The closing of the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on April 30, 2026, was marked by several anomalies. Fourteen members were absent from the closing session, three more than the number who were absent from the plenary session held on April 27. Among the six retired generals who were committee members, only Fan Xiaojun was present, while He Ping, Zheng Weiping, An Zhaoqing, Wang Jianwu, and Yuan Yubai were absent.
At this meeting, five high-ranking officials, including former Zhejiang Provincial Party Secretary Yi Lianhong, were stripped of their qualifications as national deputies. However, former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission Zhang Youxia and military commission member Liu Zhenli have not been dismissed. Additionally, the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Zhang Zhu, did not appear at the swearing-in ceremony.
According to a report by the Chinese Communist Party’s official media Xinhua News Agency, the 22nd meeting of the 14th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress closed in Beijing on the morning of April 30, 2026. The closing session was chaired by Chairman of the National People’s Congress, Zhao Leji, with 14 Vice Chairpersons and the Secretary-General Liu Qi in attendance. A total of 148 members of the Standing Committee attended the meeting.
Three days prior, on the afternoon of April 27, 2026, the 22nd Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress held its first plenary session. A total of 151 members of the Standing Committee attended the meeting.
The Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress originally had 175 members, including 1 Chairman, 14 Vice Chairpersons, 1 Secretary-General, and 159 committee members. As of the end of February 2026, the qualifications of 10 members had been revoked, and 3 members had resigned, leaving 162 members currently.
This indicates that 14 members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress were absent from the closing session on April 30, 2026, surpassing the number of absences from the plenary session on April 27 by three.
Investigation by The Epoch Times found that in the reporting of the closing session of the National People’s Congress on April 30 by CCTV’s “Xinwen Lianbo,” only Fan Xiaojun, a retired general, appeared wearing military uniform with the rank of a general at a prominent position in the frame among military committee members.
Three days earlier, in the reporting of the plenary session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on April 27 by CCTV’s “Xinwen Lianbo,” Luo Yuan, Fang Xiang, and Wu Jieming were seen wearing uniforms with the rank of lieutenant general in prominent positions in the frame; throughout the report, no military committee member wearing the rank of general appeared prominently on camera.
Previously, The Epoch Times compiled a list showing that after the 21st meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on February 26, 2026, there were a total of 162 members in the Standing Committee, including 6 generals and 3 lieutenant generals in the military delegation. These included Fan Xiao…