Former Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member Song Ping passed away on the first day of the “Two Sessions” on the 4th. His body was cremated this morning, with current top CCP officials including Xi Jinping going to the Babaoshan Cemetery to bid farewell. Former party leader Hu Jintao sent a wreath to mourn Song Ping, who was considered instrumental in Hu Jintao’s rise to power, ending up being ousted by Xi Jinping during the Party’s 20th Congress.
According to official CCP media Xinhua News Agency, Song Ping passed away in Beijing on March 4th at 3:36 pm at the age of 109 due to ineffective medical treatment. His body was cremated on the 10th. Xi Jinping and other seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, as well as Vice President Han Zheng, attended the funeral at Babaoshan Cemetery. Hu Jintao expressed his condolences by sending a wreath to mourn Song Ping’s passing.
The official media also reported that during his illness and after his death, Xi Jinping and the other seven Politburo Standing Committee members, along with Han Zheng and Hu Jintao, “visited the hospital to express condolences and condolences to Song Ping’s family through various forms.”
Song Ping was a member of the Thirteenth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and a former State Councillor. His last public appearance was at the opening and closing ceremonies of the CCP’s 20th Congress in 2022. He also attended the military parade in Beijing last year.
Song Ping was the oldest retiree among the Politburo Standing Committee members of the CCP, known for his deep understanding of the Party’s brutal internal struggles.
From 1972 to 1981, when Song Ping served as the Secretary of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, Hu Jintao was his subordinate as the Deputy Director of the Gansu Provincial Construction Commission. Song Ping was seen as an important figure behind Hu Jintao’s rise to power. Chinese media reported that before stepping down, Song Ping recommended to Deng Xiaoping the promotion of Hu Jintao to the new Politburo Standing Committee, which Deng Xiaoping accepted, allowing Hu Jintao to be promoted to the Standing Committee without having served as a Political Bureau member.
However, the protege of Song Ping, Hu Jintao, was forcibly removed from the venue by Xi Jinping’s people after handing over power to Xi Jinping at the CCP’s 20th Congress in October 2022, attracting international media attention. It is widely believed that this incident was Hu Jintao’s attempt to oppose Xi Jinping’s purge of the “gangsters” from the Political Bureau, leading to Xi Jinping’s retaliation.
Song Ping’s body was cremated, with Hu Jintao only sending a wreath, and it is unknown whether it was due to health reasons. Hu Jintao did not attend the military parade in Beijing last year.
In a commentary on platform X, independent commentator Cai Shenkun mentioned that Song Ping was active in the CCP’s political arena for decades. After the events of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, he was promoted to the Political Bureau Standing Committee at the age of 72. At the 20th Congress, the 105-year-old Song Ping sat confidently on the main stage, witnessing the moment when his familiar figure Hu Jintao was led out of the venue by Xi Jinping. Song Ping’s retirement marks the end of the era that began with the anti-government protests on December 19, 1935. During the 1989 student movement, high-ranking officials like Yao Yilin and Song Ping, who actively supported the bloody suppression ordered by Deng Xiaoping, are now laden with irony.