No one is available in the Chinese Communist Party officialdom “cold bench” officials rose high against the odds

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has been moving officials around a lot recently.

As Xi Jinping focuses on the personnel layout of the 20th Communist Party Congress, the recent transfers and promotions of officials at the provincial and ministerial levels remain frequent. The number of officials who have fallen from power due to corruption in the CCP is so large that there is a serious problem of ladder breakage, so there is a promotion of officials who were once held accountable, and again there are “double non-permanent” senior officials, many vacancies of provincial deputy secretaries, and “cold bench” near retirement. Officials can also be promoted against the odds.

January 28 may be a normal day for the general public, but for Sun Yelie, former vice president of the Central Institute of Party History and Literature, it was a major turning point in his official career, as he was officially confirmed to be promoted to vice minister of the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.

Since receiving his master’s degree from the History Department of Peking University in July 1988, Sun Yelie has never left the work of the Literature Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, serving as deputy secretary-general of the Central Literature Research Office and editor-in-chief of Party Literature, member of the Central Literature Research Office and director of the Fifth Editorial and Research Department, member of the Central Literature Research Office and director of the Sixth Editorial and Research Department, and deputy director of the Central Literature Research Office. He worked for 30 years before he was promoted to vice president of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee, ranking second among the vice presidents of the institute. People who are familiar with the officialdom understand that this is a “bench” official position at the deputy ministerial level.

However, Sun Yelie’s rise to the top is due to his more than 30 years of dedicated involvement in editing and researching the writings and ideas of CPC and state leaders, including his involvement in Xi Jinping on Governance, Xi Jinping on Adhering to Comprehensive Deepening Reform, Xi Jinping on Adhering to and Promoting the Building of a Community of Human Destiny, Xi Jinping on One Belt, One Road, and Xi Jinping on the One Road. “, the excerpts of the series of important statements by General Secretary Xi Jinping and the writings of leaders such as “Selected Writings of Hu Jintao” and “Jiang Zemin on the “Three Represents” edited and propaganda articles written.

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After showing his face in front of the vice state-level officials, Sun Yelie entered the Central Propaganda Department, which is a real high position compared to the vice president of the Central Academy of Party History and Literature of the Communist Party of China. Since Sun Yeli is neither a member of the Central Committee nor an alternate member of the Central Committee, and since the vice ministers of the Central Propaganda Department are mostly at the full ministerial level, it is very likely that he is another “double non-permanent” senior official.

Sun Yeli is also a “double non-permanent” provincial official: Gansu Governor Ren Zhenhe, Hainan Governor Feng Fei and Sichuan Acting Governor Huang Qiang, but they are not the same as former “double non-permanent” Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong. Yang Xiong, who was the son of Jiang Zemin’s son Jiang Mianheng, became the mayor of Shanghai as a “double non-permanent resident” and still did not become an alternate member of the Central Committee until he left office. This “double non-permanent” phenomenon was extremely rare in the personnel arrangement of senior officials at the provincial and ministerial levels since 1978, and was also a record in Shanghai’s official circles. Zheng Enchong, a well-known human rights lawyer in Shanghai, also said that Yang Xiong’s situation reflected his unpopularity within the CCP.

The same as Sun Yelie in the Chinese Communist Party‘s official circles bucking the trend of promotion is also just become the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee Fei Gao Yun.

On March 21, 2019, the explosion that occurred within the factory premises of Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co., Ltd. in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, was recognized as a mega-explosion by the Communist Party’s State Council. As of March 25, 2019, the accident has caused 78 deaths, a total of 617 injured people admitted, including 21 critically injured, 73 seriously injured, and 523 slightly injured. As the division of the division, co-management of safety production (emergency management) and acting ecological environment work of the then vice governor Fei Gao Yun, was punished with a political record. According to the disciplinary rules of the Communist Party, the disciplinary period for a demerit is one year.

Today, Fei Gao Yun is the youngest deputy provincial official in the CCP’s Jiangsu provincial government and the youngest member of the provincial standing committee in Jiangsu province. Before suffering the disciplinary action within the party, Fei Gao Yun had a smooth career and was the first “post-70” mayor of Jiangsu Province, and at that Time was also the youngest person to head the provincial government of Jiangsu. In February 2017, Fei Gao Yun became the first “post-70” prefecture-level city secretary in Jiangsu.

In addition, in the unspoken rules of official promotion in the CCP, it is very easy for a full-time deputy secretary of a provincial party committee to be promoted to a provincial ministerial-level executive, such as a governor. Since 2020, CCP officials at the provincial level have undergone three reshuffles, however, the current shortage of full-time deputy secretaries is the greatest. As of January 28, 2021, 12 provinces (cities and autonomous regions), including Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Qinghai, Guangxi and Ningxia, have vacancies for full-time deputy party secretaries.

Except for Xinjiang and Tibet, other provincial (city and autonomous region) Party committees only have two deputy secretary positions, one of which is the head of the government and the other is usually called full-time deputy secretary. According to the CCP’s promotion rules, full-time deputy secretaries are usually more likely to be promoted to provincial administrative heads.

After three reshuffles of CCP provincial officials since 2020, the most shortage of officials is now full-time deputy secretaries. As of January 28, 2021, 12 provincial (city and autonomous region) party committee full-time deputy secretary positions are vacant in Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Qinghai, Guangxi and Ningxia.

As the alternate for the provincial ministerial-level officials, there are so many vacancies for full-time deputy secretaries, which shows that there is a serious fault line in the echelon of officials at the top of the Communist Party, and no one is available.