Beijing to Build a USSR-Style Internal Committee and Greatly Weaken Premier Li Qiang’s Power

China's President Xi Jinping (L) waves with Li Qiang, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's new Politburo Standing Committee, the nation's top decision-making body, as they meet the media in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 23, 2022. Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

Recently, Hong Kong media reported that China’s Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security will be separated from the State Council system and placed under the Central Internal Affairs Committee, a new institution directly under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This new structure is modeled after the former Soviet Union. Analysts say that the newly appointed Chinese premier Li Qiang will take over the State Council at the CCP’s Two Sessions in March, but with two of the State Council’s powerful departments removed, Li will become the weakest premier in the history of the CCP.

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao reported in a Feb. 23 article that every time there is a change of office, the CCP’s State Council will have the so-called institutional “reform,” and this year’s reform is likely very drastic.

The Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security are to be separated from the State Council system and transferred to the newly established Internal Affairs Committee. Drawing on the functional framework of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, this commission will integrate the functions of public security, immigration, household registration, transportation, counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, and even social organization management of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the article said.

It also stated that the internal affairs committee will be headed by Wang Xiaohong, the CCP’s current Minister of Public Security. However, it is unclear how the body will relate to the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, or whether the Ministry of State Security’s foreign intelligence function is also integrated into the agency.

U.S.-based China expert and current affairs commentator Shi Shan recently said on an NTD TV program that if the news of the reform is true, the Internal Affairs Committee, which is directly under the CCP’s Central Committee, is “somewhat like the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the former Soviet Union.”

“The KGB in the former Soviet Union was under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so it is estimated that the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security will expand their powers and become similar to the KGB, which is the CCP’s version of the KGB, “ Shi said.

“Therefore, the CCP’s Party affairs system has increased executive power and is no longer limited to ideology work and decision-making. This means that the CCP takes direct control of armed forces, and the power to use force is no longer managed by the State Council, an administrative system.”

Head of the New Agency

Zhang Tianliang, a political analyst and commentator living in the United States, pointed out in his YouTube program on Feb. 23 that the CCP’s establishment of the Internal Affairs Committee may be an effort by the CCP head Xi Jinping to get a firm grip on the armed forces, and that the future destiny of Wang Xiaohong is unclear.

Zhang said the former Soviet Union had a Ministry of Internal Affairs, an agency that included police, security, and intelligence services, with the KGB being a subordinate agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The CCP’s newly established Internal Affairs Committee seems to have more power than the former Soviet Union’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, so this Internal Affairs Committee is simply half of the government, and the State Council is further paralyzed.

“The functions of the Internal Affairs Committee have actually covered the functions of the original Political and Legal Affairs Commission, but with even more power, because the former Political and Legal Affairs Commission did not manage traffic, passports, etc, it only managed matters related to political affairs,” he said.

As Ming Pao believes that Wang Xiaohong, the current Minister of Public Security, will take charge of the new agency, Zhang pointed out that Wang’s future role is rather unclear at this point.

“What will be the relationship between him and the Political and Legal Affairs Commission? Many people will have this question,” he said.

Zhang believes that although Wang’s official rank is not high, he has a close relationship with Xi Jinping. Therefore, Xi may entrust him with important tasks at any time.

Li Qiang: the Weakest Premier

U.S.-based current affairs commentator Chen Pokong believes that Li Qiang will be the weakest premier in the 70 years of the CCP’s history, by the time he takes over the State Council in March.

Chen said in his self-media program on Feb. 24 that Xi Jinping’s structural reform is set to take place before Li Qiang’s premiership, and this reform completely imitated the Stalinist model, that is, to control key positions, then to defeat and purge political opponents, and finally to monopolize power. Xi Jinping must also find someone to be Beria, and that person is Wang Xiaohong.

Lavrenty Beria was the most influential secret police chief during the Stalin era. He played a major role in Stalin’s Great Purges of the 1930s. But after Khrushchev succeeded Stalin in power, Beria was executed in December 1953.

Chen said that the CCP’s creation of the Internal Affairs Committee had two meanings: first, to establish the Soviet model; and second, to weaken Li Qiang’s power as premier.

“This reform is just like the previous reorganization of the armed police. The armed police was originally under both the State Council and the Central Military Commission, but later, through a power struggle, Xi Jinping separated the Armed Police Force from the State Council and placed it under the Central Military Commission, which he commanded directly,” Chen said. “Now he further splits the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security from the State Council, after which a so-called Internal Affairs Committee will be formed to establish a Soviet Union model.”

This leaves Li Qiang with very little power, he said, adding that he will only have the human resources department, the natural resources department, or some departments related to finance and economics.

“All powerful departments will have been moved out before Li takes office, so he was hollowed out in advance. He will indeed become the weakest premier in the history of the CCP,” Chen said.

But Chen also said that the reform foreshadows a new power struggle within Xi’s clan.

“Because there is already a political and legal committee headed by Chen Wenqing, the former minister of state security,” he said. “Now there is an internal affairs committee, and Wang Xiaohong will likely become the head.

“How will these two systems coordinate and who will be in charge of what?

“The political and legal affairs committee is originally under the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security, and it is unlikely that the political and legal affairs committee will be abolished. As a result, Chen Wenqing’s system and Wang Xiaohong’s system may engage in a power struggle at a certain point.”