The CPPCC National Committee of the Communist Party of China held a New Year tea party on December 31. Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan all attended.
In addition, members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, secretary of the Central Secretariat, some leaders of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and the State Council of the Communist Party of China, leaders of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the outgoing vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference also attended. Only the third member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, the chairman of the National People’s Congress, and Li Zhanshu, who is known as a close friend of Xi Jinping, is missing.
Judging from the identity and composition of the attendees, this tea party is the highest-ranking and wide-ranging occasion for the party and government of the Communist Party of China to attend, with all important people present. Therefore, the sudden absence of Li Zhanshu will trigger outside speculation and association.
At present, there are two speculations about Li Zhanshu’s absence from the New Year’s tea talk. One is that Li Zhanshu is physically ill, and the other is that Li Zhanshu is in a bad situation. The reason for Li Zhanshu’s absence has not yet been officially announced.
Hong Kong’s “Ming Pao” published a commentary signed by Sun Jiaye on the 4th, saying that after Li Zhanshu was absent from the “New Year’s Tea Party”, a new version was released about the relationship between Li Zhanshu and Xi Jinping. It was reported that Li was transferred to Xi’s side. It was all thanks to his uncle Li Jiangjiang and former vice president Zeng Qinghong’s sister Zeng Haisheng from elementary school classmates. Li Zhanshu was actually the person Zeng Qinghong arranged next to Xi, and Li Jiangjiang was recently involved in the investigation.
The comment also pointed out that if Li Zhanshu is really absent for health reasons, or is suddenly ill. If you have a minor illness, you should resume your appearance at the central group meeting in January or before. If you still can’t show up by the National Two Sessions in March, then it’s not a good thing.
The “New Year Tea Party” of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference is held every year around New Year’s Day, and the New Year group visits and National Day receptions before the Lunar New Year. According to the usual practice, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China must attend.
At the reunion meeting on January 27, 2006, Executive Vice Premier Huang Ju, the sixth-ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, was absent for the first time. After that, it was reported that Huang Ju was ill. In March of the same year, Wu Jianmin, a spokesperson for the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, confirmed at the press conference of the two sessions that Huang Ju was “being hospitalized for illness and is now recovering.” In June 2007, Huang Ju died of incurable pancreatic cancer and became the second Politburo member to die in his tenure since June 4 after Tan Shaowen, then secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee in 1993.
According to the report, because Huang Ju belonged to the “Shanghai Gang” of Jiang Zemin’s lineage, and Chen Liangyu, then secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, fell to be investigated, Huang Ju’s illness was intertwined with rumors of political power struggles, and various rumors arose.
According to public information, Li Zhanshu was born in 1950 in Pingshan, Hebei. His career began in his hometown of Hebei Province, and then moved to Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, and Guizhou to become officials until 2012 when Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He was transferred. After entering Beijing, he served as deputy director and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Working Committee of the Central Committee. He then became a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and was promoted to a member of the Politburo Standing Committee in October 2017. In March 2018, he became the chairman of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress of China, becoming the third person in the CCP after Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang.
Li Zhanshu’s last public appearance was at the “Democratic Life Meeting” of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing from December 27 to 28, 2021. In the CCTV news broadcast on the evening of December 28, Li Zhanshu sat in the innermost circle with Xi Jinping and other members of the Politburo Standing Committee.
Prior to this, Li Zhanshu presided over the closing meeting of the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress on December 24 last year, and delivered a speech after the voting was completed.
This year is the year of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. At the beginning of the new year, it has been reported that state-level officials are in a bad situation, which shows the intensity of power struggles among several forces within the Communist Party of China. In order to eliminate political risks before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping has not taken a step outside the country for nearly two years and has been sitting in Zhongnanhai. But observers believe that Xi Jinping’s 20th Dalian tenure is full of crises.
Ming Juzheng, a former member of the Special Advisory Group on Cross-Strait Relations at the Presidential Office of Taiwan, told the Voice of America that the anti-Xi forces are currently gearing up, and they are all worried about Xi Jinping’s re-election. “Then what should we do? So Xi’s re-election will not continue Ren, I think there are still some uncertainties.”
Ming Juzheng believes that even if Xi Jinping succeeds in taking office, he has opened a bad example, which may intensify the challenge of his monopoly on power within the party.
“If Xi is renewed, we will break the routine. Why can’t we break it? If we don’t move, then other people won’t have a chance (to get stuck), so there will be another wave of shocks. If the number of members of the Standing Committee is to be reduced, the fight will become more intense. Not only will there be disputes between factions, but also within factions, because you go up and I will be gone, so now it is easy to hide with guns, and it is hard to guard against secret arrows. “
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