First Day of Beidaihe Time – A Major Personnel Adjustment May Have Quietly Taken Place

On August 5, 2016, a security guard stands outside a restricted compound in Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, China. Chinese leaders gather in this coastal city for annual closed-door meetings. (Simon Song/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

[People News] On August 3, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership's Beidaihe summer retreat officially began. Reports from state media suggest that a potentially significant personnel adjustment—possibly linked to the layout for the 21st Party Congress—has quietly taken place.

On Sunday (August 3), Xinhua News Agency reported that Cai Qi, a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and Secretary of the Central Secretariat, visited experts on summer vacation in Beidaihe. Minister of the Central Organisation Department (COD) Shi Taifeng and State Councillor Shen Yiqin also participated in the visit.

Observers noted that last year, Jiang Xinzhi, who serves as Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and concurrently as Executive Deputy Minister of the Organisation Department, was mentioned in the news and appeared alongside Cai Qi at the event. However, this year, he was neither mentioned nor appeared in group photos. Instead, another COD Deputy Minister, Huang Jianfa, appeared in the group photo, occupying the same seat that Jiang Xinzhi held last year.

A look back at Xinhua’s July 1 report reveals that at a leadership meeting held in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it was Huang Jianfa—described as the COD Deputy Minister in charge of daily operations—who announced the personnel appointment for Xinjiang’s new top official. Yet officially, Jiang Xinzhi held the title of COD Deputy Minister responsible for daily affairs.

Some analysts believe that Huang Jianfa may have already begun taking over Jiang Xinzhi’s responsibilities at that time. Jiang’s absence from Beidaihe this year suggests that the handover process has been completed.

Back in April, there was a leadership swap between the Central Organisation Department and the United Front Work Department. If reports of Huang Jianfa succeeding Jiang Xinzhi are accurate, then another change has occurred within one of the CCP’s most powerful departments responsible for senior-level personnel arrangements.

Public records show that Huang Jianfa, 60, hails from Shaowu, Fujian Province, and worked extensively in the seismology field. He served as Director of the Fujian Provincial Earthquake Administration and later as Director of the Earthquake Disaster Emergency Response Division at the China Earthquake Administration. In 2010, he was transferred to serve as a member of the Chengdu Municipal Committee in Sichuan Province, later becoming its Secretary-General and subsequently head of the Organisation Department of the Sichuan Provincial Committee. In 2018, he was appointed to the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee and served as head of its Organisation Department. In 2021, he was promoted to Deputy Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province, later also serving as head of the United Front Work Department and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Media reports from March 2023 confirmed his promotion to Vice Minister of the Central Organisation Department.

Kuo Chien-wen, a distinguished professor at the Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, pointed out to Lianhe Zaobao that Jiang Xinzhi, now 67, has already surpassed the standard retirement age of 65 for officials at the ministerial level. He likely remained in office due to his role in the CPPCC, so a transition at this stage is not unexpected.

Kuo further analysed that Huang Jianfa's promotion to become Shi Taifeng's top deputy may be part of early preparations for the CCP’s 21st National Congress in two years. "Ahead of the 21st Congress, central ministries and local governments will undergo leadership transitions. Getting the Organisation Department, which oversees personnel arrangements, in order is a key part of that process." △