At the 2025 CPPCC New Year tea gathering, Xinhua’s accompanying image shows a group photo of CCP party chief Xi Jinping with the other Standing Committee members around a large round table (top image), which differs from the accompanying images in 2024 (middle image) and 2023 (bottom image). (Webpage screenshots)
[People News] On December 31, 2025, the Chinese Communist Party’s National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a New Year tea gathering. CCP party chief Xi Jinping attended along with the other incumbent members of the Politburo Standing Committee and Vice President Han Zheng. Compared with previous years, there were conspicuous changes in the seating arrangements for Xi and the others.
A group photo distributed with Xinhua’s report shows Xi Jinping seated around a large round table together with the other six members of the Politburo Standing Committee and Han Zheng. To Xi’s left were Li Qiang, Wang Huning, Ding Xuexiang, and Han Zheng—four people; to his right were Zhao Leji, Cai Qi, and Li Xi—three people.
By contrast, at the CPPCC New Year tea gatherings in 2024 and 2023, the group photos distributed by Xinhua showed Xi Jinping seated in a row with the other six members of the Politburo Standing Committee and Han Zheng at three long rectangular tables. Xi sat at the center table with Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, with Xi in the middle. Wang Huning, Ding Xuexiang, and Han Zheng were seated at the table to Xi’s left; Cai Qi and Li Xi were seated at the table to Xi’s right. The layout of the three long tables, and the fact that Li Qiang—the second-ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee—and Zhao Leji—the third-ranked—sat on either side of Xi, highlighted Xi’s “core” status.
Compared with the seating arrangements in 2024 and 2023, in 2025 Xi and the other Standing Committee members and Han Zheng were seated around a large round table, with four people on the left and three on the right, an asymmetrical arrangement, and Xi’s “core” status was clearly weakened.
According to footage from CCP Central Television (CCTV), at the CPPCC New Year tea gatherings for three consecutive years from 2023 to 2025, at the beginning—when listening to speeches—Xi Jinping, the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, Vice President Han Zheng, and the central chairpersons of the various democratic parties were all seated together at a large round table. In 2023 and 2024, after the speeches, when watching cultural and artistic performances, three long rectangular tables were specially added in front of the large round table for Xi and the seven Standing Committee members and Han Zheng to sit and watch the performances. The group photos presented in Xinhua’s reports show precisely this scene.
However, at the 2025 tea gathering, the customary addition of three long rectangular tables was no longer made; Xi Jinping, like everyone else, sat at the large round table to watch the performance. The accompanying image in Xinhua’s report was also changed to a large round table group photo.
In addition, since the establishment of the new CPPCC National Committee after the CCP’s 20th National Congress, compared with 2023, sensitive changes have also appeared in Xinhua’s reporting content on the CPPCC New Year tea gatherings in 2024 and 2025.
In the 2023 report, CPPCC Chairman Wang Huning mentioned Xi Jinping’s remarks twice in his speech and referred to “Xi Thought”; when representatives of the democratic parties spoke, they mentioned “the Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core,” the “Two Establishes,” and the “Two Safeguards.”
But in the 2024 and 2025 reports, Wang Huning mentioned Xi Jinping’s remarks only once in his speech and no longer referred to “Xi Thought”; when representatives of the democratic parties spoke, they mentioned only “the Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core,” and no longer mentioned the “Two Establishes” or the “Two Safeguards.”
The abnormal phenomena at the CPPCC New Year tea gathering once again corroborate rumors that Xi Jinping has lost power.
Starting from the Third Plenum in mid-July 2024, China’s political situation underwent sudden changes; rumors of a power crisis for Xi Jinping have continued. Xi has been said to be on the way out, with party elders wielding power behind the scenes, and Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia effectively holding actual control of the military.
Echoing this, signs of the weakening of Xi’s “core” status have continuously emerged in high-level CCP activities and party media reporting, drawing external attention.
At a recent Politburo democratic life meeting, Politburo members’ speeches no longer mentioned “upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee” or “implementing the Party Central Committee’s decision-making and deployments”; instead, they emphasized “taking the lead in revering the people, revering the organization, and revering discipline and the law.” Xi Jinping no longer, as in the past, required Politburo members to “identify shortcomings,” and even no longer directly made demands of Politburo members. (For details, see: Li Yanming: Abnormalities Appear at Politburo Meeting—Signals of Xi’s Loss of Power?)
High-level CCP activity arrangements have repeatedly broken with convention, and party media reporting has frequently displayed anomalies, seemingly in a coordinated manner continuously releasing signals of Xi’s loss of power—or perhaps serving as a prelude to a political storm in Zhongnanhai.
(The Dajiyuan)
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