In March of this year, former Beijing party boss Cai Qi was given an additional position—director of the party’s General Office, which magnified his power to discipline all Chinese Communist Party (CCP), regime, and military officials except those in the Politburo Standing Committee.
Cai’s new role is reminiscent of Kang Sheng (1898-1975), a merciless official during the Mao Zedong era. When it comes to Kang, most Chinese born after 1970 do not know much about him, as the regime’s media outlets rarely mention his name. As a prominent internal security cadre within the CCP, Kang was irreplaceable in assisting Mao’s political campaigns, especially initiating and implementing the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976).
As history often repeats itself, the analogy between Cai and Kang may help us predict and interpret political dramas that are about to unfold in communist China.
Cai was born in Yongan of Fujian Province in 1955. When he was 17, he became one of the “urban educated youths” who were “sent down to the countryside to receive re-education” during the Cultural Revolution.
In the late 1970s, he was recommended to study in the Department of Political Education at Fujian Normal University. After graduating from college in 1978, he stayed at the university to work as a party cadre. In 1983, he was transferred to the office of the Fujian Provincial Committee and officially embarked on his political career.
He had a 20-year relationship with Xi Jinping as a subordinate in his hometown of Fujian Province and neighboring Zhejiang Province. His career has been exceptionally smooth since Xi came to power in 2012.
During his tenure in Zhejiang, Cai visited Taiwan in the name of visiting his uncle in July 2012. On his seven-day trip, he discussed promoting cross-strait integration and unification with the Kuomintang’s top officials, Lien Chan, and Hung Hsiu-chu.
In November 2013, Cai became vice governor of Zhejiang Province. Four months later, he was transferred to the newly established Central National Security Commission (CNSC) of the CCP Central Committee as deputy director of the general office. The newly established body was above all powerful departments of the CCP, including the police system and special agents system.
At that time, a faction aligned with former CCP leader Jiang Zemin was still very strong, and Xi was in a precarious situation. The establishment of the CNSC played an important role in helping Xi stabilize his power, and Cai earned more trust from Xi as a result. Since then, he gradually became involved in the CCP’s national security affairs.
In 2017, at the age of 61, Cai served as mayor of Beijing until May 27, when he was then named Secretary of the Beijing CCP Municipal Committee. As Cai was an ordinary party member, he was the first non-central committee member to become Beijing’s party boss in the CCP’s history.
After the 19th National Congress held in 2017, Cai was promoted to become a member of the Political Bureau, which was an unconventional promotion in the CCP system. By then, he had ascended to the ranks of China’s top leaders.
As a CCP cadre with mediocre performance and a poor reputation among the public, Cai has been promoted repeatedly and often beyond his original rank and qualifications. His political path has been very rare since the establishment of the CCP regime.
One of Cai’s most notorious political “achievements” that had caused public uproar was to evict the “low-end population” in Beijing. In November 2017, Cai ordered public security officials to evict tens of thousands of migrant workers living in Beijing’s suburbs, forcing them to leave their homes in the cold.
In an internal speech, Cai said that party cadres should be on the front line to “supervise the battle” and that the expulsion of Beijing’s low-end population should be a “true stab with visible blood,” which meant his order must be fully implemented, regardless of how defiant the victims might be.
History Repeats Itself
Cai and Kang Sheng are somewhat similar; both are ruthless, and both rely on political tactics to win the trust and favor of those in power, allowing them to climb the ranks, despite their poor political performance.During several Mao’s political campaigns, Kang controlled the secret service agencies whose main functions were counterintelligence and internal cleansing. Cai’s new role as the director of the CCP’s General Office is very similar, as the main function of this organization is to monitor the political trends of top cadres, according to CCP’s official statement.
In October 1939, the Central Committee of the CCP established the Central Socialist Department in Yan‘an, northern Shaanxi, to be responsible for intelligence and counter-intelligence work, with Kang Sheng as the first director. Three years later, in 1942, Mao initiated a major purge within the party, known as the Yan’an Rectification, where Kang used his Central Socialist Department to assist Mao to wage his “rectification”.
“The rectification movement in Yan’an was the largest, darkest, and most ferocious power game ever played out in the human world. In the name of ‘cleansing petty bourgeoisie toxins,’ the Party washed away morality, independent thought, freedom of action, tolerance, and dignity,” the commentary said.
A survivor of the Yan'an Rectification recalled: “At that time, we were dragged [to interrogation rooms] and forced to take confessions. Under extreme pressure, many had to betray their conscience and make up lies to frame others.”
According to scholarly studies, the Yan'an Rectification caused more than 10,000 deaths.
During the Cultural Revolution initiated by Mao, Kang again used his secret service—this time it was the Central Investigation Department of the CCP—to cooperate with Mao’s power struggles.
Kang became an advisor to the Central Cultural Revolution Group in May 1966 when the Cultural Revolution first broke out and became a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP’s Politburo in August of the same year, entering the core of power. At that time, he ranked seventh in the party.
The Cultural Revolution caused the unnatural death of about 20 million Chinese people. The victims included civilians, Red Guards, and Chinese communist soldiers.
Deng Xiaoping once told a foreign journalist, “The real number of people who died in the Cultural Revolution must be an astronomical figure that can never be calculated.”
It was not by luck or coincidence that Kang was appointed as the chief of the secret service during the two major political movements, acting as a vanguard and a hitman, but because he was the chosen one by the CCP leader.
After the CCP’s 20th National Congress, Cai replaced Wang Huning to take charge of the CCP’s ideology. It is reasonable to speculate that he will likely become the first minister of the Central Social Work Department and will further integrate and lead this special services body focusing on internal party affairs. In that case, his role would be closer to that of Kang.
Currently, Cai ranks fifth in the Politburo Standing Committee, behind Xi, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, and Wang Huning. Still, in some ways, his power has been magnified by Xi to the point where he can deter all key officials outside the Politburo Standing Committee, including party, regime, and military officials, and also including the Zeng Qinghong faction, which has been quite hostile to Xi.
The multiple party agencies under Cai’s leadership are responsible for preventing coups and monitoring party and government officials. Cai’s power has now surpassed Kang’s, suggesting that China is again at a crucial juncture in history.
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