The CCP recently held the sixth plenary session of its Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, attended by 116 people, the lowest attendance at any plenum held by the 20th CCDI. Thirteen CCDI members from the CCP military were absent, among them Zhang Shengmin. Fu Kui and Xiao Pei, meanwhile, were seated below the dais, which analysts take as an indication that Fu Kui’s post as CCDI deputy secretary has already been taken away, and whether Xiao Pei can land safely is still hard to say.
Zhao Shiyong and Zhang Zhong elected CCDI deputy secretaries
CCP party media Xinhua reported that the sixth plenary session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was held in Beijing on Aug. 22, 2026. The meeting was chaired by the CCDI standing committee, and Li Xi, a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and secretary of the CCDI, delivered a speech. The meeting declared that political supervision was to be strengthened and that what it called discipline for the leadership transition was to be strictly enforced, and it laid stress on fighting corruption.
According to the communiqué issued by CCP authorities, the sixth plenary session “elected” Zhao Shiyong as a deputy secretary of the CCDI and Zhang Zhong as a member of the CCDI standing committee and a deputy secretary.
Both Zhao Shiyong and Zhang Zhong have backgrounds in Jiangsu.
Public records show that Zhao Shiyong is from Yingshan, Sichuan province, and is 60 this year. He has served as a vice governor of Jiangsu, secretary-general of the Jiangsu provincial party committee, head of the Jiangsu organization department, and head of the organization department of the CCDI and the National Supervisory Commission.
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Zhang Zhong is from Laizhou, Shandong province, and is 58 this year. He has served as a deputy-ministerial-level inspector on a central inspection team, as secretary of the Jilin provincial discipline inspection commission and director of its supervision commission, as a CCDI member, and as secretary of the Jiangsu provincial discipline inspection commission and director of its supervision commission.
On Aug. 22, 2026, the X user “Sato Peng” posted that with the release of the communiqué of the sixth plenary session of the 20th CCDI, Li Xi, the CCDI secretary, would be going after corruption still more fiercely to build a record, and that with a storm gathering there was no telling how many Politburo members and provincial and ministerial-level corrupt officials Li Xi would bring down in the second half of the year. The post said Zhao Shiyong, who had been the senior secretary to Wu Zhenglong, the secretary-general of the State Council, during Wu’s time in Jiangsu, and Zhang Zhong, a junior associate of Zhao Leji, the chairman of the National People’s Congress, from Zhao’s time as head of the organization department, had been appointed as new full-ministerial-level CCDI deputy secretaries.
Public records show that on Nov. 15, 2012, Zhao Leji became a member of the CCP Politburo and a secretary of the Secretariat, and that on Nov. 19 he concurrently became head of the CCP Central Organization Department.
From December 2011 to March 2014, Zhang Zhong served as head of the office administration bureau of the CCP Central Organization Department.
On July 29, 2017, Wu Zhenglong became governor of Jiangsu, and from Oct. 19, 2021, to December 2022 he was promoted to party secretary of Jiangsu.
From April 2021 to October 2022, Zhao Shiyong served as a member of the Jiangsu provincial party standing committee and its secretary-general, becoming Wu Zhenglong’s “senior secretary.”
Xiao Pei and Fu Kui seated below the dais, and an analysis that their posts may have been taken away
The secretary of the 20th CCDI is Li Xi, and its eight deputy secretaries are Liu Jinguo, Zhang Shengmin, Xiao Pei, Yu Hongqiu, Sun Xinyang, Fu Kui, Liu Xuexin and Zhang Fuhai.
Footage shown by the CCP mouthpiece CCTV on the evening of Aug. 22 indicated that at the plenum that day, Xiao Pei and Fu Kui were no longer seated in a row on the dais with the other CCDI deputy secretaries but were seated below it.
On Aug. 22, 2026, Cai Shenkun, a US-based independent commentator, posted on X that this meant Fu Kui’s post as CCDI deputy secretary had also been taken away, and that whether Xiao Pei could land safely was still hard to say. When Xiao Pei was promoted to CCDI deputy secretary, Cai wrote, his only son died in a traffic accident, so the promotion brought him no joy; and where Fu Kui ends up will depend on the investigation that follows, and still more on whether there are too many secrets between Fu Kui and Zhou Liang, Li Xiaohong and Wang Qishan.
Cai Shenkun had earlier claimed that Fu Kui was caught up in the killing of Liu Wenjie, head of the Hunan provincial finance department, which arose from a lending dispute.
Cui Peng, another of Wang Qishan’s loyalists, has also lately been rumored to have been detained.
On Aug. 22, 2026, the X user “China Personnel Watch” posted that at the sixth plenum of the 20th CCDI, five CCDI deputy secretaries appeared on the dais: Liu Jinguo, Yu Hongqiu, Sun Xinyang, Liu Xuexin and Zhang Fuhai.
Xiao Pei and Fu Kui were no longer seated on the dais but below it, attending the plenum in the capacity of “CCDI members.” That indicates they are no longer serving as CCDI deputy secretaries, and that they did not step down at this plenum but had already ceased to hold the posts before it convened.
Xiao Pei is a former subordinate of Wang Qishan, the former CCDI secretary. On June 24, 2026, Xiao Pei was added as a deputy director of the social and legal affairs committee of the CCP’s National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. On July 3 of the same year, Xiao Pei was absent from a CCDI standing committee meeting.
Zhang Shengmin did not attend the sixth CCDI plenum
“China Personnel Watch” posted that Zhang Shengmin, a vice chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission and a CCDI deputy secretary, was also not on the dais. At the fifth plenum of the 20th CCDI in January this year, Zhang Shengmin attended and was seated on the dais, and by then he had already been promoted to vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. Unlike Xiao Pei and Fu Kui, Zhang Shengmin did not attend this plenum in the capacity of an ordinary CCDI member. There is therefore no way to judge, as there is with Xiao Pei and Fu Kui, whether Zhang Shengmin has left the post of CCDI deputy secretary.
The report said that 116 CCDI members attended this plenum, the lowest attendance at any plenum held by this CCDI.
“China Personnel Watch” noted that of the 17 who were absent, three had taken part in public activities recently, namely Zhang Shengmin; Chen Guomeng, a member of the Hainan provincial party standing committee and secretary of the provincial discipline inspection commission; and Zhang Tianbao, deputy political commissar of the Academy of Military Science. The absence of these three cannot be taken to mean that they are “in trouble,” and the most likely explanation is that they were unable to attend for reasons of work.
The 20th CCDI is reported to have had 133 members at the outset. At the first plenary session, held on Oct. 23, 2022, 132 attended; at the second, held Jan. 9 to 10, 2023, 127 attended; at the third, held Jan. 8 to 10, 2024, 132 attended; at the fourth, held Jan. 6 to 8, 2025, 131 attended; and at the fifth, held Jan. 12 to 14, 2026, 120 attended.
On Oct. 28, 2025, following a session of the CCP’s NPC Standing Committee, a number of appointments and removals were announced, and five people were stripped of their status as NPC deputies, among them Sun Bin, auditor-general of the Central Military Commission audit office. On Nov. 28, 2025, CCP authorities gave the reason for Sun Bin’s removal as “suspected serious violations of discipline and the law.”
On Nov. 8, 2025, CCP authorities announced that Jiang Xinjun, a member of the 20th CCDI and a member of the party standing committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, had died on Nov. 3, 2025, after being taken ill suddenly “during working hours” and failing to respond to emergency treatment.
At the fifth plenum of the 20th CCDI, held in Beijing from Jan. 12 to 14, 2026, 120 members attended and 13 CCDI members were absent. Apart from Jiang Xinjun, who had died, and Sun Bin, who had fallen, a list circulating online named the other absentees as: Cheng Dongfang, former deputy political commissar of the navy, a navy vice admiral; Leng Shaojie, former deputy political commissar of the navy, a navy vice admiral; Li Jun, former director of the political work department of the armed police force, an armed police lieutenant general; Chen Jianfei, former secretary of the discipline commission of the armed police force, an armed police lieutenant general; Miao Wenjiang, former political commissar of the army of the Central Theater Command, an army lieutenant general; Lou Chunsi, former deputy political commissar of the Central Theater Command and director of its political work department, an army lieutenant general; Yang Xiaoxiang, former deputy political commissar of the Academy of Military Science, an army lieutenant general; Chen Guoqiang, former political commissar of the National University of Defense Technology, an air force lieutenant general; Liu Jun, former director of the political work bureau of the Central Military Commission equipment development department, an air force major general; Xu Xianping, former chairman of China South Industries Group; and Shen Xiaohui, former head of the discipline inspection and supervision group at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Thirteen military CCDI members absent from the sixth plenum
“China Personnel Watch” posted an image showing the names of the 17 people absent from the sixth CCDI plenum. Four of them are civilian CCDI members: Xu Xianping; Shen Xiaohui, who has disappeared; Jiang Xinjun, who has died; and Chen Guomeng, whose absence is unexplained.
The 13 absent military CCDI members are Zhang Shengmin, Chen Guoqiang, Chen Jianfei, Yang Xiaoxiang, Miao Wenjiang, Leng Shaojie, Li Jun, Lou Chunsi, Sun Bin, Cheng Dongfang, Zhang Tianbao, Yu Yonghong and Wang Hongyan.
One X user said that Chen Guomeng had gone home for a funeral. That account cannot be verified at present.
“China Personnel Watch” also said in its post that the number of CCDI members from the CCP military attending the sixth plenum had fallen again from the previous plenum, held in January 2025, from 22 at the start of the term to only nine this time.
Apart from Zhang Shengmin and Zhang Tianbao, deputy political commissar of the Academy of Military Science, who were absent for reasons of work, Lieutenant General Yu Yonghong and Major General Wang Hongyan, deputy director of the political work department of the Eastern Theater Command, were also absent from this plenum, whereas both were still present at the start of this year.
The only military CCDI member who was absent from the fifth plenum in January this year but attended the sixth plenum is Major General Liu Jun.
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