The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) State Council is reportedly carrying on large-scale personnel alternatives, with almost all the current leaderships expected to be shunned. Experts believe that the move partly suggests a deep grudge between the CCP head Xi Jinping and premier Li Keqiang.
Li Keqiang was excluded from the list of the central committee members at the 20th party congress on Oct. 22 last year, during which Xi successfully secured his third term. According to Party practice, Li Keqiang will officially step down from his position in the coming 14th National People’s Congress that convenes on March 5, 2023.
Li Keqiang is supposed to have a month left in his term, but Xi’s men have been looking to take over the State Council, the CCP’s top policy-making body.
Of the 37 constituent departments, agencies, and offices of the State Council, 27 heads were recently replaced or will be replaced within a year, and at least 70 percent of the heads of ministries are expected to be replaced. “The change of leadership is unprecedented in the history of the State Council,” the article said.
“Xi’s purge of Li’s influence in the State Council was thorough,” Wang Juntao, chairman of the National Committee and a prominent pro-democracy activist, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 29.
A Deep Grudge Between Xi and Li
According to Ming Pao, the current premier Li Keqiang, vice-premier Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan, Hu Chunhua, and Liu He, as well as State Council members Wei Fenghe, Wang Yong, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie, and Zhao Kezhi, will all leave the State Council.Wang said that the State Council has become an entity that must implement Xi’s ideas. “The party and government are completely integrated, and Xi said the party should lead everything, so he decides all the personnel appointments.”
In late May 2020, Li said at a press conference that China “has 600 million people earning an average of about 1,000 yuan ($148) per month. This statement was seen as a public rebuttal to Xi’s so-called ”realization of a moderately prosperous society by 2020.”
Chen further noted that Xi will replace all of Li Keqiang’s people in the State Council with his own close confidantes, or at least the prospective Xi faction.
In this case, the separation pattern of party and government, which was put up along with the “reform and opening up” policy at the end of 1978, will be totally subverted, Chen said.
According to Chen, after the Mao era, the CCP emphasized the separation of the State Council’s administrative system from the Party’s administrative system. However, in the Xi era, Xi has rejected governing proposals from premier Li Keqiang in every possible way and inserted the Xi faction directly into the State Council, which has made all departments virtual and placed real power in his own hands.
“The consequences [of the totalitarian rule] will be even worse than those of Mao Zedong,” Chen said.
On the other hand, by Chen’s analysis, Li Keqiang and his men probably took the initiative to leave last October at the party congress when Xi was able to remain in his post as CCP leader for the next five years.
Wang shared a similar opinion that those CCP senior officials know that once the top leader, like Xi, orders something to be done, they must carry it out, and they must bear the consequences, “some are not willing to work for Xi anymore as they feel that if they do, they will have to take the blame for him in the future.”
Under Xi’s rule, a years-long zero-COVID policy and a U-turn on the harsh anti-pandemic approach have plunged the country into an economic recession and left millions of people on the brink of an existential crisis, some even losing their lives.
How Xi Appoints Officials
Wang believes that Xi’s principle of appointing officials is not based on their intelligence quotient nor emotional quotient, but on their personal loyalty to him.Cadres who are not in accordance with the “four consciousnesses” and “two maintenances” will be tossed from Xi’s power circle, Wang said.
According to Ming Pao, Xi’s new leadership of the State Council includes Li Qiang as premier, Ding Xuexiang as executive vice premier, and three vice premiers He Lifeng, Liu Guozhong, and Zhang Guoqing, respectively; the State Council members will likely be Wang Xiaohong (who is also the Minister of Public Security), Li Shangfu (who is also the Minister of National Defense), Wu Zhenglong (who is also the Secretary General of the State Council), Shen Yiqin, and Qin Gang (who is also the Foreign Minister).
Xi’s Local Factions
Is Xi really a “winner-take-all”?Chen holds the view that a new power struggle will soon take place within the CCP. “Even if Xi’s men are dominant, there will soon be infighting as it can be divided into six major factions.”
Xi’s men include officials from Shanghai, Fujian Province, Zhejiang Province, and his father’s hometown province of Shaanxi, making up the four local factions; there is also the Tsinghua faction, which was developed by Chen Xi, head of the Organization Department of Central Committee, from Tsinghua University; and the military-industrial faction, led by Li Ganjie and Zhang Guoqing, who are now members of the Politburo of the Central Committee and have been provincial party secretaries, according to Chen.
In addition, there is also a “Xi’s wife’s fraction,” that is, Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife, who is related to officials in Shandong Province. “For example, Ma Xingrui, who is now secretary of the Xinjiang Party Committee and a member of the Politburo, is from Shandong Province, and Yin Li, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, is also from Shandong Province,” Chen said.
He believes that the struggles within the CCP have never ceased, and this characteristic of the CCP determines that the six factions will soon be in a wrangling mode.
Regarding issues around who will be Xi’s successor, there will definitely be a bloody and fierce battle ahead, said Chen, adding that in the Politburo Standing Committee alone, there are several major factions. For example, Ding Xuexiang, Director of the Central State Security Commission Office, represents the Shanghai faction; Cai Qi, Secretary of the Central Secretariat, represents the Fujian faction; and Li Qiang represents the Zhejiang fraction. Each of these factions will soon grow their membership in this organ system.
In this respect, Xi may have driven his opponents’ supporters out of the State Council, but he can never keep the peace throughout his administration, Chen said.
