The deputy director of the Central Policy Research Office of the Chinese Communist Party (referred to as the Central Policy Research Office), Tang Fangyu, has been promoted from deputy to director of the Central Policy Research Office. The Central Policy Research Office is the political stronghold of current Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning, and Tang Fangyu is also a former colleague of Wang Huning. Wang Huning has been accused of controlling this “brain-like” institution of the CCP for over 20 years. Analysts believe that Wang Huning plotted a left turn path for Xi Jinping from the beginning of his tenure, angering both heaven and people, and hastening the demise of the CCP.
According to a report from the CCTV network of the CCP, on January 14th, a propaganda report meeting for the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP was held, and Tang Fangyu, a member of the Central Propaganda Team and director of the Central Policy Research Office, delivered a report.
This indicates that Tang Fangyu has taken over the position of director of the Central Policy Research Office from Jiang Jinquan.
Public information shows that Tang Fangyu was born in August 1963, in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, and graduated with a degree in Chinese language and literature from Sichuan Normal University. He has been working at the Central Policy Research Office since the late 1990s, holding positions such as deputy director of the Party Construction Bureau and director of the Political Research Bureau of the Central Policy Research Office. In 2017, he became the director of the Research Office of the Central Office, in 2018 he served as deputy director of the Central Office and director of the Research Office, and in January 2023, Tang Fangyu was appointed as the Chairman of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
News from November 2023 indicated that Tang Fangyu, who had only been at the local level for 10 months, had returned to Beijing to serve as deputy director of the Central Policy Research Office, possibly to replace Jiang Jinquan as director.
Premier Li Keqiang of the CCP chaired the third plenary meeting of the State Council on February 18, 2024. It was observed at the time by the Epoch Times that Tang Fangyu, the former Chairman of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference, had appeared at the State Council meeting. According to official regulations, relevant leaders of central departments or units can attend State Council meetings as needed.
During a press conference related to the Fourth Plenary Session held on July 19, 2024, Tang Fangyu attended as a deputy director (equivalent to ministerial level) of the Central Policy Research Office and provided an introduction to the situation.
Former director of the Central Policy Research Office, Jiang Jinquan, is over 66 years old this year and had also worked at the Central Policy Research Office for a long time. In 2020, Jiang Jinquan succeeded Wang Huning, then a Politburo Standing Committee member, as the director of the Central Policy Research Office. In March 2023, Jiang Jinquan was appointed as a member and deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
The Central Policy Research Office is a direct agency of the CCP dedicated to researching political theories, policies, and drafting documents. It is regarded as the “brain” of the CCP, nurturing a group of “official” intellectuals. This department is the political stronghold of the current Politburo Standing Committee member and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Wang Huning.
In April 1995, recommended by the Jiang faction heavyweights Wu Bangguo and Zeng Qinghong, Wang Huning was promoted to Beijing by then CCP leader Jiang Zemin, appointed as the head of the political unit of the Central Policy Research Office. In April 1998, he became the deputy director of the Central Policy Research Office. In October 2002, he succeeded Teng Wensheng as the director of the Central Policy Research Office and became a Central Committee member at the 16th National Congress of the CCP.
Wang Huning is known as the “national teacher of three generations” for crafting political theories for Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping, and has long been a close associate of Xi. In October 2007, he became a secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CCP at the 17th National Congress and was promoted to a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at the 18th National Congress on November 15, 2012. In 2017, at the 19th National Congress, he was promoted to a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, overseeing ideology and propaganda, deepening reform, and participating in the Cyberspace Administration, Financial and Economic Affairs, Military-Civil Fusion, and serving as the only deputy leader of the COVID-19 Working Group.
Wang Huning stepped down as director of the Central Policy Research Office of the CCP in October 2020 after serving for 18 years, the longest tenure for a director of the Central research institution.
At the 20th National Congress of the CCP on October 23, 2022, Wang Huning was re-elected as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, rising from the fifth to the fourth rank within the party, and the following year he was appointed as the Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Commentator Li Linyi pointed out that despite Wang Huning’s transition to the Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC in 2023, he still remains the deputy director of the National Committee for Deepening Reform. Since 2013, he has also concurrently served as the director of the Central Office for Deep Reform, which shares offices with the Central Policy Research Office. Both Jiang Jinquan and Tang Fangyu, whether in the past under Jiang Jinquan’s leadership or now under Tang Fangyu’s tenure, are former subordinates of Wang Huning at the Policy Research Office, indicating that Wang Huning, even after taking on the responsibility at the CPPCC, still effectively controls this CCP think tank, highlighting his continued influential status as the “grand teacher” of the regime.
Li Linyi commented that the Central Policy Research Office is seen as the “brain” of the CCP leaders, used for shaping the “ideology” that the CCP uses for indoctrination, and many of the CCP’s disastrous policies over the years have originated from the hands of the “official” intellectuals nurtured by this institution. For example, at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Wang Huning’s role as deputy leader may have been involved in the controversial decision-making process of “dynamic zero-COVID” and related propaganda.
“Since the beginning of Xi Jinping’s tenure, Wang Huning has designed this left-turn path for him, and walking to this day, inciting the anger of both heaven and people, it is destined to accelerate the demise of the CCP,” Li said.