Xi Jinping Holds the 3 Magic Weapons of the CCP, With the Loyal Wang Xiaohong As Security Minister.
Xi Jinping Holds the 3 Magic Weapons of the CCP, With the Loyal Wang Xiaohong As Security Minister.
Xi Jinping and Wang Xiaohong met in the 1990s, and the latter accompanied Xi to the top of power in China.
Dressed in a navy blue uniform, with an impassive face, the man with a porcelain complexion has the calm features of a perfect lieutenant. So much so that Xi Jinping would have entrusted him, in addition to his protection, that of his daughter, who studied at Harvard at all discretion. Wang Xiaohong has been a loyal member of the Chinese president's entourage since their paths crossed in the 1990s in Fujian, at the beginning of their respective careers, which have since become intertwined.
In this southern province in full economic takeoff, the ambitious “red prince” relied on this young local police chief to establish his authority and climb the first rungs of the ladder. The policeman followed him to Henan, before landing the sensitive position of public security chief of the capital, Beijing, in 2015.
Today, Wang Xiaohong is once again accompanying Xi Jinping, as China's number one, and intends to definitively put his country under his sway at the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2022. This hardened policeman was appointed Minister of Public Security at the end of June 2022, to support the Chinese president's control over the “services” on the eve of the five-year conclave that will give him a third undivided mandate.
The objective is to have a close friend controlling security, which is crucial for Xi Jinping. The Fujian praetorian immediately pledged his loyalty, vowing to “forge an iron army of public security,” which sounds like the mobilization of the apparatus to serve the president, his friend Xi Jinping. “We must remain unwaveringly loyal to the Party's heart, support the heart, follow the heart, defend the heart and resolutely obey the orders of General Secretary Xi Jinping at all times and under all circumstances,” he said on August 24, 2022.
Xi Jinping holds the three magic weapons of the Chinese Communist Party
President Xi Jinping had already seized the propaganda “pen” at the start of his first term in 2013, and then took the “gun” of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) top brass in hand since 2015. He now holds the police “knife”, and thus masters the holy trinity of Chinese red power.
Xi Jinping holds the three magic weapons of the Chinese Communist Party, essential to a powerful leader. Wang's appointment means almost complete control over the security sector, a top priority for Xi. The arrival completes a massive purge that has seen the fall of seven senior security officials, including the vice minister of security, Sun Lijun, who confessed in July 2022 to “crimes” of corruption.
This is a ritual before a Congress: the fallen tigers are put on trial. Any potential opponent who might be reluctant to join the leader is thus warned.
Wang Xiaohong, on the other hand, immediately pledged to “completely eliminate the influence of Sun Lijun's political gang,” in line with an “anti-corruption” campaign that has condemned more than 1 million cadres since 2013. This is the culmination of a decade of the bitter takeover of the security organs, long under the rule of the feared Zhou Yongkang, the first “tiger” to fall, in 2014.
At the end of the last Congress, the president had imposed another loyalist, Chen Yixin, as secretary general of the powerful Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, which oversees the public security sector, with an annual budget of $27 billion. The police control of the population, which is becoming ever tighter with the help of new technologies such as facial recognition, has continued to grow. This security grid has made it possible to muzzle the protests that regularly sprout up in the four corners of a country of 1.4 billion inhabitants.
The discontented are numerous in China, but the police control has succeeded so far in nipping in the bud the hotbeds of protest, and preventing convergence of struggles.
The former Fujian police officer must now impose his control over an empire affected by the economic slowdown, a potential source of social unrest, in a tense geopolitical context facing the United States. An ultimate test in the eyes of his all-powerful godfather.
“We must resolutely repress hostile forces, safeguard the security of the regime and maintain social stability,” promised Wang Xiaohong. But some doubt his authority and the depth of his network to impose himself on the opaque labyrinth of services. He was promoted very quickly, and seniority plays an essential role in the security machinery. The effectiveness of this knife will have to be judged by its use.
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