The Entire 20th Party Congress Standing Committee Wiped Out! Hu Chunhua Vows to Reverse the Verdict, the Highest-Level Mole in Zhongnanhai Has Confessed. Wen Jiabao Grabs Xi Yuanping and Qi Qiaoqiao's Fatal Weakness! 20 Days of Mysterious Disappearance, Old Xi and Cai Qi Completely Out of Contact. One Sentence from Han Zheng Brings Catastrophe! [Jiang Feng's World 20261016 Episode 515]

The program analyzes political turbulence surrounding the Standing Committee members of the 20th CCP National Congress following the health conference, pointing out that a liquidation team led by Hu Chunhua and Wen Jiabao is conducting a political purge by summoning former Standing Committee members such as Wang Huning, Li Xi, and Han Zheng for questioning. Meanwhile, the program reveals in detail the political and commercial dark secrets behind the downfall of former Chongqing Mayor Huang Qifan, involving an Australian iron ore project and profit transfers between Southwest Securities and the families of Xi and Wu Bangguo, while exploring the reformers' intent to purge the line of Cultural Revolution restoration and restructure the National People's Congress at the Fifth Plenum.

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Hello friends, welcome to Jiang Feng Vision. The Politburo Standing Committee members elected at the 20th National Congress have been wiped out over the past few days. On October 12 and 13, the National Health Conference convened again after a decade. This was originally Premier Li Qiang's job, but strangely enough, all seven Standing Committee members sat neatly on the rostrum without missing a single one. As the camera panned over, Old Xi's face was frightfully swollen, his eyes almost narrowed into slits. In the 20 days since returning from the United States, Old Xi and Cai Qi made only three public appearances in total, with this conference alone accounting for two days. But completely unexpectedly, this conference meant to boost the morale of Old Xi's clique ultimately turned into a farewell dinner for the 20th Standing Committee team. As soon as the meeting ended, the temporary liquidation team targeting Old Xi's clique led by Hu Chunhua flexed its muscles, striking with thunderous measures directly against Wang Huning and Li Xi. The next day, these two were summoned for questioning by Liu Jinguo of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, and Ding Xuexiang are queuing up waiting to be interrogated. Look at this famous scene unseen in Zhongnanhai for decades: Li Xi, who was summoned for questioning by the CCDI, is a national-level Politburo Standing Committee member; Liu Jinguo, who interrogated him, was suppressed firmly by Old Xi at the 20th Congress and was not even allowed to enter the doors of the Politburo. Why does a deputy dare to interrogate a top leader at the national level? Because Hu Jintao didn't trust Li Xi, while Liu Jinguo, who spent his whole life fighting through police and discipline inspection systems, clicked best with Hu Jintao's temperament and became a living King of Hell in the hands of the decision-making and coordinating bodies. Today's Liu Jinguo also has the backing of the temporary liquidation team for Old Xi's clique behind him, with Hu Chunhua as the team leader. This team provides case files for the Fifth Plenum, having preliminary compiled the "Seven Deadly Sins" of Old Xi, preparing to bring them to the Fifth Plenum for discussion and voting by around 200 Central Committee members. Which of the Standing Committee members questioned by Liu Jinguo in this round isn't tainted by these seven items? Why do Hu Chunhua and Wen Jiabao dare to summon 20th Standing Committee members for questioning? Because just a few days ago, the highest-level financial mole in Zhongnanhai confessed. As soon as he opened his mouth, the fatal vulnerability of Xi Yuanping and Qi Qiaoqiao fell right into Wen Jiabao's hands.

In Hu Chunhua's eyes, Wang Huning is the ultimate culprit behind Old Xi's dictatorship. Had Wang not designed ideological concepts like the great rejuvenation and the east-is-rising-and-west-is-declining for Old Xi, Old Xi would never have come up with such a scheme on his own. Not to mention, when Hu Jintao was escorted out of the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress, it was Wang Huning who pulled and tugged at Li Zhanshu nearby. Wang Huning is, of course, well aware of this matter. Over the past two years, he has constantly tried to distance himself from Old Xi. He even claimed that the reports of the 19th and 20th National Congresses—which effusively praised Old Xi—were spearheaded by Jiang Jinquan, thus shifting all responsibility for fueling Old Xi's cult of personality entirely away from himself. As a result, rumors circulated in May that Jiang Jinquan had been taken away by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and has not been seen since. As for the realm of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Wang also ceded territory to Hu Chunhua and Shi Taifeng, all in an effort to land safely at the 21st National Congress. Yet, as ill luck would have it, Huang Qifan was placed under investigation on October 13, and by the morning of the 14th, it was Wang Huning's turn to be interrogated. He must have been implicated. Bear in mind that Wang Huning spent over twenty years in Shanghai, rising all the way up from Fudan University, while Huang Qifan also worked in Shanghai for thirty-three years. Hu Chunhua knows what he is doing; summoning Wang Huning for questioning is also a message intended for the members of the Central Committee. For someone at the Standing Committee level, case files are already sitting ready and waiting. For you as a Central Committee member, isn't the evidence already more than enough?

As for Li Xi, what is his issue? It was he who, back in the day, orchestrated the peasants of Liangjiahe to write sycophantic letters of praise to Old Xi. Relying solely on this, he was promoted all the way to Politburo Standing Committee member—he is someone personally elevated by Old Xi. Later, when the political winds changed, Li Xi changed right along with them. At a Politburo meeting in November last year, Li Xi announced on the spot the decision to place Ma Xingrui under incommunicado detention, submitting a pledge of allegiance to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, because Old Xi had made a self-criticism at the Fourth Plenary Session. However, after Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli met with misfortune on January 20, Li Xi was scared out of his wits. When Liu Jinguo went to ask him how the decision to arrest Zhang Youxia was made, he could not explain a single thing clearly. He simply waited and watched until the Two Sessions concluded in March, and upon realizing that Old Xi could not regain control of the military, he finally began letting the CCDI function normally. On September 21, when the Politburo expelled Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli from the Party and the military, Li Xi also raised his hand in favor. For people like Li Xi who simply sway wherever the wind blows, the Central Committee members must also be taught a lesson. We have everyone's case files on hand, let alone you small fry at the lower levels. These past twenty days, the CCDI has been exceptionally busy, yet on CCTV's Xinwen Lianbo, Li Xi has not had a single public activity of his own; instead, as the CCDI secretary, he actually ended up sitting in the position of someone being interrogated.

The person interrogated before these two was Han Zheng. Although Han stepped down from his position on the Standing Committee at the 10th National Congress and was given the ceremonial post of Vice President, he was still awkwardly tacked on behind the seven Standing Committee members on several critical occasions, such as the July 1st anniversary rally and the flower-basket offering at Tiananmen Square on September 30. That could still be considered normal—Wang Qishan spent his years as Vice President the same way. What was not normal, however, was that emergency closed-door meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee on January 20, which he attended. Right after Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were seized, Old Xi immediately convened a meeting in a small conference room at the Central Party School. At the meeting, Cai Qi announced that Zhang Youxia had colluded with foreign forces. The five individuals—Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Ding Xuexiang, and Li Xi—were struck with terror and paralyzed, none of them daring to express a stance. Yet it was precisely Han Zheng who stood up to support Cai Qi, declaring that before the situation was fully investigated, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli must not be allowed to pull a Lin Biao-style defection. Put bluntly, Han Zheng was simply called in by Old Xi to back him up. The relationship between these two is extraordinary. When Chen Liangyu fell in 2007, Old Xi went to Shanghai to serve as municipal party secretary for seven months, and the mayor of Shanghai at that time was Han Zheng. During those months of working as a team, Han Zheng stood firmly on the side of Hu and Wen's central leadership, helping Old Xi stabilize Shanghai. In 2017, Old Xi promoted Han Zheng into the Standing Committee as Executive Vice Premier. When Han reached retirement age in 2022, Old Xi gave him the post of Vice President—treatment that was given in the previous term to Wang Qishan, the person Old Xi trusted most. Han Zheng had also previously backed Old Xi up: at the 19th National Congress in 2017, when Old Xi wanted to remove term limits, it was Han Zheng who was dispatched to persuade Jiang Zemin by claiming that Old Xi had no intention of ruling indefinitely. Looking at Han Zheng's past actions, do you think the provisional cleanup team led by Hu Chunhua would spare Han Zheng from liquidation? Just as Huang Qifan's scandal broke, Han Zheng had served as mayor and party secretary in Shanghai, and Huang Qifan was present throughout all those years in Shanghai. The latest overseas exposés even indicate that the business ventures of Huang Qifan's son, Huang Ranfei, are linked to Han Zheng's family. Therefore, Liu Jinguo's faction targeted him first in this round. This interrogation serves as a warning for the two hundred or so Central Committee members: if someone who once served as a Standing Committee member and still sits in the seat of the Vice President can be hauled in for questioning the moment they are summoned, you people at the bottom better weigh yourselves carefully. These three individuals share yet another commonality: all of them emerged from Shanghai. Huang Qifan is no exception.

Bloggers inside the Great Firewall have long pointed out that if Hu Chunhua insists on a reckoning, it will reach Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi, Han Zheng, and others. The three questioned in this round are all on this list, leaving only Zhao Leji and Ding Xuexiang, plus Li Qiang. These are all members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conservative faction within the Politburo Standing Committee.

Let's start with Zhao Leji, Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee and the conservative faction's number-one figure in this term. During the Two Sessions in March and the NPC Standing Committee meeting in June, Zhao Leji refused on both occasions to strip Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli of their status as NPC deputies, which amounted to refusing to acknowledge the charges Old Xi pinned on Zhang Youxia. This was opposing Old Xi—no question about that. But on August 28, the NPC Standing Committee suddenly pushed it all through in one go, stripping Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli of their Central Military Commission posts and terminating their qualifications as NPC deputies, without beforehand notifying the decision-making, deliberation, and coordination body headed by Wen Jiabao. Zhao Leji's subsequent explanation was that if this case were pursued any further, it would lead directly to Old Xi himself, which could only tear the Party apart, so it had to stop right there. The trouble lies precisely here: with Zhang Youxia's case, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao intend to rehabilitate him, and the military does not accept the verdict either.

Then there is Ding Xuexiang. He served as Old Xi's Secretary-General in Shanghai and later as Old Xi's Director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee. Hailing from the Shanghai Gang, he was once the successor pushed forward last year by the CCP conservative faction, but he met with fierce opposition from Zhang Youxia and Wen Jiabao. In March this year, the red princeling families rejected him as well. In August at Beidaihe, Zeng Qinghong went so far as to warn him to recognize the reality of the situation and stop following Old Xi down a dead end. In June, Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Yujian—whom Ding Xuexiang had hand-picked and promoted—fell from grace; this was Wen Jiabao dredging up the old accounts of the Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, pointing the spearhead straight at Little Ding. Last year's crown prince has been entirely marginalized this year; across these past twenty days on Xinwen Lianbo, he has only had a single solo public appearance.

Lastly, there is Li Qiang. As the Premier and the number-two figure, he acts flexibly and is a true fence-sitter. He skipped visiting disaster sites and canceled the Premier's press conference out of fear of stealing Old Xi's limelight. Yet as soon as the wind changed direction, he abandoned Old Xi even faster than the shrewd and calculating Wang Huning. Among the State Council personnel appointments and dismissals in recent months, every single official removed belonged to Old Xi's camp. Over these past twenty days, he has been the busiest among the seven Standing Committee members: delivering the concluding remarks at the health conference, traveling to Guangzhou for the Canton Fair to meet foreign dignitaries, and heading abroad on the 17th to visit Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Russia, only returning four days before the Fifth Plenum opens. Rumors have also circulated abroad suggesting that Li Qiang might take over as General Secretary, which were leaks put out by Old Xi's camp.

Among these three men: one personally signed off on the dismissal of Zhang Youxia, one was Old Xi's chief housekeeper at the General Office, and one is the lead lieutenant of Old Xi's Zhejiang Gang. Whether they will face a reckoning ultimately depends on which side they choose to stand on.

Moreover, Hu and Wen are not just striking at the Standing Committee members this time; they also intend to target Old Xi's line of Cultural Revolution restoration—the very type that Wen Jiabao hated the most, whose previous representative figure was Bo Xilai. Therefore, targeting Huang Qifan is not only for votes at the Fifth Plenary Session to deter CCP conservatives, but also to lay the groundwork for a future reckoning against the Cultural Revolution line. One of the key factors here is the National People's Congress (NPC). Before 1998, the Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee was Wan Li and then Qiao Shi, meaning legislative power was in the hands of the reformists. In April 1992, when the NPC voted on the Three Gorges Project, out of 2,633 delegates, only 1,767 voted in favor, with 177 against, 664 abstaining, and 25 simply refusing to press the voting button. Normally, votes at the NPC saw opposing votes only in single or double digits; this time, over 800 delegates refused to approve. Up until that point, such a thing had never happened in the history of the NPC. Wan Li was succeeded by Qiao Shi. During the five years he served as Chairman, catch-all offenses like counter-revolutionary crimes, hooliganism, and speculation/profiteering were all abolished. In 1996, Qiao Shi spoke at the NPC session about governing the country according to law, emphasizing that Party organizations at all levels must operate within the scope of the Constitution and the law, and that no organization or individual may stand above the Constitution and the law. However, at that time, conservatives within the CCP held the upper hand in numbers, and by 1998, they stubbornly pushed Li Peng into the position of NPC Chairman. Back in 1989, 57 members of the NPC Standing Committee had jointly signed a petition demanding to deliberate Li Peng's martial law decree at an NPC Standing Committee meeting. In the eyes of the conservatives, this was a matter of life and death: the door of the NPC could actually be used to dismantle them. Therefore, after Qiao Shi stepped down, they had Li Peng—the very man who had issued the martial law decree back then—personally take the seat of NPC Chairman. From then until now, the NPC has always been tightly controlled by CCP conservatives, which is why political reform has never been realized. After Li Peng came Wu Bangguo, who served for ten whole years. In 2011, Wu Bangguo proclaimed the "Five No's" at the NPC session: no multi-party rotation in power, no diversification of guiding ideologies, no separation of powers or bicameralism, no federal system, and no privatization. Wen Jiabao was premier for ten years and called for political structural reform for ten years, yet it was Wu Bangguo who used the gate of the NPC to block it outside. And this Wu Bangguo was precisely Huang Qifan's patron; he transferred Huang Qifan from Shanghai to Chongqing. When Bo Xilai fell in 2012, Mayor Huang Qifan was completely unscathed and continued serving as mayor, entirely relying on Wu Bangguo as his patron. After Bo Xilai, the Party Secretary of Chongqing was Zhang Dejiang, while the mayor remained Huang Qifan. Later, this Zhang Dejiang became NPC Chairman, and in 2017 he brought Huang Qifan into the National People's Congress as the Vice Chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee. And what did this Zhang Dejiang do during his tenure at the NPC? In March 2018, when the NPC amended the Constitution to remove term limits for the state president, he was the one who did it. Moreover, Zhang Dejiang particularly admired North Korea's centralized system. Therefore, this time he is also one of the targets the reformists seek to purge. The NPC Chairman after that was Li Zhanshu—the fellow who prevented Hu Jintao from looking at the list at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress. Old Xi consistently used him to deceive Hu Jintao regarding matters of the 20th National Congress. If you line up this series of names—Li Peng, Wu Bangguo, Zhang Dejiang, Li Zhanshu, Zhao Leji—five chairmen over twenty-eight years, every single one of them a CCP conservative leftist. The NPC is usually a rubber stamp where everyone just raises their hands, but when it comes time for leadership transitions, what counts as lawful is ultimately decided by the NPC. Down the road, if term limits are to be restored, if Zhang Youxia is to be rehabilitated, and if a state president is to be legally replaced, every single one of these actions must pass through the gate of the NPC. Therefore, targeting Huang Qifan reminds us of Wu Bangguo behind him and several generations of NPC chairmen; it also tells us that the reformists want to reclaim legislative power in the NPC. Back during the days of Wan Li and Qiao Shi, the NPC dared to cast opposing votes and dared not to raise hands. Twenty-eight years later, the reformists still want to restore such an NPC. For a mayor like Huang Qifan, writing a single letter could make major central state-owned enterprises yield to him—on what grounds? We will delve into that shortly.

First, let's chat a bit about everyday matters. Once October arrives, mornings and evenings cool down quickly. After being busy all day, having to stare at the phone at night following these updates easily tires a person out, and the eyes suffer the most. Jiang Feng's own shop, Jiang Feng Selection, has two items that are just right. One is the Black Herbal Paste Capsules (Seven Herbal Ingredients), three pills at a time, to replenish energy and sustain stamina, suitable for friends who often feel drained and struggle to recover when fatigued. To thank friends for their support, the price for friends is $179 per bottle; buying three bottles at once is $498, coming out to $166 per bottle, plus a complimentary box of German vitamins. The other item is the cooling eye compress for eye health; applying it before sleep gives a refreshing, cool feel around the eyes, soothing much of the dryness and strain from looking at screens all day. A ten-day supply per box costs less than $30. The store also features sleep aid capsules and Italian coffee beans. Click into the Jiang Feng Selection link in the pinned comment below the video to browse at your leisure. The eye compresses should not be used by pregnant women; friends who are pregnant or taking long-term medication should consult a doctor before taking health supplements. All right, back to the main topic—let's continue discussing Huang Qifan.

Using state funds to launder money for the powerful families behind the scenes—let's start with a mine. There is an iron ore mine in Western Australia called the Istansin Iron Mine. In 2009, the central government's China Minmetals Corporation was in negotiations. According to the rules, when the 'national team' steps in, local entities should step aside. However, Chongqing Mayor Huang Qifan specifically wrote a letter to the head of Minmetals, and Chongqing Iron & Steel (CIS) paid Minmetals 5 million yuan as a 'right-of-way' fee, allowing Chongqing Iron & Steel to take over the negotiations. Later, Chongqing Iron & Steel spent over 1.7 billion yuan to buy a 60% stake in the mine, only to turn around and lend over 1 billion yuan to the merchant selling the mine, Zhang Chi. The money was withdrawn the same day without a single cent of interest paid. To this day, the mine has never been opened. In 2017, Chongqing Iron & Steel went through bankruptcy reorganization, and 2.7 billion yuan of state money went down the drain. This money came from Chongqing; whoever provides the money calls the shots. Before the money was even transferred, it had already been decided who would get it and how it would be spent. Zhang Chi took over 1 billion yuan without paying interest; anyone else would have been pursued to the death, yet Chongqing only filed a civil lawsuit against him in Hong Kong, which has been dragging on from 2015 to the present. Last year, he was still appealing and living comfortably. A businessman who swallowed over 1 billion yuan of state funds remains safe and sound to this day, which suggests that those who were supposed to get the money have already received it. The intermediary who connected Chongqing was Morgan Stanley, and Huang Qifan's son, Huang Ranfei, happened to join Morgan Stanley Hong Kong in 2010—the same year Chongqing signed the contract and paid the money. Hong Kong's Ming Pao reported back then that rumors were circulating that Huang Ranfei had intervened in this deal. This month, it was reported again that Huang Qifan's son is in Australia, partnering with Yang Lanlan and others in the iron ore business. Yang Lanlan is the girl who hit someone with a Rolls-Royce in Sydney last year. Bloggers outside the Great Firewall say her family's money comes from iron ore trading, and bloggers inside have also mentioned that most of the iron ore business in Australia requires a cut for Xi Jinping's family. As a mayor, Huang Qifan used a single letter to make a major central state-owned enterprise step aside, and no one was held accountable for the 2.7 billion yuan that vanished. When Bo Xilai fell in 2012 and Wen Jiabao wanted to take Huang down with him, who protected him? The person who could let him act this way and still protect him when things went wrong is because Huang Qifan has two major backers. One is his big boss, Wu Bangguo. In 1983, when Wu Bangguo was a member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, he brought Huang Qifan into his inner circle. In 1993, when Huang Qifan became the deputy director of the Pudong New Area, the following year, Wu Bangguo's younger brother, Wu Bangsheng, registered a company in Pudong called Shanghai Three Gorges Industrial. It operated under the banner of a state-owned enterprise but conducted the Wu family's own business. In 2001, when Huang Qifan was transferred to Chongqing, this Three Gorges Industrial followed him to Chongqing. Many of the new real estate projects in Chongqing had the shadow of the Wu Bangguo family behind them. Wherever Huang Qifan went, the Wu family's business followed. The Xi family also has a clear, documented account with Huang Qifan. In December 2010, Xi Jinping went to Chongqing to watch 'red songs' and visit the anti-organized crime exhibition, accompanied by Bo Xilai and Huang Qifan. Three months later, in March 2011, Chongqing's Southwest Securities suddenly suspended trading and announced it would swallow a Beijing-based brokerage called Guodu Securities. Southwest Securities was controlled by Chongqing Yufu, a wholly-owned company of the Chongqing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission—a platform built by Huang Qifan in Chongqing. Looking at the list of Guodu Securities' shareholders, there is a company called Shenzhen Yuanwei Investment, whose boss is Deng Jiagui, the husband of Xi Jinping's eldest sister. At that time, Guodu Securities was not listed and its shares were hard to sell, while Southwest Securities was a listed company, and its shares could be turned into cash at any time. The plan was to swap Guodu's shares for Southwest Securities' shares. Every 1 yuan of Guodu Securities' shares was valued at 4.3 yuan, but the share swap was calculated at 5 yuan. Xi's brother-in-law's Yuanwei would have received over 46 million shares of Southwest Securities, worth over 500 million yuan at the time. Just by calculating at 5 yuan instead of 4.3 yuan, they gained over 70 million yuan. This was using a listed company controlled by Chongqing's state assets to pave a way for Xi's brother-in-law to cash out his hard-to-sell shares at a high price. If the plan had succeeded, Chongqing state assets' control over Southwest Securities would have dropped from 55% to less than 40%. However, this path was ultimately blocked. In February 2012, Wang Lijun entered the US Consulate, and in March, Bo Xilai was taken down. By August, the plan was announced as terminated. Therefore, this is how the account in Chongqing is kept. The Chongqing Iron & Steel line is just the tip of the iceberg, with many more underlying issues we don't yet know about. Huang Ranfei acted as the intermediary in Hong Kong, and Huang Qifan made the final decision to allocate funds in Chongqing; the money flowed to the Huang family and their bosses behind the scenes. On the brokerage side, Huang Qifan had Chongqing's state assets pave the way for Xi's brother-in-law. Now, Huang Qifan's ledger has fallen into the hands of Wen Jiabao. Wu Bangguo died two years ago, and no one is left to stand up for Huang Qifan. To save his own life, the 74-year-old Huang Qifan will not take the fall for the Xi family. If Xi Jinping refuses to step down, Wen Jiabao can use this mine and this share-swap list to send both Xi's sister and brother to prison.

How this ledger ended up in Wen Jiabao's hands becomes clear when you look at the sequence of arrests made in Chongqing over the past month. On September 12, Xie Wenhui, former chairman of Chongqing Yufu Holding, was put under investigation. As mentioned earlier, Yufu is the holding company of Southwest Securities, which helped facilitate the liquidation of Guodu Securities—a firm partially owned by Old Xi's family. Back when Huang Qifan served in Chongqing, Yufu was precisely the channel he used to raise funds, borrow money, and shuffle assets around. By taking down the person keeping the books first, Huang Qifan's financial ledger landed straight into the hands of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The very next day, on September 13, Tao Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Government General Office, was placed under investigation. On September 18, Mi Benjia, former deputy director of the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission, was investigated. Three weeks later, on October 10, Huang Qifan was detained at Shenzhen Airport, and three days after that, on October 13, the announcement of Old Huang's investigation was made public. On October 14, following Huang Qifan's fall, the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee held a Standing Committee meeting, explicitly demanding to "completely and thoroughly eradicate his lingering toxic influence." Yuan Jiajun, the current Party Secretary of Chongqing, showed no leniency whatsoever. Now that the ledger was secured, did anyone step up to speak for Huang Qifan? Normally, someone should have. The conservative faction holds the largest presence within the CCP, led by Zeng Qinghong. Zeng Qinghong has consistently advocated against reopening old cases; if a wrongdoer is still alive, let him retire normally, and once he passes away, give his family a payout to wipe the slate clean. By his rules, Huang Qifan is 74 years old and has been retired from his post as Chongqing mayor for nearly ten years; he should have been allowed to live out his retirement in peace. But this time, Zeng Qinghong couldn't stop it. Figures like Song Ping and Zhu Rongji held weight that the entire Party had to reckon with whenever they spoke; one passed away before this year's Two Sessions, and the other passed around the time of the Beidaihe meeting in August. Zhang Dejiang, who previously took over Bo Xilai's mess in Chongqing and served as Huang Qifan's superior, is still alive, but even he could not shield Huang Qifan. His own former subordinate was arrested by Wen Jiabao even after being retired for ten years, leaving Zhang Dejiang himself afraid to make any false moves now. Furthermore, Huang Qifan's ledger was opened from Bo Xilai's Chongqing. During the years of "singing Red songs and striking Black mafia," Chongqing's purse strings were held firmly by Huang Qifan. Bo Xilai was long ago sentenced to life imprisonment and remains locked up. Anyone stepping forward to defend Chongqing's rotten accounting would be seen as defending Bo Xilai's agenda. No matter how adept Zeng Qinghong is at smoothing things over, he couldn't open his mouth at a time like this. The person who most wanted to block this was actually Old Xi. Back in 2010, when he visited Chongqing to view the "Sing Red and Strike Black" exhibition, he offered lavish praise all along the way. Now, he too dares not step in to interfere; his predicament is identical to Zeng Qinghong's. With the ledger firmly in Wen Jiabao's hands, Hu Chunhua's strike was laser-focused: first open a ledger that nobody dares to block, and then follow this ledger upward, tracing straight to the families of Wu Bangguo and Old Xi.

When Bo Xilai was sentenced in 2013, the verdict cited bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power; the four words "Sing Red, Strike Black" appeared nowhere on the court judgment. Yet after Old Xi took power at the end of 2012, a nationwide campaign to "sweep away Black forces and eliminate evil" was launched in 2018, which was nothing but the lingering remnants of Bo Xilai's "Sing Red and Strike Black" campaign in Chongqing. "Singing Red" meant bringing Cultural Revolution songs and discourse back to the forefront, while "striking Black" meant using political campaigns to crush people—if they said you were organized crime, you were organized crime, leading to arrests and confiscation of assets. Originally, this was a campaign Bo Xilai used to devastate Chongqing; later, it became a campaign Old Xi used to devastate the entire nation. The Cultural Revolution line simply put on a new set of clothes and made a comeback. Therefore, targeting the former mayor who had managed to stay unscathed in Chongqing is also a move to suppress these lingering Cultural Revolution remnants that pushed for "Singing Red and Striking Black." The CCP once smashed this exact political line before. In February 1980, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee accomplished two major things: first, it rehabilitated Liu Shaoqi, the former State President who was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution and wasn't even allowed to use his real name when cremated—reversing the number one unjust case of the Cultural Revolution; second, it removed Wang Dongxing, Ji Dengkui, Wu De, and Chen Xilian—the four figures surrounding Hua Guofeng—from the Politburo, while Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang entered the Standing Committee. That move effectively dismantled the Cultural Revolution line. Forty-six years later, another Fifth Plenary Session is set to open on October 26. What will Hu Chunhua's stance be? This upcoming Fifth Plenary Session coincides with the third anniversary of Li Keqiang's death. The previous strike targeted Mao Zedong's path; this time, it targets the path that seeks Mao Zedong's restoration. Alright, if you found today's program helpful, please like, subscribe to our channel, turn on the notification bell, and share it with your friends. That's all for today's Jiang Feng Horizon. Thank you for watching, and see you in the next episode.