In breaking news, two Communist Party officials in China have been unusually promoted to the rank of department-level high officials. Kong Shaoxun, acting governor of Gansu Province, and Zhu Zhongming, acting mayor of Shanghai, have been found to have their official resumes trimmed down after assuming office, with Zhu Zhongming even having his educational background removed from the page. This change has sparked discussions online.
On September 2nd, Kong Shaoxun was appointed as the acting governor of Gansu Province, followed by Zhu Zhongming on September 4th as the acting mayor of Shanghai. Less than a week into their new roles, the official websites of the Gansu and Shanghai governments simultaneously updated their resumes: Kong Shaoxun’s birthplace, party joining date, and work start date were all deleted, while Zhu Zhongming’s educational background was completely erased from the page.
Before his current position, Kong Shaoxun served for a long time in the General Office of the Communist Party of China, holding the positions of Vice Director and Secretary of the Secretariat of the General Office. At the closing session of the 20th National Congress on October 22nd, 2022, he followed Xi Jinping’s instructions to remove former party leader Hu Jintao from the venue, an action deemed as “protecting the leader” by overseas media. Zhu Zhongming, on the other hand, is a typical post-70s financial system cadre from Zhejiang, with overlapping work periods with the current Prime Minister Li Keqiang during Li’s term as the leader of Zhejiang from 2013 to 2016.
The trimmed-down resumes of Kong and Zhu after their appointments have stirred discussions online.
Commentator Finding commented, “The continuous streamlining of leadership resumes has become a trend in recent years. Further reductions may even lead to the disappearance of birthdates from resumes, as revealing age could bring about complications such as tenure, health issues, and succession matters. The true purpose of simplification is not about refining the text, but about reducing transparency. The less disclosed, the harder it is to uncover one’s background; zero disclosure means zero oversight. At that point, the leadership’s origins would become an undesirable query.”
Former professor at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, Cai Xia, remarked, “The Chinese Communist Party, accustomed to underground party tactics, cannot tolerate transparency. Xi Jinping has amalgamated underworld political activities with the CCP’s secret operations, creating an upgraded version of opaque politics—black hole politics.”
Independent commentator Cai Shenkun stated, “Why is this happening? It is out of fear of being linked to other high-ranking officials, and to prevent the public from knowing the ins and outs of their political connections and backing.”
University professor and historian-cultural scholar Zhang Tianliang expressed in a post that Zhu Zhongming, the mayor of Shanghai, taking office immediately as a ‘three-no personnel’ – without birthplace, educational background, or work records – is not an isolated case. Around 2021, many provincial and ministerial-level officials’ permanent official websites had already adopted similar extremely simplified formats. Previous official resumes would typically inform you of where the person is from, when they started working, their university and major, as well as decades of work experience.
Zhang Tianliang mentioned that when studying Communist Party politics, an official’s birthplace, school, and work history can help people analyze their political relationship network. For example, Xi Jinping’s connections in Fujian, Zhejiang, Zhejiang New Army, Secretaries’ Gang, and alumni circle. The removal of these highlighted information pieces is quite intriguing.
He continued, “In reality, for someone like Xi Jinping, he does not want a Fujian clique or a Zhejiang New Army, as the power of any political group is greater than an individual and could potentially counterbalance Xi Jinping’s power. Xi Jinping wants grassroots citizens to harm each other, hopes for the atomization of civilians, mutual suspicion, and supervision, and this is no different for officials. But can hiding resumes achieve this goal?”
With these recent developments in China’s political landscape, questions about transparency, underlying political motives, and the implications of obscured backgrounds have emerged, prompting further scrutiny and discussions both domestically and internationally.