On the eve of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), there has been a series of leadership changes at the provincial level. On September 23, 2026, the Communist Party Secretary of Fujian Province, Zhou Zuyi, was reassigned as the Party Secretary of Henan Province, while the Governor of Fujian Province, Zhao Long, was promoted to the Party Secretary of Fujian.
It is noteworthy that Fujian is the stronghold of CCP leader Xi Jinping, where his close associates Cai Qi, He Lifeng, Huang Kunming, and Wang Xiaohong are all former colleagues. However, the newly appointed Party Secretary of Fujian, Zhao Long, is not from Xi’s faction but rather a veteran of former Premier Wen Jiabao and Premier Li Keqiang’s State Council.
According to his public resume, Zhao Long, born in September 1967 in Liaoning, graduated from the Land Management Department of Renmin University of China in July 1989. He started working at the National Land Management Bureau and steadily rose through the ranks to become a deputy-level secretary in the office and later a deputy director of the General Office.
During Wen Jiabao’s tenure as Premier from 2003 to 2013, Zhao Long remained in the Ministry of Land and Resources. In 2009, during that period, he was appointed as the Director of the National Land Inspection Bureau in Jinan.
With the recent reshuffling in Fujian’s leadership, it is a sensitive time as Xi Jinping’s influence in the province is being restructured.
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