Six Hidden Threats Xi Jinping Has to Guard Against

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) and his predecessor Jiang Zemin (R) attend the closing of the CCP's 19th Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Oct. 24, 2017. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

Next year, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) will hold its 20th National Congress, and Xi Jinping is trying his best to secure a third term in office. In the meantime, one of his biggest concerns may be his own safety.

The following are four special arrangements that are believed to be related to Xi’s personal security.

Two Teacups

At the CCP’s “Two Sessions” meeting in March 2021, two teacups were placed in front of Xi, while Premier Li Keqiang and other officials had only one teacup in front of them.

Two teacups appeared as well in all other meeting rooms where Xi attended separate group meetings.

Besides Xi’s extra teacups, there is reportedly a specially designated male waiter in charge of Xi’s cups, either because Xi’s drinks may be different from others, or to prevent poisoning attempts.

Four Men in Black

On Feb. 10, the day before Chinese New Year’s Eve, a gathering was held in Beijing by senior CCP officials to celebrate the coming Chinese New Year.

A screenshot from a CCTV news broadcast showed Xi Jinping and seven other top-level CCP officials sitting at the main table in the very front center watching the show. Sitting behind Xi were at least four men in black, who were not watching the show but facing the guests present at the gathering.

Netizens posting messages after the screenshot guessed that these men in black could be Xi’s personal bodyguards, present at the gathering to be ready for any possible emergency and to maintain order. One netizen writes that this is sort of “a warning to those at the secondary tables.”

One Hundred People in Black

According to an RFI report, on March 10, 2020, on the 48th day of Wuhan’s lockdown, Xi inspected the city. That afternoon, Xi went to the East Lake Garden community. The community’s social media group posted an “emergency notice,” which read that police would enter homes of residents “for security checks above the ninth floor,” and that they would “stay at your home for about an hour.” The notice asked residents to “actively cooperate with the police while they do their job.”

An online video shows approximately one hundred people clad in black in the East Lake Garden community, surrounding Xi from both the front and the back.

Radio Free Asia reported on March 10 that some local residents in East Lake Garden community said that there were police “sitting on our balcony and they wouldn’t allow us to look (outside).” One local resident said that police came “knocking on the door at 9 a.m. that morning,” and another resident said that “snipers are all on the roofs of the buildings.”

Mr. Sun from Wuhan said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that “There are guards and police scattered everywhere. All those windows that looked to the street which Xi was supposed to pass had to be closed, and each of those windows was guarded by armed police. Everywhere Xi went was like this.”

Over 10,000 Security Personnel

When Xi visited Hong Kong for three days in 2017 on the 20th anniversary of the handover, the Hong Kong government used more than 10,000 police officers to ensure Xi’s safety. When Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, visited Hong Kong in 2012, only 3,000 police officers were present.

As early as March 2017, police in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau had launched a joint operation named Thunderbolt 17, a marathon anti-triad operation to prepare for Xi’s visit to Hong Kong.

When Xi arrived in Hong Kong on June 29, he traveled in a bulletproof BMW 7 Series car provided by the Hong Kong police.

Police helicopters, boats, and snipers were stationed along the route of Xi’s visit. Various police forces, including the SDU (Special Duties Unit), Police Tactical Unit, and Counter-Terrorism Response Unit were all standing by.

A video circulating on the internet shows Xi preparing to leave the airport in the bulletproof car, which was surrounded by bodyguards, with some even running with the car.

All these precautions reflect the concerns about Xi’s personal safety.

Six Underlying Concerns to Xi’s Personal Safety

Political Enemies

The biggest concern for Xi’s security arises from his biggest political enemies, a political faction within the CCP headed by Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong.

For more than eight years since he took power, in an effort to seize the highest power from former leaders Jiang and Zeng, Xi investigated and punished more than 510 senior officials at the deputy provincial (ministerial) level and above, including over 160 generals, most of whom were promoted and reappointed by Jiang and Zeng.

Military Officers

Before Xi came to power, Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, the two former vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made huge fortunes by taking bribes in exchange for promotions and other benefits. Guo Zhenggang, son of Guo Boxiong, reportedly said, “More than half of the army’s cadres were promoted by my family.” Although Xi purged over 160 generals, many of those promoted and appointed by Xu and Guo are still in office.

In the past eight years since Xi took power, almost all the highest echelons of the CCP’s Central Security Bureau have been replaced. Seven of the senior military and political officials in the Beijing Garrison have changed, four of whom were commanders, and three political commissars. It is likely because Xi did not trust them.

Political and Legal Officials

Since coming into power, Xi also purged the CCP’s political and legal system. In the 22 years from 1999 to 2021, the four Secretaries of the Political and Legal Committee, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Meng Jianzhu, and Guo Shengkun, were all close associates of Jiang and Zeng. Many of the people promoted and reappointed by them are still working in the political and legal system.

Zhao Liping, the former head of the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department who was sentenced to death by Xi authorities, not only had two pistols and a large number of bullets but also had 91 detonators hidden in his safe. There are probably many more people like this in the political and legal system.

Second and Third Generation Reds

After Xi arrested and imposed a severe sentence on Bo Xilai, a second-generation red (children of revolutionary-era CCP leaders), all the descendants of the Bo family may become a problem for Xi.

Xi has arrested and sentenced Wu Xiaohui, the grandson-in-law of the CCP’s patriarch Deng Xiaoping, to 18 years in prison.

The four sons and one daughter of former CCP leader Zhao Ziyang published an article on Zhao Ziyang’s 100th birthday, saying, “Today, we are faced with the degradation of thought and the poverty of philosophy; we have lost energetic and profound explorations, and cannot see the faint flickering spark of wisdom.” The CCP now has ”very few upright people but many people with little integrity and shame.” Clearly, they do not agree with Xi’s rule.

Some second-generation reds, such as Ren Zhiqiang, a famous Chinese real estate developer, and Cai Xia, a former professor at the CCP’s Central Party School, are openly anti-Xi.

The third-generation of reds, Yi Qiwei (originally named Wu Dizhao), who now lives in Japan, has repeatedly and publicly condemned the CCP. He believes that only a strong external blow will really make the CCP collapse.

Mafia Mobs and Criminal Syndicates

Under the 72-year oppressive and deceitful rule of the CCP, mafia mobs, triads, and criminal syndicates have emerged in the communist state.

As reported by Xinhua News Agency, Ma Shaowei, known as the “invisible richest man” of Qinghai province, and “Xi Ba Tian,” which literally translates as “the tyrant in the west,” and his Xingqing Industry and Trade Engineering Group, are “suspected of illegally buying, storing and using 32.5 million kilograms of explosives and more than 65 million detonators over the past ten years.”

These mobs have knives, guns, explosives, detonators, and other kinds of weapons.

People From All Walks of Life Suppressed by the CCP

An ever-growing list of people hold grievances against the CCP, including: Xinjiang Uyghurs, Hongkongers, Tibetans, Mongolians, Taiwanese, citizen journalists, June 4 democracy activists, university teachers and students, human rights lawyers, private entrepreneurs, Christians, financial refugees, veterans, teachers who demand unpaid wages, homeowners whose homes have been forcibly demolished, business owners who have been victimized, farmers who’ve lost their land, unemployed workers, petitioners, and victims of counterfeit and shoddy products.

Can Xi Protect Himself by Preserving the CCP?

On Dec. 7, 2012, the 23rd day after Xi became the head of the CCP, he left Beijing for inspections and chose Shenzhen as his first stop. The People’s Daily reported, “There was no making fuss, no road closures, no disturbances, no red carpets, no welcome banners, no escorts whatsoever. ”

The Nanfang Daily, or the Southern Daily in English, reported that Xi took the lead in strictly implementing “An eight-point code to cut bureaucracy and maintain close ties with the people” of the Politburo, and “arrived quietly with few escorts.”

Although Xi Jinping is now in a powerful position, he is so worried about his personal security that he does not feel safe at all, as described by a Chinese saying: “the whispering of the wind and the cries of cranes are enough to make every plant appear as enemy troops lying in ambush about to attack.”

In fact, the biggest threat to Xi’s life and safety comes from the CCP itself.

Since communist dictator Jiang Zemin launched a massive persecution campaign on July 20, 1999, against Falun Gong practitioners who believe in the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance, Falun Gong practitioners have been thinking about why the CCP did this.

In November 2004, The Epoch Times published a series of editorials entitled “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.” For the first time in history, the Nine Commentaries revealed to the world the evil nature of the CCP, which does not believe in the divine and opposes nature, heaven, earth, and mankind. It is an evil specter opposing the universe.

Throughout its history, the CCP has been a mechanism of democide. Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was nearly buried alive during the CCP infighting in the 1930s. He was branded as the head of an “anti-Party group” during the CCP infighting in the 1960s and was punished for 16 years. He was dismissed before the expiration of his tenure and “exiled” to Shenzhen during the CCP infighting in the 1990s.

Nonetheless, after Xi Jinping became the head of the CCP, he seemed to have forgotten his father’s experience and fell back into the vicious circle of infighting. If he does not fight others, others will fight him.

After 100 years of infighting, the CCP has come to a point where it is fraught with problems or flaws. When Jiang Zemin, the most corrupt within the top corrupt echelons of the CCP’s party, government, and military, was in power, the CCP began to move toward total and complete corruption. Hu Jintao was in power for ten years, but he was only a puppet chairman during those ten years. Xi has now been in power for more than eight years, and the CCP is in full crisis and faces final disintegration.

Today’s CCP is like a rotten apple, already rotten to the core. Xi thought that by preserving the party, he could preserve his power and save his life. However, when he looks around, all he can see are enemies, both inside and outside the party, and both in China and abroad. How is it possible for him to be safe when there are enemies everywhere?

Wang Youqun graduated with a Ph.D. in law from the Renmin University of China. He once worked as a copywriter for Wei Jianxing (1931–2015), a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee from 1997 to 2002.