Former Jilin Provincial Party Secretary Jing Junhai, who once enlarged the tomb of Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, in Shaanxi, recently retired early and stepped back from the frontline. The career paths of five consecutive Jilin provincial party secretaries have been deemed problematic, with two of them ending up behind bars.
According to the Xinhua News Agency of the Chinese Communist Party, following the closing of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee meeting on September 13, Jing Junhai was appointed as the Deputy Director of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Born in December 1960, as a ministerial-level official and current member of the Central Committee, Jing Junhai has not yet reached the retirement age of 65 for ministerial-level officials.
In June this year, Xinhua News Agency reported that Jing Junhai “no longer holds the positions of Jilin Provincial Party Secretary, Standing Committee member, or Committee member, and has been appointed elsewhere.” The result was that Jing Junhai was only given a sideline position in the National People’s Congress.
A senior commentator at Radio Free Asia, Gao Xin, recently published several articles pointing out that the ending of the five Jilin secretaries is not promising, indicating that this position is evidently high-risk.
Successive Jilin provincial party secretaries before Jing Junhai include Jing Junhai (January 2021 to June this year), Bayin Chaolu (August 2014 to January 2021), Wang Rulin (December 2012 to August 2014), Sun Zhengcai (November 2009 to November 2012), and Wang Min (December 2006 to November 2009).
The next step for Jing Junhai, the former provincial party secretary who left Jilin, remains a subject of speculation.
Jing Junhai is considered to be part of the “Shaanxi faction” within the Xi family. He had long worked in Shaanxi and during his tenure as head of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department, he orchestrated and promoted the expansion of Xi Zhongxun’s tomb into a mausoleum.
Gao Xin’s article points out that logically, among the current provincial party secretaries of the Chinese Communist Party, Jing Junhai should have been the last one to be abandoned by Xi Jinping. However, Jing Junhai unexpectedly lost his position as Jilin Provincial Party Secretary at the age of 63 and was sent to the National People’s Congress Education, Science, Culture, and Health Committee, which was where agents were dispatched to arrest Wang Min at that time. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that Jing Junhai’s corruption issues have reached the threshold that the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection must deal with, but were suppressed by the Commission’s Secretary, Li Xi. Because Li Xi is clear in his heart that Xi Jinping surely values Jing Junhai’s “indispensable” contribution to expanding and refurbishing Xi’s father’s tomb.
Before Jing Junhai, Bayin Chaolu, although he did not eventually rise to the vice-ministerial level, managed to stay in the position of provincial party secretary until 65 years and 1 month when he was asked to step down for the then Jilin governor, Jing Junhai, which is a standard “on-time stepping down.”
Gao Xin mentioned that Bayin Chaolu was one of the few provincial leaders of minority ethnicity since the era of Deng Xiaoping. He was initially seen as someone who could be promoted to vice-ministerial level. However, just one month after leaving the Jilin Provincial Party Committee, Bayin Chaolu was only announced as the Deputy Director of the National People’s Congress Environment and Resources Protection Committee. It is believed that he might have been influenced by the granddaughter of Ulanfu, the former “Mongolian King” of the Chinese Communist Party, who is also a Mongolian and three years younger than him, and who was arranged to also enter the National People’s Congress Environment and Resources Protection Committee.
During her term as chairwoman of Inner Mongolia in 2020, the central authorities demanded strict promotion of teaching materials in Mandarin, triggering large-scale protests. It is believed that in mid-2021, Bu Xiaolin was not relieved of her position as Chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government and retired early due to “health reasons,” but possibly because Xi Jinping was not entirely confident in her “ethnic sentiments.”
However, Gao Xin believes that Bayin Chaolu being arranged for a solid position as the Director of the National People’s Congress Ethnic Affairs Committee at the age of 68 at least proves that as a Mongolian, he did not oppose the CCP’s minority policies.
Among the five Jilin provincial secretaries, Wang Rulin is a native of Jilin. He is originally from Henan but was born in Jilin. Wang Rulin once had the shadow of the Jiang faction and had a smooth career in the Jilin officialdom due to Zhang Dejiang’s cultivation. In January 2010, he was promoted to become the Jilin governor, and in December 2012, he became the Jilin Provincial Party Secretary.
In August 2014, Wang Rulin took over the position of Secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee from Yuan Chunqing. That year, there was a major political earthquake in Shanxi, which was classified by the authorities as “collapse-level corruption.” Since the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, many senior officials in Shanxi, such as Jin Daoming, Du Shanxue, Ling Zhengce, Chen Chuangping, Nie Chunyu, Bai Yun, and Ren Runhou, have been investigated.
Gao Xin stated that Wang Rulin was entrusted with an important task by Xi Jinping. There were high expectations for him to be appointed as a member of the Central Secretariat and the First Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. However, he only served for a year and 10 months as the Jilin Provincial Party Secretary before he was arranged to retire early just before the convening of the 10th Party Congress of Shanxi Province.
On July 2, 2016, Wang Rulin was transferred to become the Deputy Director of the National People’s Congress Agricultural and Rural Committee. In January 2018, he became a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He retired in March 2023.
Among the five Jilin provincial party secretaries, Sun Zhengcai, who was appointed as the provincial party secretary after being parachuted from the Ministry of Agriculture to Jilin, successfully entered the Politburo and later became the Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee.
It is said that before his downfall, Sun Zhengcai believed that his greatest political capital was being ten years younger than Xi Jinping and eight years younger than Li Keqiang.
In July 2017, just before the 19th National Congress, Sun Zhengcai, who was expected to become Xi’s successor, fell from grace whilst serving as the Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee. Subsequently, he, along with Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua, among others, were all grouped together as “ambitious figures and conspirators.”
Caixin News revealed that one of Sun Zhengcai’s mistresses, Liu Fengzhou, presented Sun Zhengcai with a specially made dragon robe that featured his horoscope. Sun would burn incense and worship this robe every day when at home.
It is believed that this incident reaching Xi Jinping’s ears led to Sun Zhengcai’s great misfortune.
As for Wang Min, who also served as Jilin Provincial Party Secretary, although he did not have the same grand ambitions as Sun Zhengcai, he harbored deep resentment for not being promoted to the Central Political Bureau along with Sun Zhengcai and others at the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012. At that time, Wang Min, already serving as the provincial party secretary, aspired to become a member of the Political Bureau of the 18th Central Committee and the Vice Premier of the State Council under the cabinet formed by Li Keqiang.
At the election of the 18th Central Committee’s First Plenum, the results saw Ma Kai, who was four years older than Wang Min, and Sun Chunlan, who was the same age as him, becoming the “new faces” in the Political Bureau. Ma Kai being a princeling, Wang Min was naturally unable to compete. However, with a female representative already in the Political Bureau — Liu Yandong, who was also of princeling background — there was still a need to include a second female representative. This led to Wang Min’s disdain towards Sun Chunlan, the provincial party secretary of Fujian at the time, who came from a humble background as a former watchmaker.
When Wang Min fell from grace that year, the magazine “China Discipline and Supervision” promptly criticized him for speaking ill of the Central Committee after drinking alcohol, comparing it to a huge vat of dye filled with flattery, deception, and vulgar jokes. Some Party members and cadres would casually make remarks, babble, or spread gossip and hearsay about the Central Committee. For example, former Liaoning Provincial Party Secretary Wang Min had concocted jokes and baseless criticism against the Central Committee during a drunken episode…
At the end of 2016, a source from Suzhou, quoted by the Global People magazine under the People’s Daily, mentioned that Wang Min’s love for alcohol and his dictatorial style left a deep impression. “He loves to drink and can hold his liquor well. Even after finishing one or two jin, he can continue with the meeting. When he was in Suzhou, everyone had to follow his preference. He only drinks Moutai, but the people in Suzhou prefer Wuliangye and don’t like Moutai.”
Gao Xin revealed that in 2014, Li Xi, handpicked by Xi Jinping to be the Liaoning Governor, was expected to replace Wang Min. But knowing that his days as the Liaoning Provincial Party Secretary were numbered, as a bureaucratic maneuver at a welcoming banquet, Wang Min, already aware of his impending removal, got Li Xi drunk and started making “ill-informed criticisms” after drinking. Pointing to Li Xi’s back as he was being led out by staff, Wang Min said to those present, “Have you seen the resume of this new provincial governor? A native of the two Dengs, and even served as the Yan’an City Party Secretary. What kind of place is the two Dengs? Just like a revolutionary holy land like Yan’an. ‘Change the master whenever there’s a new emperor.’ The Communist Party is not free from such vulgarity!”
There is also a notable rumor in official circles that in 2014, Wang Min made some political complaints in public during a banquet, openly expressing his dissatisfaction with Xi Jinping appointing his trusted confidant Li Xi to a position in Liaoning at that time. When someone warned him to “be careful not to become a typical corrupt official,” Wang Min blurted out, “If you say I’m corrupt, then I’m corrupt; even if I’m not, I will be; if you say I’m not corrupt, then I’m not corrupt, even if I am.” Some present at the scene praised Wang Min’s “judicious discernment,” and Wang Min even self-deprecatingly remarked, “Discernment my foot.” These remarks were quickly passed on to Li Xi, who later reported them to Xi Jinping.
On the morning of March 4, 2016, Wang Min was arrested from his position as the Deputy Director of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the National People’s Congress.