The newly appointed heads of the State Security Ministry and the Public Security Ministry represent a kind of mutual check and balance, suggesting that Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top leader, does not fully trust the police system, a vital pillar of the regime that is tasked with, among other things, monitoring and curbing the behavior of senior officials.
On Oct. 28, Chen Wenqing, the former head of the State Security Ministry and once hush-hush and low-profile secret service chief, was promoted to secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, becoming the chief executive of the police system, overcoming his rival Wang Xiaohong, former minister of Public Security.
The Political and Legal Committee, the highest CCP’s legal body, oversees such crucial organs as Public Security, State Security, Supreme Court, and Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.
Conflicts between the two departments—public security and state security—are not a secret. According to insiders, state security personnel looked down on public security personnel as inferior to them, while public security personnel criticized state security personnel for being slick and faceless and putting on airs.
Before this appointment, Chen and Wang were officials at the same ministerial level, and Wang was once considered the strongest contender for secretary of the Political and Legal Committee. Wang has been the mere senior official in the CCP police system who was pulled out by Xi from the bottom of the police hierarchy to a senior official in charge of the central public security system.
Wang and Chen have been equal opponents, with both being a member of the Central Committee since the 19th Congress in 2017 and being the secretary of the Central Secretariat at the 20th Congress.
Wang seems to have a better personal relationship with Xi. However, at the recently concluded 20th Congress, Chen became a member of the Politburo, which is closer to the core of the CCP’s power, while Wang remained a member of the Central Committee, a grade below Chen.
Chen, a close associate of Xi, served as deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection from 2012 to 2015, during which time he cracked down on political opposition to Xi in the name of “anti-corruption.”
In addition to running the State Security Ministry, the largest secret service agency for Xi, Chen also served as the deputy director of the State Security Committee Office of the Central Committee in May 2018. This is a temporary agency set up and led by Xi to seize control of the military and security systems.
The one who succeeded Chen as Minister of State Security is Chen Xinxin, Xi’s Zhejiang crony had served as Deputy Secretary General of the Party Committee (2003-2006) when Xi was the province’s Party Secretary from 2002 to 2007.
The promotions of Chen and Wang may reflect Xi’s step-by-step reassignment of power to the police system, which until then had long been in the hands of his biggest political enemy, the ex-leader of the CCP Jiang Zemin’s faction.
But Chen and Wang still do not appear to have Xi’s full trust.
Xi appointed both Chen and Wang as secretaries of the Central Secretariat, an affiliate of the Politburo Standing Committee and the Politburo, allowing them to participate in the process of policy-making by CCP leaders. It was unusual for two officials from the police system to serve as the secretary of the Central Secretariat at the same time. In the last term, only the secretary of the Political and Legal Committee was in the position.
This unexpected assignment would be Xi’s intention to keep Chen and Wang in the police system as checks and balances on each other, meanwhile strengthening the role of the police system in maintaining the CCP’s rule.
