of Guangdong, she worked under Governor Ma Xingrui, who was dismissed in April of this year. Official reports released in July indicated that Ma had been involved in corrupt activities related to power and money. According to a report from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on November 5, Ma’s allegations of bribery date back to his time in Guangdong.
Yu Yanhong was appointed as the Party Secretary and Director of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2023, but she was dismissed from these positions in February of this year. Prior to her, the former director, Yu Wenming, was investigated in June of last year. Official announcements indicated that Yu Wenming had misused public resources in the medical field for personal gain and engaged in significant graft and bribery, exploiting his position to benefit others in matters related to drug registration and the extension of product certification. In August of this year, Yu Wenming was sentenced to 15 years in prison for accepting over 63 million yuan in bribes.
Before Yu Wenming’s fall from grace, several high-ranking officials within the pharmaceutical regulatory system, such as former Deputy Director of the National Medical Products Administration Chen Shifei and former Director of the State Food and Drug Administration Bi Jingquan, were also investigated.
Political commentator Li Yanming analyzed in an article published on November 5 that Yu Yanhong’s rapid ascent in her career had close ties to her relationship with Zeng Yixin, often regarded as Xi Jinping’s personal physician. The two hail from the same province—Hunan—and are alumni of Hengyang Medical College, having worked together in the Guangdong medical sector and the National Health Commission.
Zeng Yixin holds a doctoral degree in clinical medicine and is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He became the president of Peking Union Medical College and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in August 2011. In November 2015, he was appointed as the director of Beijing Hospital, and in February 2017, as deputy director of the National Health Planning Commission and the Central Health Care Committee. By March 2018, Zeng was serving as deputy director and member of the Party Leadership Group at the National Health Commission, chairing the Central Health Care Committee as a vice director. In May 2022, he was confirmed as a ministerial-level official, and in September 2023, he was promoted to vice secretary of the Party Leadership Group at the National Health Commission.
The Central Health Care Committee directly oversees the medical care of high-ranking officials within the Party, with its head being the Director of the Central Office, Cai Qi, and Zeng Yixin serving as its only deputy director, primarily to cater to Xi Jinping’s medical needs.