Cai Fuchao taken down 10 years after retirement, the former SARFT director who once publicly mocked Xi Jinping's collected works. "Real China"
The video centers on Cai Fuchao, former director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, detailing his family background, career trajectory, and his departure from office in 2016. It claims that he once publicly mocked Xi Jinping and his collected works internally, and was taken down nearly a decade after retirement due to a whistleblower report. The program also compares this to the Bi Fujian incident, analyzing snitch culture within official circles of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), great purges, travel restrictions on retired officials, and Xi Jinping's control over officials and wealth.
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Today let's talk about someone, a person who is the former director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, Cai Fuchao. Cai Fuchao, “Fuchao” literally means rushing to Korea. Cai Fuchao was born in 1951, exactly in the year his father went to Korea, so his name probably bears this historical trace, named Cai Fuchao. His father used to be an official, and online sources say he was formerly a literary official.
Cai Fuchao grew up in Beijing, presumably growing up in a government compound. He is about two years older than Xi Jinping. Beijing didn't have as many people back then; it was mainly the old city area without skyscrapers, consisting of quadrangle courtyards and old houses, with rural houses in the outer areas. Later, Beijing became a gathering place for northern migrants, with a large number of people moving to Beijing to make a living.
Living conditions varied greatly between northern and southern China. In the northeast, especially around Heilongjiang, areas are frozen for five, six, or seven months. In winter, people who had no way to make a living would hoard corn, coarse grains, and grains, along with things that don't easily spoil like Chinese cabbage and radishes, storing them in cellars or sometimes directly in frozen areas to survive. It wasn't until winter, spring, and summer passed, and the ice and snow melted, that farming would resume.
Chinese people in the Mao era lived a very primitive life. Since the 1980s, I frequently traveled all over the country. At that time, there were many situations of house speculation across the country. I have mentioned before that I witnessed house speculation in Nanyang, Henan. Driving all the way from Tongbai Mountain toward Shuanghe Oilfield and Xinyang, driving was very difficult back then, and speeds weren't as fast as they are now. The roads were mostly dirt and gravel roads without asphalt, which were very hard on tires. Riding in a car for several hours, you wouldn't even see a tiled house. Occasionally you would see a tiled house with a five-pointed star hanging on it, which was actually a government office, such as a village or township office.
I grew up in Jiangnan, born in Shanghai, with my household registration in Shanghai. Before I could remember things as a child, I was sent back to my hometown. When I started having memories in the early 1970s, I saw thatched houses. There were thatched houses in Jiangnan too, but they were in the fields, used for keeping livestock. At that time, farming households around towns and villages kept cattle, sheep, and pigs. There were also thatched sheds built with grass, with a vat placed underneath and a few pieces of wood laid across the top to serve as a toilet. Jiangnan was relatively prosperous, and no normal person would ever live in a thatched house.
In my hometown, there were many large courtyard houses, and I used to visit the homes of many relatives when I was a child. The houses had multiple courtyards, with a back courtyard at the rear, a stage in the back courtyard, and some single-story rooms behind the stage for the family's servants to live in. When the family encountered weddings or funerals, the hometown had opera troupes that would be invited to perform private shows, lasting for three full days. Shaoxing opera troupes used to go from street to street like this, taking orders specifically, just like today.
Cai Fuchao used to work at the Beijing Daily, having social connections in his family from the past. He started as a worker, later entered the Beijing Daily, and then went on to study journalism at Renmin University. He was already working at the time, being a bit older, belonging to those who studied while working, and later obtained a doctorate in journalism. Many of these officials went up all the way through studying like this. He experienced the reform and opening up all the way, previously working as a news reporter in finance and trade departments. Work like this in Beijing allowed him to get in touch with many officials, and he himself was considered quite capable originally.
His problem was that, according to people in Beijing telling us, he had once publicly mocked Xi Jinping. After Xi Jinping came to power, he tried every means to publish the Collected Works of Xi Jinping. In some circles in Beijing, many people looked down on Xi Jinping, treating him like a fool. Everyone grew up in the compounds, and whose father had a slightly higher rank or who had what it took, these people all knew.
Cai Fuchao was similar to my previously mentioned business partner He Xintong, both being people who looked down on Xi Jinping. I once mentioned that when He Xintong was at the Air China Hotel on Yanggong Causeway in Hangzhou, I joked with him that Xi Jinping was in Zhejiang, and since he was familiar with Xi Jinping, he could go find him. He said he would not go, and did not want to deal with Xi Jinping at all. His language showed extreme contempt for Xi Jinping, in whose eyes Xi Jinping was like a fool.
Xi Jinping was not studious, and later when reading manuscripts, he often misread characters and read them randomly, and moreover, no one was allowed to criticize him. Anyone who criticized him would immediately lose their official hat or even be sent to prison. Cai Fuchao and people of this sort were all in propaganda. He was originally the director of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and also at the rank of deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee.
My friend He Xintong was also not low in rank. In the mid-1980s, he had been the deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and later went to Beijing to do United Front work, with a rank possibly even higher than Cai Fuchao's. The common characteristic of these people was that they looked down on Xi Jinping, who got up through his father, believing that Xi Jinping had no real ability and only liked to scheme against people.
Within the internal circles of the Communist Party, people used to leave each other a way out, relying on connections, and many people were victims of the Mao era. Xi Jinping, however, brought back that whole set from the Mao era. When Cai Fuchao served as the director of the SARFT, he reached this position through normal procedures, which did not have much to do with Xi Jinping. After Xi Jinping came to power, he had already reached this rank.
Cai Fuchao stepped down in 2016, dismissed about ten years ago at the age of around 65. After stepping down, Xi Jinping still did not let him go. He had mocked Xi Jinping internally within SARFT and failed to control his mouth. People often talked about Xi Jinping when chatting, and his meaning was that Xi Jinping's level was really too poor, and the things he wrote were very close to Mao's ideology, so he mocked Xi Jinping during meetings and ordinary interactions.
Does everyone remember Bi Fujian? Bi Fujian was a television host for China Central Television. He once mocked and cursed Mao Zedong over a dinner table, cursing very harshly. After that video was recorded, he was taken down instantly, and later even lost his salary, only able to do some grassroots work, disappearing for a period of time. It was not until the emergence of self-media and the internet that he appeared again in some self-media lenses.
There are many informants within the CCP. Cai Fuchao was actually informed on by someone, just like Bi Fujian. After Xi Jinping came to power, he planted his own informants in all aspects. There are many people in China who sell out others for their own benefit. You might say something in a certain place, and someone who hears it reports it upward. Once the report goes up, the leader rewards him or even promotes him.
Cai Fuchao was such a sacrificial lamb, eventually becoming a stepping stone for others. He had worked in news media and SARFT, and within the CCP officialdom, everyone had connections and also had to do with money. Now Cai Fuchao was taken down all of a sudden, which is a big event because his rank is not low.
As I said before, the deputy head of the Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee fled outward. As long as Xi Jinping is still in power, officials from the Deng era, Jiang era, and Hu era will be taken down one after another in the future. Regardless of your relationship with Xi Jinping, whether you are his team or not, what he is carrying out now is a massive purge, involving everyone.
This is just like the days of attacking, robbing, and killing landlords, or killing capitalists; they want to wipe them all out. What Xi Jinping is doing now is purging the propertied class. Arresting people now is not just about anti-corruption; it is a political task under Xi Jinping's political system, called a 'Great Purge,' just like the Great Purges in the former Soviet Union and the Mao era. The Cultural Revolution was also a Great Purge, involving almost every official.
Xi Jinping now wants to wipe out all the wealthy classes, as well as the veterans left over from other eras. This is his political mission, not just because you have money at home. Having money is only one reason; more importantly, after wiping all these people out, no one will dare to speak against him, and everyone will be replaced by his own people.
Who is he preparing for by doing all this? He is preparing for his daughter to take power in the future. This is inevitable. I said many years ago that as long as Xi Jinping takes power, there will be massive arrests. Government data says that in 2025, over one million officials were arrested—maybe 1.01 million or so—with nearly two million officials actually being processed. There will be even more in 2026; large-scale arrests are happening right now.
When we watch the news, we often see 'six tigers' or several tigers being taken down in a single day. So-called 'tigers' are officials above a certain level, usually provincial or ministerial level, deputy ministerial level, or bureau level—only officials at a certain level are called 'tigers.' Therefore, everyone is in danger now.
The anti-Xi forces are currently in a state where almost all officials have become potential anti-Xi forces, and everyone is waiting for something to happen to Xi Jinping. If something were to suddenly happen to Xi Jinping, firecrackers would go off across the country; the whole nation would set off fireworks and dance, just like during the Lunar New Year. Because once something happens to Xi Jinping, everyone will be safe. Right now, no one in the entire system is safe.
In the past, the CCP would let you off the hook because everyone had connections with each other. Now, in the Xi Jinping era, money is handed over to the state treasury, and the so-called state treasury is the family treasury—the family treasury is the Xi family's treasury. Because no one dares to touch this money, and only the Xi family can touch it, it has become his family treasury.
This is the current reality of the CCP. Xi Jinping is facing significant resistance. If he were not in danger and had never been attacked, he wouldn't need thousands of people to protect him.
In 2018, I heard a story from a CCP official in Shanghai, an official in the security department, that sounded unbelievable. When Xi Jinping went to Shanghai, there were actually 3,000 people from the Central Security Bureau protecting him. Shanghai has many high-rise buildings; assuming that high-rises within a 1,000-meter radius of the road were within shooting range, then almost every window in every high-rise, and every place from which his route could be seen, was guarded by someone.
At that time, the local Shanghai government was in charge of this. For anyone who had been dissatisfied with the CCP in the past, a large group of people might have been arranged to wait at their homes. Xi Jinping's motorcade could be seen from far away, and the high-rises were full of CCP and local cadres escorting him. They were terrified that someone might attack Xi Jinping, which shows that Xi Jinping is panicked to this extent. The constitution had already been amended by then; Xi Jinping went to Shanghai after the constitutional amendment.
People like Cai Fuchao, and many other CCP officials who fled abroad after stepping down in 2016—many officials run away after retirement because they are afraid of Xi Jinping's constant arrests. On the surface, retired officials can dance in public squares, have a monthly income of tens of thousands, and enjoy various benefits.
I have a friend at the division level who has a monthly income of over 10,000 yuan after retirement, plus other benefits. Above the division level are the bureau level, deputy bureau level, and full bureau level, and above that are deputy ministerial levels; these people's pensions amount to hundreds of thousands a year, and their benefits are quite good. But these people will all be stripped of their assets in the future. Xi Jinping has no personal connection to them; he believes the money given to you is his money, so he wants to strip it away.
This is also a form of retribution. If you follow the Communist Party, this is the final result. It was the same in the Mao era; officials were all dealt with. The system Xi Jinping is running is actually the same as the Cultural Revolution, only as I once said, this is a 'hidden Cultural Revolution,' boiling a frog in warm water—boiling it slowly, not launching it all at once like the Cultural Revolution, but arresting people one by one in the name of anti-corruption.
Now, many retired officials in China do not have passports and cannot run away. Retired officials must hand over their passports; if you are unwilling to hand them over, the Discipline Inspection Commission will come for you immediately and take you away directly. These people are locked in the cage of the Communist Party.
Within Xi Jinping's current system, ordinary people are relatively more relaxed. For example, as an ordinary citizen, I have a passport and can run around everywhere; I don't need a visa to go to Southeast Asia, I can get a visa on arrival. But CCP officials absolutely cannot. Even if they were once division-level or section-level cadres, they are still under control.
Especially in Shanghai, retired officials may only be allowed to go abroad once a year, and they must report it in advance. Even for post-retirement travel, they must report ahead of time and undergo review to see if there is any possibility of them fleeing. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a blacklist of who is considered a dangerous person and cannot go abroad; this was told to me by a former deputy minister of the Organization Department. Some officials can go out once a year, but it must be reported for approval, and they can only leave the country after being approved by their superiors.
Therefore, people like Cai Fuchao will continue to appear one after another. Inside the Communist Party, it is just you fighting me and me fighting you; in the end, we will see to what extent they will fight.