Changes in CCP Officialdom in Xinjiang: He Zhongyou Concurrently Serves as Urumqi Secretary amidst Purge of Chen Quanguo’s Legacy

[New Tang Dynasty News, Beijing time, May 17, 2023]Recently, there have been changes in the CCP’s officialdom in Xinjiang. He Zhongyou, the deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Party Committee, has concurrently served as the secretary of Urumqi. He Zhongyou is the former secretary of the current Xinjiang secretary Ma Xingrui. The outside world has noticed that since Ma Xingrui, Xi Jinping’s confidant, has continued to purge his predecessor, Chen Quanguo, since he became secretary of Xinjiang.

According to the Xinjiang “Urumqi Evening News”, on May 13 and 14, He Zhongyou, deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Party Committee and secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, conducted research in some districts (counties). This information shows that He Zhongyou has concurrently served as secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Party Committee.

Yang Fasen, Secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Party Committee, has been transferred to the Standing Committee of the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee. Yang Fasen, 52, has worked in Xinjiang for a long time.

Hong Kong’s “Ming Pao” reported that, as an alternate member of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, although Yang Fasen is a low-ranking member, compared with Xinjiang or its new and old positions, Qinghai’s importance has declined, and it has become another marginalized “tomorrow” Star”. Yang Fasen was promoted by Chen Quanguo as vice chairman of the autonomous region government two years ago, and became a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee half a year later, concurrently serving as secretary of Urumqi. But its detailed background has remained mysterious.

According to the report, He Zhongyou once served in Guangdong, and was the old department of Ma Xingrui, the governor of Guangdong at the time. This time, he was reused, which shows that while Ma Xingrui adjusted the policy of his predecessor Chen Quanguo’s governance of Xinjiang, he also treated some of the old team left behind by Chen Quanguo who were not suitable. , Ma Xingrui took the method of “clearing blood stasis”.

According to the report, so far, Ma Xingrui has only made minor adjustments to the Standing Committee of the autonomous region, and only replaced the Minister of Propaganda and the Minister of the United Front Work. The replacement of the secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Party Committee is the biggest move. In fact, in the past year and a half, Ma Xingrui has replaced many officials at the prefectural, municipal and bureau levels. For example, Du Hongyan, the secretary of Chen Quanguo, the deputy secretary-general of the party committee of the autonomous region and the director of the political research office, followed Chen Quanguo all the way from Henan and Tibet. He has now been transferred to the party secretary of the Xinjiang Higher Court, and subsequent personnel adjustments are likely to come one after another.

The three Xinjiang party secretaries before Ma Xingrui were all important members of the former CCP leader Jiang Zemin’s faction, and their terms of office spanned as long as 28 years.

From 2011 to 2016, Chen Quanguo served as secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Communist Party of China; from 2016 to 2017, he was transferred to the secretary of the Xinjiang Party Committee and the first political commissar of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; A political commissar.

When he was in charge of Tibet, Chen Quanguo, who had a tough approach to “maintaining stability”, expanded concentration camps after entering Xinjiang, detaining millions of Uighurs, and was accused of crimes against humanity such as torture and live organ harvesting. In addition, the authorities have forcibly eliminated ethnic minority cultures in Xinjiang, which has been accused of genocide.

On July 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury placed four CCP government officials and the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau on the sanction list for involvement in major human rights violations, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo.

In January 2021, at the European Parliament, French member Raphael Glucksmann urged the EU to use the European version of the “Magnitsky Act” to impose sanctions on the CCP, and directly named Chen Quanguo.

Chen Quanguo and other high-ranking Xinjiang officials not only imprisoned local Xinjiang residents in concentration camps, but also brutally suppressed Falun Gong in Xinjiang, causing countless unjust cases and tragedies.

Chen Guoguo served as the deputy governor of Henan Province, member of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, head of the Organization Department, and deputy secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee. He was directly involved in the persecution of Falun Gong at that time.

The Wall Street Journal reported that after the CCP cracked down on Falun Gong in 1999, “Chen Guoguo, then a senior official in Henan Province, participated in the crackdown and was responsible for destroying Falun Gong ‘pamphlets’, books, and CDs.”

(Editor in charge: Tang Zheng)