On September 27, the State Council of the Chinese Communist Party announced the appointment and dismissal of a group of high-ranking officials. Among them, Shen Danyang, the Deputy Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the CCP, was appointed as the Director of the State Council Research Office, while Huang Shouhong was dismissed. Shen Danyang is associated with the Fujian Faction in the officialdom, while Huang Shouhong is a former colleague of Li Keqiang, the Premier of the State Council.
Recent appointments and dismissals indicate that officials from the era of Li Keqiang are gradually being “cleared out.” The State Council under Li Keqiang is believed to have accommodated many of the personnel associated with “the gatekeeper of Zhongnanhai,” Cai Qi.
According to information from the CCP’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security website, Shen Danyang has been appointed as the Director of the State Council Research Office, replacing Huang Shouhong. The State Council Research Office is the think tank institution of the State Council, primarily serving the Premier.
Public records show that Shen Danyang, a native of Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, was born in 1965. He obtained his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Xiamen University. He has previously worked in the General Office of the State Council and held various positions in Xiamen, such as Deputy Director of Xiamen City Trade Development Commission and President of Xiamen Trade Promotion Council. He has also served in the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing and held positions such as Deputy Director of the Office of the Ministry of Commerce, Director of the Policy Research Office, and spokesperson. Since August 2018, he served as the Vice Governor, Executive Vice Governor, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee in Hainan Province. He is a member of the 20th Central Committee and has been promoted to the ministerial level on this occasion.
In recent years, a group of officials known as the “Fujian Faction,” with backgrounds in Fujian, have been extensively appointed by the CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. This group includes political figures such as the member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee and Director of the Central Office Cai Qi, the current Vice Premier He Lifeng, who was born in Fujian and served there for a long time, and the Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong, also a native of Fujian.
Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily previously mentioned that the current Vice Premier He Lifeng holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate (in service) degrees from Xiamen University, forming a “Xiamen University Faction” in the officialdom.
Huang Shouhong, who was dismissed as the Director of the State Council Research Office, was a part of Li Keqiang’s team during his tenure as Premier.
Huang Shouhong, born in June 1964 in Fancounty, Henan Province, is a member of the 20th Central Committee. He joined the State Council Research Office in 1993 and held various positions until becoming the Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the State Council Research Office in April 2016 during Li Keqiang’s tenure. Throughout Li Keqiang’s leadership, Huang Shouhong also held positions such as Deputy Leader of the Working Group on Migrant Workers under the State Council, Deputy Secretary of the Party Group in the State Council Research Office, Deputy Director, Secretary of the Party Group, and eventually became the Director of the State Council Research Office in July 2016.
In addition to the appointment and dismissal of the Director of the State Council Research Office, other recent personnel changes include the appointment of Shen Hongbing and Guo Yanhong as Deputy Directors of the CCP National Health Commission, the appointment of Zhang Yong as Deputy Director of the Immigration Management Bureau, the appointment of Shen Hongbing as Director of the CCP Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the appointment of Li Guo as Deputy Commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and the appointment of Yang Yongping as President of Lanzhou University. The dismissals include Wang Hesheng and Yu Xuejun from their positions as Deputy Directors of the CCP National Health Commission, Li Yulu from his position as Deputy Director of the Immigration Management Bureau, Wang Hesheng from his position as Director of the CCP Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Yan Chunhua from his position as President of Lanzhou University.
The dismissal of Wang Hesheng has attracted attention. Born in June 1961 in Qingyuan, Hebei Province, Wang Hesheng started serving as the Director of the Office of the Leading Group for Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Health System of the State Council and Deputy Director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission in August 2016. He became the Deputy Director of the newly established CCP National Health Commission in March 2018.
During the three years of the pandemic starting in 2020, Wang Hesheng served as a member of the Central Guidance Team sent to Hubei and became a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Hubei Provincial Committee. On February 10th, Wang Hesheng took on the additional roles of Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission (stepping down from the director position in July), and in April 2021, he was appointed as the Director of the newly established CCP Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Shen Hongbing, who succeeded Wang Hesheng as Director of the CCP Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has been serving as the Director and Standing Committee Member of the CCP Center for Disease Control since July 2022. Born on May 29, 1964, in Qidong City, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, Shen Hongbing is an epidemiologist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
During his term as Premier, Li Keqiang was occasionally at odds with Xi Jinping. Li Keqiang once openly stated that there were 600 million Chinese people earning only a monthly income of around 1,000 yuan, questioning Xi’s later claim of a “comprehensive victory in poverty alleviation.”
Following Li Keqiang’s tenure, his successor Li Qiang abolished the work rules of the State Council from the Li Keqiang era, especially positioning the State Council as a “political organization” and emphasizing its role as an executor of Xi Jinping’s directives.
On September 6th this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the CCP released information on the appointment and dismissal of national civil servants by the State Council. Lin Tao was appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council, replacing Guo Wei. With this, the line-up of Secretaries-General and Deputy Secretaries-General from the Li Keqiang era has completely changed.
However, with Xi Jinping’s allies occupying high positions within the CCP, the internal struggles among them are also quite delicate. It is believed that the top Secretaries of the State Council under Li Qiang are now considered pawns of the current Political Bureau Standing Committee member, Secretary of the Central and State Organs Working Committee, and Director of the Central Office, Cai Qi.
On September 13 to 14 last year, the National Secretaries General Meeting of the CCP was merged with the government’s Secretaries General Meeting, unprecedentedly led by the party organs system and attended by the highest leadership, including Li Qiang’s top aides, State Councilor and Secretary-General Wu Zhenglong, and other State Council Secretaries.
Former Central Commission for Discipline Inspection writer Wang Youqun analyzed in an article for Epoch Times that Cai Qi has now become the overall leader of Secretaries-General at the national and government levels. Secretaries-General at all levels of government have direct access to Cai Qi, becoming “eyes and ears” arranged by Xi Jinping around various administrative leaders. Cai Qi can control Premier Li Qiang’s movements anytime through Wu Zhenglong.