By Jing Chen
Within the CCP system, disappearance has long served as a political signal. Absence tends to precede punishment, and punishment often precedes political death. The Party rarely announces internal struggles outright; instead it speaks through absences — who vanishes, who is cropped out of official photos, who suddenly drops from public schedules. The pattern is familiar: someone disappears, an investigation follows, and eventually the figure is erased from the political landscape.
This year, however, the familiar pattern has shifted. Two of Xi Jinping’s top aides — his security chief and the director of his Central Office — have disappeared almost simultaneously, a development analysts say points to serious turmoil inside the leadership.
Wang Xiaohong, the public security minister often described as Xi’s “knife handle,” has not simply vanished overnight; His power has been chipped away gradually, piece by piece, across the past year. The process began in December 2024 when Qi Yanjun, the Beijing police official most closely aligned with Wang, was abruptly replaced by Qin Yunbiao, who is connected to rivals of Xi’s security network. It was the first indication that Wang’s foundation in Beijing was being cut away.
Over the spring and summer of 2025, the dismantling grew more visible. Three of Wang’s principal deputies—Xu Ganlu, Chen Siyuan, and Sun Maoli—were removed within a matter of months. Collectively, they represented Wang’s influence over border control, internal administration, and financial and equipment management within the ministry. The simultaneous loss of all three left him with a title but without functional authority, evoking a pattern similar to the sequence that preceded Zhou Yongkang’s fall in 2013.
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The situation darkened in October. On the 21st, Wang’s trusted aide Dong Yijun died suddenly in what authorities described only as a fall. News of the incident was withheld for twenty-five days. When it was finally announced, the notice came not from the Ministry of Public Security, but from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission under Chen Wenqing—an unmistakable signal that Wang no longer controlled the handling of his own aide’s death.
After a brief appearance at the National Games on Nov. 9, Wang disappeared once again, marking his third unexplained absence within a short period.
The sudden disappearance of Xi’s chief aide
Cai Qi’s sudden absence is no less significant. As director of the Central Office, Cai is responsible for the political choreography around Xi Jinping—managing his documents, information flow, and daily agenda. It is a role in which visibility is mandatory: wherever Xi appears, the Central Office director is expected to be within arm’s reach.
Beginning on Nov. 9, Cai stopped showing up. He missed the opening ceremony of the National Games, where he would normally appear directly behind Xi. He was absent again during Xi’s meetings with the king of Spain on Nov. 12 and the king of Thailand on Nov. 14. In the strict protocols of Zhongnanhai, three consecutive absences do not suggest illness. They suggest restrictions.
With Cai sidelined, control over the Central Office—the heart of the Party’s operational machinery—appears to have shifted, raising questions about who now manages the flow of information and decisions surrounding Xi himself. His disappearance, coinciding so closely with Wang Xiaohong’s, has fueled speculation that both moves were part of a coordinated effort by political forces emboldened after the Fourth Plenum.
Viewed together, the developments point to deep fractures within the system Xi has long dominated. The military, once considered Xi’s firmest base, now appears to have shifted under Zhang Youxia, while numerous generals aligned with Xi have been removed. The security apparatus is being reconfigured as well, with authority drifting away from Wang Xiaohong and toward Chen Wenqing’s political-legal structure. And the Central Office, which once served as Xi’s nerve center through Cai Qi, now seems to be under new management.
The timeline underscores the pattern: Qi Yanjun’s removal in December 2024; the dismissal of Xu Ganlu in April 2025; the purging of Chen Siyuan and Sun Maoli in July; Wang Xiaohong’s first disappearance in September; the death of Dong Yijun in October; and the near-simultaneous disappearance of Wang and Cai in November. Taken together, the events resemble a systematic dismantling of Xi’s supporting structure—removing his lieutenants, seizing control over military and police channels, and ultimately tightening control around the top leader himself.
Why these purges could threaten Xi himself
For many observers, Xi Jinping’s crisis does not stem from external attacks but from the internal logic of the system he oversees. A leader who loses both his “knife handle” and his “pen” is left without the instruments that uphold his authority. If Wang Xiaohong is no longer secure, and Cai Qi can no longer stand beside Xi, then the structures that once shielded Xi are now slipping away.
And by the CCP’s own political grammar, when a leader’s closest confidants fall, the leader himself moves into the same trajectory. In that sense, the parallel disappearance of Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong is not merely a sign of their personal peril—it is a sign that Xi Jinping may no longer be able to protect his own position.
