Suspicions Swirl Over Chinese Prime Minister’s Death

Chinese armed police officers practice their shooting skills as part of an anti-terror drill by the Shanghai Armed Police Corps in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 9, 2007. (China Photos/Getty Images)

Commentary

The body of the deceased Chinese former premier Li Keqiang was cremated on Nov. 2 in Beijing after being carried from Shanghai. Despite the official obituary blaming Li’s death on a heart attack, speculations around his death went viral, pointing to the Central Guard Bureau, which was in charge of Li’s security, as well as armed police in Shanghai, the city where he died.

Chinese authorities downplayed Li’s death and ramped up censorship of the public grief flooded online. Videos from social platforms showed as of Nov. 3 that the mountains of flowers piled up in Li’s former residence for mourning in Hefei had been cleared away by the local police.

The 68-year-old encountered a heart attack when swimming at Shanghai’s Dongjiao State Guest Hotel on Oct. 26 and then was to the city’s Shuguang Hospital for rescue. He was eventually announced by state media CCTV to die on the early morning of Oct. 27.

This March, Mr. Li stepped down as premier at a relatively young age in his Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political career, and Xi Jinping’s aide, Li Qiang, took his place.

Mr. Li’s sudden death has sparked much suspicion and speculation; some say that Mr. Li had been under house arrest since March and that his death may have been linked to security forces around him.

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There are two particular security units in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—the Central Guard Bureau (CGB) and the Special Service Bureau (SSB) of the Ministry of Public Security—responsible for guarding the high echelons.

CGB is dubbed “Zhongnanhai Bodyguards” for the security of state-level officials in Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, where China’s decision-making body sits. Those at the core of CCP power are the party’s general secretary, the state president, the chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, the Premier of the State Council, the Central Political Bureau’s standing committee members, and other state-level political heavyweights.

SSB is an armed police security force that mainly proceeds with the security of the vice president of the state, the vice premier of the State Council, the vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the vice chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference, the president of the Supreme Court and the general procurator of the Supreme Procuratorate, along with foreign dignitaries in significant events.

(L-R) Politburo Standing Committee members Cai Qi, Wang Huning and Li Qiang attend the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 7, 2023. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

Currently, CGB’s head is Cai Qi, and SSB’s head is Wang Xiaohong: Both heads are close associates of Mr. Xi.

China political affairs observers believe Mr. Li could be outfitted with guards from the CGB or SSB as a retired state-level official. When he was in Shanghai, the local polices, subordinated to the SSB, were also under the direct control of the CGB.

Assassination?

Lots of rumors about Mr. Li’s death being caused by the assassination were circulating on social media platforms.

On Oct. 31, Zhao Lanjian, a former media worker who now lives in exile in the United States, posted on the X that he acquired information from an insider that Li Keqiang was assassinated with poison by the Shanghai armed police and that the culprit was Chen Yuan, the commander of the Armed Police in Shanghai. Chen Yuan’s hometown is in Dongtai, Jiangsu Province, the same city as He Weidong, a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. He is Xi Jinping’s close confidant.

Public information shows that in August 2022, Chen was still serving as the commander of the Armed Police in Guangxi; however, in April this year, he appeared in media reports as the commander of the Armed Police in Shanghai.

Mr. Zhao said to The Epoch Times on Nov. 2 that he confirmed the authenticity of the source and he kept the insider’s identity secret for fear of retaliatory.

House Arrest

On Oct. 31, Yao Cheng, a former lieutenant colonel in the Chinese Navy Command living in the United States, said on X that he had learned from Li Keqiang’s relatives and friends in his hometown, Hefei, Anhui Province, that Li Keqiang had lost contact with them after his last show-up in Gansu Province’s Dunhuang on Aug. 31, and that his relatives had asked him to come to Hefei for the Mid-Autumn Festival through Li’s secretary before the festival, but had not received a reply.

As per Mr. Yao, Li Keqiang had been restricted in personal freedom at that time, and “as to how he would die, it [the CCP] would not let outsiders know. The person who carried out the execution was probably to have been silenced.”

Security guards are seen at an entrance to the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on Nov. 2, 2023. (Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)

Hu Liren, a Shanghai entrepreneur living in exile in the United States, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 28 that CBS from Beijing handled the security of the Dongjiao State Guest Hotel, where Mr. Xi lived in Shanghai.

Mr. Hu said his friend, who worked for the Shanghai Municipal Government’s security department, was responsible for CCP former leader Jiang Zemin’s security in his later years at Dongjiao State Guest Hotel. He said that they were ordered to withdraw from the hotel and leave the security work to staff from CGB, just a short period before Jiang was announced to die of leukemia and organ failure on Nov. 30, 2022.

Xi Jinping’s Onus

Due to the opacity and the complexity of the CCP officialdom, the truth of Mr. Li’s death remains a myth to the public.

Internet writer Li Mianying challenged assassination rumors. He said in an interview with NTD TV on Nov. 2 that Li Keqiang had fallen from grace and Xi Jinping could easily find a reason to send him to Qincheng Prison, “Why would he [Xi Jinping have to] take such a significant risk and cause such a thing?”

Beijing-based Qincheng Prison is China’s maximum-security prison for incarcerating senior officials at the provincial ministerial level and above.

Current affairs commentator Li Linyi said that as for whether Mr. Li died of a heart attack or not, Xi Jinping would likely be related in the end, as “the CGB is in charge of Li Keqiang’s security. If Li Keqiang died of a heart attack, Then who sent the medical team at that time? The CGB.”

He added, “If something goes wrong in the CBS, the responsibility will be traced back to the head Cai Qi, and, ultimately, to Xi Jinping.”

“That’s why the authorities were playing down the impacts of Li Keqiang’s death,” Mr. Li said.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.