【Epoch Times News, June 27, 2025】The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced today (27th) that several National People’s Congress deputies were relieved of their positions. It was confirmed that another senior executive from a military-industrial enterprise had been removed from office. Former director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, Zheng Yanxiong, has now been reassigned to a position in the National People’s Congress.
According to the news on the website of the CCP’s National People’s Congress, on June 27th, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress issued an announcement terminating the qualifications of National People’s Congress deputies Jin Xiangjun, Lu Wenjun, Long Xiang, Wang Xiongchang, Lan Tianli, Liu Jiachen, Liu Shipeng, and Li Hanjun.
Among them, Liu Shipeng, the current Deputy Chief Engineer of the China National Nuclear Corporation, Secretary of the Party Committee of Unit 404 of China National Nuclear Corporation, and Chairman of the Board, as well as Li Hanjun, the Chief of Naval Staff, were both publicly disclosed to have been removed from office for the first time.
In the past two years, there has been a simultaneous purge of high-ranking officials in the CCP’s military and state-owned military-industrial enterprises, with a large number of officials being removed from office. Apart from those who are National People’s Congress deputies or members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), many others have not been publicly disclosed.
In addition, Lu Wenjun, Deputy General Manager of China First Heavy Industries Group Co., Ltd., and Lan Tianli, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chairman of the Regional Government, were placed under investigation in May.
Xian Xiangjun, Deputy Secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and Governor of Shanxi Province, and Long Xiang, Director of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, were removed from office in April.
Wang Xiongchang, Mayor of Qinzhou City, Guangxi, was removed from office in March.
In January this year, Liu Jiachen, Mayor of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was announced to be under investigation by the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervisory Commission of Yunnan Province.
Former Chairman of the Guangxi Autonomous Region Government, Lan Tianli, and former Governor of Shanxi, Jin Xiangjun, have connections in Guangxi. Both of them were former subordinates of Guo Shengkun, a former member of the CCP Political Bureau and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission in Guangxi.
During this session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Zheng Yanxiong, the former Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, was appointed as the Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress Education, Science, Culture, and Health Committee. Zheng Yanxiong suddenly resigned from his position as Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office on May 30.
The 62-year-old Zheng Yanxiong, who is from Chaoshan, previously served as the Secretary of the Shantou Municipal Committee of Guangdong Province, a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and Secretary-General. In 2020, he was transferred to Hong Kong and appointed as the Director of the CCP’s “Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” He was promoted to Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office in January 2023 and Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on July 11th of the same year. He has been considered a key figure in Beijing’s hardline policies towards Hong Kong and was sanctioned by the United States during his tenure as the Director of the CCP’s National Security Office in Hong Kong for vigorously promoting the implementation of the “National Security Law” and controlling the people of Hong Kong.
On June 3, Reuters quoted anonymous sources revealing that Zhong Hui Group intended to sell its global port operations, including the Panama Canal port, to consortiums such as BlackRock, catching the CCP’s top leadership off guard. Zheng Yanxiong was believed to be partly responsible for this decision, which may have led to his resignation.
However, commentator Zhou Xiaohui wrote that Zheng Yanxiong’s dismissal reflects changes in power at the top levels of the CCP and may indicate that some officials in Beijing are looking to adjust the negative impacts caused by Xi Jinping’s hardline policies towards Hong Kong in recent years.