The 5th Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is scheduled to convene in October with over 20 fallen central committee members and alternate members expected to be expelled from the party, in an unprecedented scale of purging. Scholars interviewed believe that this unprecedented purge reflects Xi Jinping’s lack of confidence in his re-election before the leadership turnover.
According to incomplete statistics by Da Ji Yuan, in the past year, 22 current members of the Central Committee, including both central committee members and alternate members, such as Zhang Yuxia and Ma Xingrui, have been officially announced to have fallen from grace or been removed from their positions as National People’s Congress delegates.
In addition to the central committee members who have been publicly dealt with, former Minister of the United Front Work Department Liu Jianchao, former Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei, and former Deputy Director of the Central Military-Civil Fusion Office Lei Fanpei were suddenly dismissed from their positions, and their current statuses are unknown.
Furthermore, 12 senior generals like former Air Force Commander Chang Dingqiu and 8 major generals like former Political Commissar of the National Defense University Zhong Shaojun are still “missing.”
Regarding the ongoing crackdown on the party officials by the CCP authorities, Chinese writer and political commentator Chen Pokong, currently residing in the United States, stated in an interview with Da Ji Yuan that this is closely related to Xi Jinping’s bid for reelection at the 21st Party Congress.
“Xi Jinping is sweeping away any voices against his re-election for the 21st Party Congress,” he further noted, indicating that this large-scale purge also demonstrates Xi Jinping’s severe lack of security.
“This is caused by the dictator’s overly sensitive nerves, and Xi Jinping may not be confident in his re-election. However, many officials may not explicitly oppose him, but once Xi Jinping suspects them, he purges them.”
Chen Pokong remarked that what Xi Jinping fears the most is the emergence of uncontrollable “black swan events” before his re-election.
Recent political rumors have been circulating in the CCP political sphere, with a number of Chinese self-media accounts using various methods to “pre-announce” news of officials being implicated.
On July 31st, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CCP announced that Xin Baoan, former Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of State Grid Corporation, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is currently under investigation.
Prior to the official announcement, independent commentator Cai Shenkun had revealed on social media X that Xin Baoan was taken away on July 27th when returning from Hangzhou to Beijing and was searched on the 28th.
On the same day, Guo Wenqing, former General Manager of China Minmetals Corporation who had retired for two years, was also officially announced to have fallen from grace. He was a former associate of Li Zhanshu, former Chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee of the CCP. Similarly, Cai Shenkun disclosed the news of his detention a few hours before the official announcement was made.
On January 24th, CCP Vice Chairman of the Military Commission Zhang Yuxia and Deputy Chief of the Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department Liu Zhenli were announced to have fallen from grace. Just before the official announcement, Cai Shenkun had leaked on social media that Zhang Yuxia, Liu Zhenli, and 17 other senior officers had been arrested. Zhang and Liu were accused of involvement in a coup.
The CCP official media “Half-Month Talk” recently admitted in an article that many Chinese self-media accounts are pre-announcing incidents involving officials through various means. Shortly afterward, the official announcements of these fallen officials came to fruition, confirming the accuracy of previous predictions. The sources of information leaked by these self-media accounts often originate from within the system.
Chen Pokong believes, “Currently, most of these political rumors are reliable; it should be said that they are accurate predictions ahead of time.”
He stated, “Some of these political rumors may have been strategically leaked by the Xi faction because they are targeting several officials. Since the number is too large to directly announce, they first release the information through ‘export before import’ manner, giving the outside world time to digest and reduce shock, then official announcement follows.”
Feng Chongyi, Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, told Da Ji Yuan that the initial circulation of news concerning fallen CCP officials on social media platforms before the official announcement has become a common phenomenon in the current political arena of the CCP.
He believes that this situation can be understood from three aspects. Firstly, there is chaos in internal management within the system. Secondly, there are insiders who proactively leak information to the public for resource competition. Thirdly, it might be an intentional move by the authorities to release information through “export before import.”
Feng Chongyi believes that as the CCP enters the preparation stage for leadership transition, many rumors are related to this. CCP party congress delegates are not elected all at once but are selected layer by layer from the local level. Accordingly, officials at all levels are engaging in fierce competition for positions. In this background, mutual denunciation and reporting have become an important means of competing for resources.
He mentioned that due to the opaque nature of CCP political operations, while all the leaked political rumors are not immediately verifiable, they hold continuous observation value.