Xi Jinping to Hand In His Resignation at the Fifth Plenum to Protect Peng Liyuan? Hu Chunhua Enters the CMC, Hu Jintao's 20-Year Ledger Comes Due; If He Doesn't Resign, the Li Keqiang Case Will Be Unsealed — Back in Beijing for 5 Days but Seen Only 1, Wang Xiaohong Can't Hold Up as the Scapegoat [Jiang Feng's Vision 20261002 Episode 503]
This episode analyzes the political maneuvering surrounding the upcoming Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th CCP Central Committee. The core argument is that Xi Jinping, in order to protect his wife Peng Liyuan, may face pressure to resign or push Wang Xiaohong to the forefront to take the blame, while the case of Li Keqiang's death and the incidents involving Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli constitute fatal pressure on Xi Jinping and his wife. At the same time, the program reviews the twenty-year power struggle and strategic layout between the factions of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao and Xi Jinping.
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Hello friends, and welcome to Jiangfeng Vision. Let's put the conclusion right here: the one most afraid of the Fifth Plenary Session is not Old Xi, but Old Xi's wife, the landlady of Zhongnanhai. At last year's Fourth Plenary Session, Zhongnanhai privately settled a non-public secret agreement: Old Xi's title would be hung until the 21st National Congress, specific work as Chairman of the Military Commission would be taken over by Liu Yuan as proxy, General Secretary by Wang Yang as proxy, and Li Keqiang's case would be sealed up, with no one mentioning it again. This secret agreement protected Old Xi's reputation, and even more so, allowed the landlady to withdraw completely unscathed. But in January this year, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli met with misfortune, which was equivalent to Xi Jinping and his wife tearing up the secret agreement themselves. For a full five days after returning from the United States, Old Xi showed his face for only one day, behind closed doors, with the landlady making decisions for him, plotting to retreat to the secret agreement of the Fourth Plenary Session. They wanted to make Wang Xiaohong go out and take the blame, but Wang Xiaohong's side had long been targeted by Wen Jiabao's people. Coincidentally, the dates of the Fifth Plenary Session happen to be right over the third anniversary of Li Keqiang's death, October 27. Before Xi Jinping and his wife, there are only two paths left: either Old Xi submits his resignation himself, or Li Keqiang's case is unsealed. Once the case is unsealed, it will trace back to the behind-the-scenes figures; tracing to the end, with the status of the fifth-generation leader shielding Old Xi's head, a single phrase of "not knowing" could let him off the hook, and the only one left who can shoulder this pot is the landlady. Look at Bo Xilai, who fell from power back then—he was sent to Qincheng Prison because of his wife's affairs. And the landlady's rank of major general happens to be managed by the CCP military, which hates her the most. Hu Jintao, sitting opposite, has been waiting for Old Xi to get into trouble for twenty years. As it happens, half of the blade in Hu Jintao's hand was forced out by the landlady herself. Once the blade is sharpened, the first thing it chops down is the landlady's faction once again.
On the afternoon of Saturday, September 26, Old Xi's private plane landed in Beijing. After this trip to the United States, Old Xi was in a bad mood, his facial expression management was a complete failure, and he basically had to use his wife as a crutch to go up and down the stairs. In the two days after returning, Old Xi did not have a single public activity; the couple was discussing their retreat behind closed doors. The secret agreement from the Fourth Plenary Session last year was to exchange voluntary resignation for safety, but now that they have torn up the secret agreement themselves, the other side may not necessarily accept the position as a trade-off anymore. The only thing left that can be offered for exchange is the people around them. The meaning is simple: investigate up to Wang Xiaohong, at most up to Cai Qi, but do not go any further and do not touch the couple. Zeng Qinghong had already mentioned this path at Beidaihe. As for what the case of Wang Xiaohong and Li Keqiang has to do with each other, there have always been two versions outside the Great Firewall. The first version: in June 2025, an anonymous whistleblower suddenly appeared overseas, describing the process in vivid detail. In the constant-temperature swimming pool of Building 3 at the Shanghai Dongjiao State Guest Hotel, the glass of water drunk before entering the water was spiked with a colorless and odorless drug. A six-person team was involved, with some managing the scene and others managing the surveillance footage; even the symptoms to report when calling 120 were scripted in advance. The background pointed to the Ministry of Public Security and Wang Xiaohong. The whistleblower himself even claimed that after the job was done, he was arranged to go to Myawaddy, Myanmar. The story was told too perfectly, and our judgment is that this version was deliberately released by someone. The second version points to the wife. First, regarding the motive: the wife and Li Keqiang were old acquaintances. Hong Kong media reported that the two met in the All-China Youth Federation in the 1980s. There were even more revelations, claiming that the wife had admired Li Keqiang when she was young. This is just the personal layer; the more fatal layer is Old Xi's obsession. By the time Li Keqiang had his incident, he had already been retired from the position of Premier for more than half a year and had no power in his hands. Theoretically, he no longer posed a threat to Old Xi. Why not let him go? It is because the phrase 'Old Xi goes down, Li Keqiang goes up' became a thorn in Old Xi's side. This was a ready-made alternative, and the common people had always compared the two in terms of ability and character; everyone had long since made up their minds about who was stronger and who was weaker. The more Old Xi compared, the more he hated, yet he dared not take action himself for fear of the massive impact. The various eunuchs around him, even if they saw their master's intentions, dared not speak or act. The only one who dared to speak and act was his wife. Firstly, to remove this obsession for her husband, and secondly, to pave the way for her own advancement. Looking back at Babaoshan, that face of extreme sorrow, some bloggers said it looked more like a form of post-event compensatory psychology.
As for the methods, after the wife became a full-time member of the Military Commission's Cadre Assessment Committee, Xu Qiliang assigned her a dedicated special service team, which also happened to be six people. When Li Keqiang's incident occurred, the commander of the Shanghai Armed Police Corps was Chen Yuan, who was the wife's personnel in the military. It may not have been Chen Yuan himself who did it, but since the incident happened on his turf, he, as the commander, had to turn a blind eye. When Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli had their incident in January this year, Old Xi hurriedly transferred Chen Yuan from Shanghai to Beijing, aiming to protect the couple. However, the Beijing Garrison Command is full of descendants of red families who do not recognize this outsider from Shanghai. From July onwards, Chen Yuan stopped appearing. By September, news from inside the Great Firewall reported that the Military Discipline Inspection Commission had already placed him under isolation and investigation. One of the reasons was his involvement in the case of Li Keqiang swimming in Shanghai, and like Zhong Shaojun, he was treated as the wife's remnant in the military. Since 2018, the Armed Police have been directly led by the Central Military Commission. The wife's special service team was assigned to her by Military Commission Vice Chairman Xu Qiliang, and Chen Yuan was the commander of the Shanghai Armed Police Corps. From beginning to end, this is a line within the military system. Therefore, the ironclad evidence for this case fell into the hands of Zhang Youxia, and the group led by Wen Jiabao has also obtained it. There is one more person who knows more than Chen Yuan, and that is Xu Qiliang, who was the one who assigned the six-person special service team to the wife back then. On June 2, 2025, the authorities announced the death of Xu Qiliang. Some bloggers outside the Great Firewall believe that this was because he knew he could not escape Zhang Youxia's purge in the military. Once Xu Qiliang was gone, on June 8 last year, rumors outside the Great Firewall about the wife's involvement in Li Keqiang's death intensified. Five days later, on June 13, that anonymous tip even specified the number of milliliters of the drug, which was equivalent to drawing everyone's eyes toward the Ministry of Public Security. With Xu Qiliang, who knew the inside story, gone, the story of the scapegoat arrived. For the two murder cases, the elders insisted on an explanation for Li Keqiang's case, so Wang Xiaohong was handed over. For the case of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, on September 21, two days before Old Xi's visit to the US, the Politburo held an emergency meeting to expel both from the Party, and what happened that day at the Central Party School was sealed off forever. For this scapegoat, the story had been prepared for Wang Xiaohong a year ago: the Ministry of Public Security's six-person team, with the final witness fleeing to Myawaddy, fabricated in vivid detail. The accounts were settled and the candidate was chosen. Early the next morning, Wang Xiaohong was pushed to the forefront.
On Monday, September 28, the first working day after Old Xi returned to the country, Xinhua News Agency issued a report stating that Xi Jinping had recently given important instructions on building a higher-level Peaceful China, demanding that punishment and prevention be carried out simultaneously. On the same day, a work conference on building a Peaceful China was held in Beijing, where Chen Wenqing, Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, delivered a speech, and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong gave a concluding speech. On the very first working day after his return, the first instruction was given to the police, and the one standing at the forefront was Wang Xiaohong. If you ponder the four characters 'Peaceful China,' you will realize that what they are actually calculating is the safety of the couple themselves. Isn't that what they have been plotting behind closed doors these past few days? How to get through the hurdle of the Fifth Plenum safely? That 'peace' comes from the person on the stage giving the concluding speech. Use Wang Xiaohong as a trade-off. There are four other characters in the instruction: 'punishment and prevention simultaneously.' Ponder who is being punished and who is being guarded against. On Wednesday, September 30, at the National Day reception in the evening, there were 19 people at the main table: seven members of the Standing Committee, one Vice President Han Zheng, ten Politburo members in Beijing, and the last seat was occupied by Wang Xiaohong, wearing his full police uniform. Last year, he also sat at this table, looking clean, composed, and relaxed. This year, at the same table, his complexion was a shade darker, his eyes staring straight ahead, and the muscles on his face were taut. At first glance, he looked murderous, but if you look a little longer, you realize that beneath that murderous look is tension. Wang Xiaohong holds the hilt of the knife for Old Xi; he knows all of Old Xi's secrets. This was originally his amulet, but on September 21, once the Zhang-Liu matter was sealed off, the strongest card in his hand became void; he had nowhere left to play it. What remains is the Li Keqiang case, and he is the chosen scapegoat. So what is he after? Bloggers within the Great Firewall have revealed that Wang Xiaohong is likely facing the death penalty. At this stage, the only thing a person can use to trade is the safety of their entire family. Those watching Wang Xiaohong have long since taken their positions. On September 9, Qin Yunbiao, Director of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, entered the Ministry of Public Security as a Vice Minister. Some bloggers say he is Wen Jiabao's man, and his entry is to hollow out Wang Xiaohong. Liu Jinguo, Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), has long been ordered to directly handle the special case against Wang Xiaohong. He talks to him every few days, even taking him to the CCDI after he meets with foreign guests. As a vice-national-level official, the CCDI can only request his cooperation in the investigation, so he still sits at the main table and still wears his police uniform. But beneath this uniform is a man who has to go and account for his problems every few days. Liu Jinguo does not use hard tactics on him but focuses on psychological warfare: if he speaks, there is still a glimmer of hope; if he doesn't, even Old Xi cannot protect his family. Sitting at the main table by day and going to be interrogated by night—that is why his face is so taut. If you look back at the footage from last year and look at another person, Ma Xingrui, he was sitting right next to CCDI Secretary Li Xi at the time, and his complexion was very poor that day. Ma Xingrui is from Yuncheng, Shandong, from the same county as the boss's wife. Bloggers within the Great Firewall revealed that in November, he was taken away by Li Xi at a Politburo meeting, officially announced as under investigation in April of this year, and expelled in July. The tail that Old Xi and his wife cut off last year was Ma Xingrui. This year, sitting at the main table, the one with the tightest face is Wang Xiaohong. The couple has been plotting behind closed doors to cut off the tail to survive, and now the tail has been placed on the main table, and the mask can no longer be held.
Some friends hearing this are going to start having doubts. Hu Jintao was over 80 years old, yet on the day of the 20th National Congress, he was still publicly escorted off the stage. What kind of blade could he possibly still hold in his hand? The problem lies right here: this blade wielded by Hu Jintao wasn't forged just in the past few months. To understand why he chose precisely this term to make his move, we need to trace the timeline back—all the way back twenty years. Let's start from 2007. That year, the 17th National Congress was set to decide the next-generation successor. Hu Jintao's personal preference was Li Keqiang, someone who had walked the path up through the Communist Youth League alongside him, but the crown prince ultimately chosen was Old Xi, designated across generations by Jiang Zemin. By all conventional logic, when Jiang Zemin picked a successor, he should have chosen someone he personally approved of, yet mainland bloggers have leaked that Jiang Zemin didn't like Old Xi at all initially; it was Wang Yeping who liked the Boss's Wife, taken by her grand and bold demeanor, and persuaded Jiang Zemin to accept Old Xi. How was this connection even made? Mainland bloggers leaked that the Boss's Wife had earlier become the goddaughter of Zhao Qing, the daughter of Zhao Dan, and through this relationship got to know Wang Yeping. Back when Old Xi was still in the mountain ditches of Fujian, Jiang Zemin got to know Old Xi precisely through the Boss's Wife. As soon as the 17th National Congress concluded and the Politburo Standing Committee rankings were announced, Old Xi stood ahead of Li Keqiang. Once the rankings came out, everyone across the country understood who the crown prince was. What made it even more painful was that Hu Jintao himself had opened the door for this. In 2006, just a few years into his tenure, Hu Jintao wanted to establish his authority and took down Chen Liangyu, the Party Secretary of Shanghai. The seat of the Shanghai secretary became vacant and was given to Old Xi the following year. Before Old Xi went to Shanghai, the Boss's Wife specially instructed him to take along one person: Zhong Shaojun. Pay attention, everyone: Old Xi didn't take a single person when transferred from Fujian to Zhejiang, but took this single person when going from Zhejiang to Shanghai. Zhong Shaojun was not only loyal, but also served as the eyes and ears of the Boss's Wife; many matters that were inconvenient for the Boss's Wife to handle personally were carried out by Zhong Shaojun on her behalf. To put it bluntly, Hu Jintao went to great lengths to hack open a door originally reserved for his own people, only for the Boss's Wife to lead Old Xi right through it, followed closely by her own confidant. Fast forward another five years to 2012 at the 18th National Congress, Hu Jintao made a completely retired exit, handing over the three posts of Party, state, and military cleanly all at once. At the time, there was widespread applause outside, praising him for his high-minded virtue and setting a good precedent for his successors. He genuinely wanted to step down, but look at what was left on the table when he stepped down: among the seven Standing Committee members, the only person belonging to his faction was Li Keqiang; key League faction backbones like Wang Yang and Li Yuanchao failed to squeeze in a single spot. Yet just over half a year prior, the League faction had not been in such a state. Overseas leaks calculated the ledger of that year in great detail: if everything had proceeded normally, the League faction could have occupied three seats among the seven Standing Committee members—Li Keqiang, Li Yuanchao, and Wang Yang—alongside Wang Qishan, who at the time had a fairly good relationship with Hu Jintao, creating a balance of power with Jiang Zemin's faction. Under such a structural balance, if Old Xi wanted to sit firmly in power, he would have had to endure at least until the end of the 19th National Congress, and trying to stay on for a third term at the 20th National Congress would have been virtually out of the question. What completely flipped this chess game was a car accident in March 2012 on the Baofusi Bridge in Beijing. The driver was Ling Gu, the only son of Ling Jihua, Hu Jintao's Chief of Staff and chief steward by his side. He was driving a Ferrari with two young women sitting inside when it smashed straight into a bridge pier, killing everyone instantly. Who was Ling Jihua? Hu Jintao's Chief of Staff and closest manager. The day after his son died, Ling Jihua still went to work and attended public events smiling cheerfully. Leaks claimed that he unauthorizedly mobilized the Central Guard Bureau to handle the scene. This incident was covered up for several months until finally, while Zhu Rongji was playing the erhu alongside Jiang Zemin, he casually mentioned, "You know about that car accident in Beijing, right? That was Ling Jihua's son." Jiang Zemin sent people to verify it, then turned around and asked Hu Jintao, asking three times in a row, with Hu Jintao denying knowledge all three times. A Chief of Staff could mobilize the Central Guard Bureau behind the General Secretary's back—dispatching them to clean up a crash site today, might he dispatch them to make arrests tomorrow? According to leaks, this single car accident instantly flipped the previously balanced landscape between the League faction and Jiang Zemin's side into a six-to-one ratio, leaving Li Keqiang as the sole League faction survivor among the seven Standing Committee members of the 18th National Congress. After taking power, Old Xi sprinkled yet more salt onto this wound. Ling Jihua fell from grace in 2014 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016. Overseas leaks stated that Old Xi held a deep-seated hatred for the League faction, first launching targeted purges against Ling Jihua's network by pulling up his roots in Shanxi and the General Office, then cleansing Li Yuanchao's followers in Jiangsu and the Organization Department, and even investigating military figures promoted by Hu Jintao such as Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang. On the military front, there was an even more painful ledger: in the year of the 18th National Congress, the second vice chairman of the Central Military Commission was Xu Qiliang, one of Hu Jintao's people. Leaks say that when Hu Jintao handed over power, he specifically instructed Xu Qiliang to give Old Xi full support. Little did he expect that with this support, Xu Qiliang completely defected to the other side, helping Old Xi execute military reforms and later even assigning a special security detail to the Boss's Wife. Another ten years later, at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress in 2022 under the lenses of the entire world, Hu Jintao was physically escorted off the rostrum. Leaks suggest that the personnel arrangements finalized prior to the 20th National Congress were originally supposed to be Old Xi stepping down, Li Keqiang rising up, Wang Yang as Premier, and Hu Chunhua as Executive Vice Premier. At the closing ceremony, when Hu Jintao tried to take a look at the final Central Committee roster, he was forcefully held down by Li Zhanshu. As the situation threatened to spiral out of control, Old Xi had personnel from the General Office escort him out in full view of both Chinese and foreign reporters. At that congress, Old Xi forced Li Keqiang and Wang Yang into retirement, stripping them even of Central Committee membership, while Hu Chunhua was cast into the political exile of the CPPCC. A year later in October 2023, Li Keqiang passed away in Shanghai. Counting from 2007 to the 21st National Congress next year makes exactly twenty years. Among the accounts of these twenty years, the very first entry involves the Boss's Wife: it was she who made Wang Yeping nod in approval, it was she who planted Zhong Shaojun into Shanghai, and the very last entry—Li Keqiang's life—points back to her as well.
Some friends might say that Hu Jintao has always been mild-mannered, advocating for harmony and compromise. Would he really take such revenge? He never rushes forward himself for revenge; instead, he often lets the other party fully play out their role. Back then, when Bo Xilai was singing red songs and cracking down on black societies in Chongqing, Hu Jintao didn't move and let him perform, and once the timing was right, Bo Xilai fell on his own. This time, the one performing was Old Xi, and the one making the move was Wen Jiabao, but letting someone perform wasn't enough; one also needed a knife in hand. Hu Jintao's knife, however, was forced out step by step by the boss's wife herself. After the 20th National Congress, the boss's wife held the rank of major general in the military, and served as a full-time member of the Central Military Commission's cadre evaluation committee, managing the evaluation and promotion of generals. Leaks revealed that the boss's wife wanted to take over the Central Military Commission, first taking down Miao Hua, and making an example of Zhang Youxia's two former defense ministers, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe. Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli refused to fall for this. In March 2024, they turned around and drove her confidant Zhong Shaojun out of the Central Military Commission. The fallout occurred, and Zhang Youxia knew very well that Old Xi would sooner or later get rid of him once his services were no longer needed, but relying solely on the military to take action on its own would be called a rebellion, and no one would dare to follow along; he needed someone whose words carried weight to provide endorsement. In April 2024, he contacted Hu Jintao for the first time through Liu Yuan. With this contact, the thing Hu Jintao had waited over a decade for arrived: the gun barrels. In July of the same year, at the Third Plenary Session, under Hu Jintao's endorsement, Zhang Youxia controlled Miao Hua and other direct cronies of Old Xi in the Military Commission. As soon as the Third Plenary Session passed, Hu Jintao invited Wen Jiabao to take Li Ruihuan to see Old Xi, making it clear to his face that military power had already changed hands. What followed were those steps everyone is familiar with: last June, the elders established a decision-making and consultative coordination mechanism; last April, the elders and Old Xi settled on stepping down under Hua Guofeng's model with no retroactive punishment; and this January, after the incidents involving Zhang and Liu, the generals collectively asked Hu Jintao to make decisions for the military. According to a blogger within the Great Firewall, Hu Jintao currently does not take a side himself; the reformists are represented by Wen Jiabao, the conservatives by Zeng Qinghong, and he sits in the middle as an arbitrator. When the two factions argue, they both come to him to judge, placing him in an undefeatable position. The General Office Secretariat is already in Wen Jiabao's hands. Back then, that list wasn't allowed to be seen by him, but this time, how the venue is arranged and how the agenda proceeds are up to Hu Jintao's side to decide. So where does this revenge ultimately land? This year at Beidaihe, Hu Jintao entrusted Wen Jiabao to bring a message to Zeng Qinghong: nominating Hu Chunwang as the sixth generation is in line with the rules, and the crown prince position snatched away twenty years ago must be returned to the Tuanpai. We will leave this matter for a detailed discussion next time, but before that, who did this knife strike? We will name them one by one shortly.
First, let's chat a bit about daily life. Once autumn arrives, the weather turns cool just like that, and the temperature difference between morning and evening suddenly widens. Quite a few friends have told me that people easily get fatigued, and both throats and eyes become dry. As the old saying goes, autumn is a time for nourishment, and what is being nourished is that inner foundation of vitality within the body. Jiang Feng himself has been using Jiang Feng's Choice recently, specifically this WiseQuest Black Paste Concentrated Capsule. It is produced by a US GMP-compliant factory, blending astragalus and American ginseng with tangerine peel and Chinese yam, gently nourishing Qi and strengthening the spleen without causing internal heat, helping the body slowly find its foundation back. For friends who have the habit of scrolling through their phones and reading news at night, if your eyes easily become dry, sore, and fatigued, you can also pair it with their Herbal Eye-Brightening Cold Compress Patches, which contain borneol, chrysanthemum, and mint. Applying them for a while provides a cool and soothing sensation that relaxes the eye area tremendously. Our program and our long-time viewers are old friends. Jiang Feng's Choice has specially reserved a 55% off price for our friends this time. To support Jiang Feng, please click the pinned link below or scan the QR code on the screen to purchase.
Let's get back to the point and start with this visit to the United States. In the footage, the First Lady, wearing high heels and a beaming smile, looks much more energetic than Xi Jinping. Many people watching from the outside say that the First Lady still looks as glamorous as ever, but a blogger inside the Great Firewall revealed that the fact she was able to make this trip actually shows that she has no one left around her. This sounds a bit convoluted, so let's peel it back layer by layer. First, let's talk about what she originally intended to be. A blogger inside the Great Firewall revealed that before the 20th National Congress, Xi Jinping had considered the issue of a successor transition, and the person for this transition was the First Lady. Everyone remembers that the Politburo of the 20th National Congress had only 24 members, not the usual 25. Outsiders guessed that Hu Chunhua was removed at the last minute, but that blogger said it was more likely a female Politburo member who was removed—the First Lady. Xi Jinping chickened out at the last moment and didn't dare let her into the Politburo. Since she didn't get into the Politburo, she took the military route. The First Lady joined the army at 18 and spent her whole life in the military, having long been awarded the rank of Major General. Xi Jinping appointed her as a full-time member of the Central Military Commission's Cadre Assessment Committee. The promotion lists for generals bypassed Zhang Youxia and were sent directly to Xi Jinping's desk through her hands. To put it bluntly, this was building a stage for her in the military, but the stage was dismantled layer by layer before it was even half-finished. The first layer was in March 2024, when Zhong Shaojun was kicked out of the Central Military Commission, and the First Lady could no longer serve as a full-time member of that assessment committee. On August 28 this year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress issued an announcement that the National People's Congress deputy positions of Zhang Youxia and Zhong Shaojun were both removed. The second layer was Xu Qiliang, who provided her with armed protection; he passed away in June last year. The third layer was her purse strings. In June last year, the elders established a decision-making and coordination body, and the first one they took down was Ma Xingrui. Reports from outside the Great Firewall say that Ma Xingrui and his wife, Rong Li, were the financial planners for the First Lady's family. Ma Xingrui was officially announced as having fallen in April this year and was expelled on July 14. Just five days later, on July 19, Ouyang Weimin, the former head of the China Development Bank, was investigated; this was the person Ma Xingrui had recommended to the First Lady. The fourth layer was her hometown. On August 20, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Yang Xinsheng, the Vice Mayor of Heze, Shandong, and the Party Secretary of Yuncheng County, was under investigation. Yuncheng is the First Lady's hometown, and this person was the local official in charge of her home turf. The fifth layer was the regional governors of the Shandong faction. On September 22 and 23, Wang Junzheng of Tibet and Liang Yanshun of Anhui—two provincial party secretaries—were both dismissed. These two are recognized as members of the First Lady's Shandong faction. The final layer is Chen Yuan, mentioned earlier, who guarded the Beijing territory for her; he has not been seen since July. The First Lady's political influence is being cleared out bit by bit by the decision-making and coordination body. Now, looking back at that scene of the visit to the US, after June 2024, the First Lady had not left the country for two full years. It is reported that she was under house arrest by the elders in Zhongnanhai until Chen Xi was taken down this year. Only then did the elders nod to let her accompany him to North Korea first, and then to the United States, because there was no longer any place for her to intervene in the military. Zhang Shengmin is in charge of the Military Commission and the Beijing Garrison, and Zhou Hongxu is in charge of the Central Guard Bureau. Her military career is over. Letting her out to accompany her husband on a trip as a walking stick doesn't get in anyone's way anymore. It's like an emptied building where only the sign at the entrance is still lit; outsiders see the sign lit and think business is as usual, but those inside know best that the building is already empty. But once the people around her are stripped away, you peel further to reach her. Peeling down to her layer brings us to the most critical question of today.
When it comes to the hurdle of the Fifth Plenary Session, why is the First Lady the one most afraid, rather than Old Xi? Because there are only two paths left before Old Xi: either he submits his resignation himself, or the Li Keqiang case is reopened. He does not want to submit a resignation, so only the other path remains—reopening the Li Keqiang case. Once the case is opened, one must find the mastermind behind it, but think about it: can this mastermind be traced back to Old Xi? Even if the party elders are convinced of it in their hearts, they cannot say it explicitly; they must even protect Old Xi's image. This is how the Gang of Four was tried back then. Jiang Qing said in court, 'I did everything according to Chairman Mao's wishes,' but the CCP elders at the time could not criticize Mao Zedong. To do so would be to topple the Party itself, so they had to pin all the blame on the Gang of Four. It is the same this time. Old Xi is the fifth-generation leader; to truly topple him is equivalent to toppling the CCP itself. At this critical juncture, he can simply claim ignorance and at most take responsibility for a lack of oversight. So who will carry the can? Cai Qi, Wang Xiaohong, and Chen Xi would not have the guts to issue such orders on their own. In the end, only the First Lady can carry it. This is the biggest difference between the First Lady and Old Xi. Old Xi has his title as a shield, while the First Lady only holds the rank of Major General. Ironically, it is this very rank that is her undoing. As a CCP Major General, she is under the jurisdiction of the Military Commission for Discipline Inspection, and Chen Yuan, a witness in the Li Keqiang case, is also detained by the Military Commission for Discipline Inspection. Furthermore, the group in the military that hates her most is the veterans of the Vietnam War; Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli only reached where they are today because they refused to bow to her back then. If the military procedure is truly followed, the ones trying her will be the very people who have a blood feud with her. All along, Hu and Wen have wanted to leave Old Xi with some dignity; as long as Old Xi does not cut ties with her, they will not move against her. But conversely, this is also a leash. If Old Xi wants to protect her, he must obediently cooperate and act as a mascot. The day he stops listening, the investigation into the First Lady can be launched immediately. To put it bluntly, the First Lady is now a handle that Hu and Wen hold to keep Old Xi on a leash. Why is she specifically afraid of the Fifth Plenary Session? Because the Fifth Plenary Session is a major test of whether Old Xi is obedient. The session runs from October 26th to 29th, right across the third anniversary of Li Keqiang's death. If Old Xi smoothly hands over his duties at the meeting, Hu and Wen will give him dignity and will not need to use the First Lady as a scapegoat. If Old Xi refuses, the leash will tighten, and the first person to be dragged out will be Old Xi's wife. Besides, pushing a woman out is a long-standing tradition within the CCP. When the Cultural Revolution began and Liu Shaoqi fell, the first to be dragged out for struggle was his wife, Wang Guangmei. When Lin Biao was involved in an incident, Ye Qun was written into the anti-party group. A month after Mao Zedong passed away, Jiang Qing was arrested. Those old guys did not hesitate at all and eventually sentenced her to a suspended death penalty. Later, when Bo Xilai fell, the first to truly go down was Gu Kailai. To put it bluntly, in the eyes of these old guys, women have always been used as scapegoats. At the hurdle of the Fifth Plenary Session, the First Lady's life is held in the balance by that piece of paper—Old Xi's resignation. Therefore, our judgment is that there is a high probability that Old Xi will resign at the Fifth Plenary Session. Twenty-some days later, when the Fifth Plenary Session concludes and the communique is released, let us see if Hu Chunhua has entered the Politburo or the Military Commission. Once this step is taken, the accounts of Hu Jintao's last twenty years will have begun to settle. Let us also see if the communique includes Old Xi's resignation. If it does, the First Lady might be saved. After the Fifth Plenary Session, we can also observe the First Lady—when she next appears, whether she is standing by Old Xi's side as usual or if she has simply disappeared. Alright, that is all for today. I am Jiang Feng, see you next time.