Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s chief of staff Cai Qi, the fifth most senior official in the ruling Communist Party, was chosen to lead the Central Party School, Beijing’s leading academy for cadres.
The Central Party School is not just any training site for Chinese officials, but part of a nationwide system that Xi considers key to the ideological purity of the party and important for the expertise needed by senior officials across the country.
Who were previous heads?
In the past 30 years, the director of the institute has been reserved for either the party’s top leader-in-waiting, to familiarise them with ideology work, or a chief ideologue in the party’s leadership. Both Xi and his predecessor, Hu Jintao, served as head of the Central Party School while heir apparent in the party.
Hu was head of the school between 1993 and 2002, while Xi held the position from 2007 to 2012.
Zeng Qinghong, former vice-president of China and a top official in charge of party affairs, was president of the Central Party School between Hu and Xi’s terms while also serving as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
Liu Yunshan succeeded Xi at the school, leading it until 2017 while serving as the party’s top ideology official.
Before last week’s announcement, the Central Party School was presided over by Chen Xi, who was the party’s top personnel chief between 2017 and 2022.
Chen, one of Xi’s former college classmates, was considered among Xi’s most trusted aides. Chen retained the top position at the Central Party School despite retiring as the party’s personnel chief and a member of the decision-making Politburo in 2022 after reaching the informal retirement age.
Key to ideology work
The first party schools were founded in 1924, just three years after the Communist Party of China was established, and were key to political indoctrination for the then revolutionary party.
The first Central Party School was founded in 1935 in Yanan, Shaanxi province, after the Red Army survived the Long March, a trek that took the Communist forces across the country to find a new base after serial military setbacks.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the institute was a key venue for discussions within the party for soul-searching and reflection on political mistakes made during the Mao Zedong era. It has remained the most important academy to train officials, particularly before they are promoted.
During his presidency, Xi has further elevated the role of the Central Party School as a key pillar of Beijing’s ideology work. In a speech in 2015, Xi laid bare a vision that party schools at various levels should be “surnamed the party”, meaning the party should have a tight grip over its ideology.
He then went on to describe party schools as crucial for helping the Communist Party uphold its ideological direction, despite “hostile forces” seeking to compromise the party’s Marxist faith, citing Iraq, Syria and Libya as typical examples of countries rendered chaotic by the dissemination of Western values.
Like previous presidents, Xi has regularly spoken at the Central Party School, where he has elaborated on his vision for the party’s governance and ideology directly to officials who are soon to be promoted to important positions.
Recently, the academy has offered training deemed core to the party’s latest policy priorities, including rare-earth and supply-chain security, which were recently added to its courses offered to officials across different sectors.
Faculties matter too
While the president of the Central Party School is usually a political appointment, faculty members carry increasing weight in Chinese politics. In the incumbent 22-man Politburo, two members have been on the school’s long-term staff.
Li Shulei, the party’s propaganda chief, served in various positions at the academy between 1989 and 2014, making him a heavyweight on the party’s political theories. He reached the position of vice-president of the academy before leaving to join Fujian’s party committee as its top propaganda official.
Shi Taifeng, the party’s personnel chief, served at the academy between 1985 and 2010, where he, like Li Shulei, became vice-president of the academy.
Shi later became governor in Jiangsu province in eastern China and party chief in both Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions. Shi was made head of the party’s United Front Work Department in 2022, after he was promoted to the Politburo.
In a rare swap last year, he was made head of the party’s Organisation Department, an even more influential position.
Both Li and Shi were Xi’s colleagues when he headed the Central Party School. — SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
