Following the Fifth Plenary Session of the CCP Central Committee, 75-year-old former Sinopec Chairman and key member of Zeng Qinghong's 'petroleum gang,' Fu Chengyu, has been placed under investigation 11 years after his retirement.
Rumor has it that Zeng Qinghong put forward a plan at Beidaihe: Xi Jinping would resign from his three posts — General Secretary, President, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission — at the Fifth Plenum in October 2026 on grounds of poor health; the Party would let bygones be bygones regarding his past; in the Li Keqiang case, only the execution-level figures such as Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong would be held accountable, without tracing responsibility up to the highest level.
Online reports claim that retired elders such as Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Zeng Qinghong held a private brainstorming session, discussing the political line, the retirement system, and how to pull back the recent overemphasis on national security; whether the meeting actually took place cannot be verified.
Thirteen retired state-level elders, including Wen Jiabao, Zeng Qinghong, and Wang Qishan, attended a high-level political ceremony at the Great Hall of the People. Hu Jintao's absence has sparked various rumors regarding Beidaihe secret talks and power succession.
According to the video, while in Beidaihe, Xi Jinping entrusted Ding Xuexiang to convey to Zeng Qinghong his statements regarding the handling of the Taiwan issue for the current and next terms.
Rumors claim that Zeng Qinghong, on behalf of retired Politburo Standing Committee members and the red second-generation, put demands to Xi Jinping such as handing over power and not seeking another term; no public reports of this claim exist, and it originates from an online video.
During the China-US negotiations, the US side submitted a list of approximately $20 trillion in assets held by the families of CCP officials in the West. The list did not include the names of Hu Jintao, Li Keqiang, Hu Chunhua, or Zhang Youxia, while the families of Zeng Qinghong, Jia Qinglin, and Zhang Dejiang accounted for the bulk of the assets.