Official Announcement! Xi Jinping purges former Commander of the People's Armed Police Wang Ning.
Hu Liren discusses the arrest of former People's Armed Police (PAP) Commander Wang Ning and the official announcement of his downfall. He introduces Wang Ning's military family background, the experiences of his father-in-law Du Ping and his uncle Gu Hui, as well as his transfer from the Nanjing Military Region to become the PAP Commander and his subsequent entry into the CPPCC after retirement. The program also alleges that Wang Ning was involved in the illegal sale of military supplies and the buying and selling of military ranks, and discusses Xi Jinping's approach to purging military networks.
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I would like to inform you about something. This person was the former commander of the People's Armed Police. After the military reform in 2018, the PAP was placed under the Central Military Commission, meaning it became part of the military, though it remains an independent system, with control resting with the Central Military Commission. This person is the former PAP Commander, Wang Ning.
Wang Ning's background is very complex; he is a standard second-generation military official with many connections to various factions. His father-in-law was named Du Ping, who participated in the Long March and reportedly joined the Party in 1930. Wang Ning is about two years younger than Xi Jinping, making him roughly 71 or 72 years old this year. He has been in the military his whole life and participated in the Vietnam War when he was young, just like Zhang Youxia. At that time, he was still young and his rank was not high.
Wang Ning's uncle was named Gu Hui, who previously served as the commander of the Nanjing Military Region, reportedly from 1990 to 1996. Wang Ning grew up in a military compound and had a very close relationship with his uncle; their relationship was like that of a son and father. I have mentioned before that I used to be familiar with many second-generation military officials in Beijing, and they all had various connections; Wang Ning is a very standard example.
His uncle was from Liaoning, joined the army in 1947, and participated in the Chinese Civil War, also known as the War of Liberation. He came from the north and was likely part of the Fourth Field Army, a subordinate of Lin Biao. After fighting his way through, he rose to high office. Before the Reform and Opening-up and during the Vietnam War, his rank was roughly at the deputy-corps to corps level; he was a senior commander. When people from the Nanjing Military Region went to participate in the war, he led a unit there; it seems he was the one who led the troops from the Nanjing Military Region at that time.
After the Vietnam War ended, his uncle was promoted and remained in the Nanjing Military Region, serving as deputy commander before being promoted to commander in the 1990s. His uncle has now passed away. As for Wang Ning's arrest this time, his father-in-law was even more formidable; his father-in-law was Du Ping.
Du Ping is from Jiangxi. Jiangxi used to be mountainous, and in the past, there were both Red Army troops and bandits. People like Fang Zhimin, various factions were not necessarily the same unit, but they existed in various parts of Jiangxi. Among those the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recruited at the time, Du Ping was one of them, and he was a veteran. He participated in the Korean War as a volunteer, served as the director of the Political Department, and should have been very familiar with the systems of the Korean War at that time.
Let's sort this out: Wang Ning, who was arrested this time, was originally a high-ranking official in the Nanjing Military Region and was later transferred to Beijing, which should be related to his connection with Du Ping. Du Ping was a veteran cadre who participated in the Long March and was definitely a senior figure in the CCP's military and political systems, unmatched by ordinary people. Many of those who participated in the Long March were untouchable later on, like giant pandas. Xi Jinping is still talking about the Long March this time, and Du Ping has another point: he had a certain relationship with Xi Zhongxun.
Du Ping participated in the Long March. Xi Zhongxun was in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, waiting for the various units of the Long March to arrive. He himself was a Northwesterner and one of the founders who established the base area. He waited for the various units of the Long March, which eventually converged. In fact, it was the CCP fleeing, running away to fight the War of Resistance; they couldn't beat the Kuomintang, so they ran to the west and didn't really participate in fighting the Japanese. Du Ping arrived in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, participated in some political work at the time, and had interactions with Xi Zhongxun.
Xi Jinping and Wang Ning are about the same age, with only a two-year difference. After Xi Jinping took office in 2013, he directly promoted Wang Ning by one level to the position of Commander of the People's Armed Police. This position was very significant; Wang Ning was then the Deputy Chief of the General Staff and was later promoted to the position of Commander of the People's Armed Police. After the military reform in 2018, the People's Armed Police system was fully integrated into the military system, and Wang Ning was later retired, effectively laid off, and subsequently went to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) as a member of the CPPCC Political Bureau.
Wang Ning's incident did not just happen now; it was only officially announced now. He actually got into trouble in the first half of 2026, when he was arrested while attending the Two Sessions. He had been living in Nanjing and was unwilling to stay in Beijing. When the Two Sessions were about to open, he went to Beijing as a delegate and was arrested immediately upon arrival. After being caught, he was removed and locked up; the nature of the case is similar to that of Zhang Youxia.
Wang Ning has a connection with Xi Jinping because his father and father-in-law had an excellent relationship. They had several years of work interaction in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which was a superior-subordinate relationship. Xi Zhongxun's rank was higher than Du Ping's, but not by much. Du Ping was a founding lieutenant general; there were over two hundred founding lieutenant generals, and they were one of the hundreds of families that controlled China under the CCP. Du Ping was a veteran, and his son-in-law is Wang Ning.
As far as I know, Wang Ning was very obedient to Xi Jinping at the time. These military people are often used to acting recklessly in the military; their power is too great, and the local systems have no way to control them. People like Wang Ning were absolutely the kings of the Nanjing Military Region and could do anything. Later, when he went to Beijing, although his rank was higher, he was relatively more restrained. He was very powerful in Nanjing and was the king of kings in the Nanjing Military Region. His uncle was once the commander of the Nanjing Military Region; you can imagine what his rank was in 1990.
Wang Ning was also involved in another matter: he had a business experience in the 1980s. At that time, they were reselling military supplies, which might be part of what Xi Jinping is convicting him for now. In the 1980s, many people couldn't get supplies, but military personnel could easily get them. At that time, ordinary people had nothing to eat or drink, no supplies, and no cotton clothes to wear. These people from the Nanjing Military Region would go directly to textile mills, cloth factories, or garment factories and say how much military supplies they needed, asking the factories to customize them.
During the planned economy period, many enterprises couldn't even finish the things they were supposed to do. Once there was a need for military supplies, the enterprises would put aside local production and work overtime, rushing to produce them overnight. The so-called military supplies were the things they resold. After getting the goods, they would send them to the rail cars. At that time, rail cars were scarce, and the Railway Bureau controlled them, but the military had its own special trains, and military supplies could be attached to these special trains and shipped directly to Shenzhen or other places. The military's deployment capability at that time was very strong, not just for clothing, but for all kinds of things.
These officials and the 'red second generation' (children of high-ranking officials) made a fortune in the 1980s and 1990s. When the common people were suffering the most, even to the point of selling their children, they were raking in money. In the 80s and 90s, after they had made their money, while ordinary people were still talking about families having ten thousand yuan, they already had millions or tens of millions. This was one way they got rich. The second way was using money to bribe senior leaders above them, allowing those leaders to sell them official positions. Du Ping was his father-in-law, and Gu Hui was his uncle, which is why he could buy his way into office.
Once he reached a certain level himself, he also started selling positions. On one hand, he was sending millions upward, and on the other, he was collecting millions from below. If you wanted to be a chief of staff, a regimental commander, a battalion commander, or a division commander, he would sell it to you. To what extent is the CCP's military corrupt? As long as you want to join the Party, you can buy it; you have to spend money. For ordinary soldiers, commoners, and children of farmers, the only requirement for joining the army is to have their children serve as conscripts for a few years, and then find a way to secure Party membership.
It is completely impossible for a farmer's child to become a Party member because they are not within the government system. So, they spend money to give gifts to officials in the local Armed Forces Department, and then send their children to join the army. Once in the military, they also know that it is a peaceful world now and there is no war. Twenty or thirty years ago, you could buy an official position for 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and you could also buy Party membership. For the children of ordinary people, the only requirement for joining the army is to obtain CCP membership.
After buying Party membership and returning to their hometown, the Armed Forces Department would assign them a job. Those without connections would go home to farm, or after the Reform and Opening-up, leave their hometowns to work in the south or coastal areas. Those with connections would spend a little more money, and parents who were relatively well-off would find their children a position as a clerk in the village or township, which is equivalent to half a civil servant. Once inside, they are Party members and have capital, so they slowly climb up within this system.
The wealthier the family, the easier it is to climb the ranks. For example, if your father is a township entrepreneur, it's different. Many entrepreneurs I am familiar with in China find it normal to have an average daily entertainment expense of 10,000 yuan, which is over 3 million a year. They spend at least one-third or one-fourth of their company's annual profits on public relations. If a person spends over 3 million a year on public relations, their annual profit is probably over 10 million; that's about how it is.
Therefore, the CCP system is extremely corrupt. Wang Ning being arrested is likely well-deserved. But once someone like him is arrested, the entire system might be implicated. That's how the CCP is; Xi Jinping can arrest you, or he can choose not to. Now Xi Jinping calls it a 'purge,' and I mentioned a couple of days ago that he will purge everyone. The more complex and extensive your social connections and internal CCP networks are, the more he wants to arrest you.
This has nothing to do with his personal relationship with you. Look, Wang Ning's personal relationship with him should have been quite good; their fathers had interactions and were family friends in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. When Wang Ning was promoted, I estimate that people from the Xi family put in a good word. When people from the Xi family went to Nanjing or the East China region, they definitely had to look for people in the military. Who would they look for? They would look for people like Wang Ning. They were family friends, yet in the end, he was still taken down.
Once Wang Ning went in, he lost everything. Now, these are the people Xi Jinping is facing. In Wang Ning's background, his father-in-law was a Red Army cadre who participated in the Long March, which is completely different; and his uncle, who was like a father to him, was the former commander of the Nanjing Military Region, participated in the Vietnam War, and was a corps-level cadre during the war. The Vietnam War was in 1979, and by 1990, his uncle became the commander of the Nanjing Military Region. There are many such people in the system.
The only two layers of Wang Ning's connections I know of are these. Wang Ning's extended family members are likely all related to the internal affairs of the CCP. They are often like this: I work in the military, and our social, family, and clan connections are all within the military.
This time, Xi Jinping is going to make a big move and use force again. Once he uses force, the other side will resist. Wang Ning didn't have the foresight. I think these people should be clear about this; it would have been better to realize it early and run early. Now they can't even run, and he has directly harmed so many people, ruining all his subordinates. Once Wang Ning went in, the entire Nanjing Military Region had to be shaken up. The military discipline inspection committee will go directly to these people and arrest them.
I estimate that Wang Ning was arrested during the Two Sessions in the first half of this year. From his arrest until now, his downfall has been officially announced. The authorities made the official announcement on the 4th, which was yesterday. In fact, his subordinates, criminal associates, and family members should all have been arrested by now.