The sixth plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was held in Beijing recently, and Zhang Shengmin, a vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, was absent from the meeting, which has prompted speculation. Xiao Pei and Fu Kui, CCDI deputy secretaries and former subordinates of Wang Qishan, were seated below the dais, a rare sight, and some analysts say the two may already have been removed from those posts. There are claims that Fu Kui was caught up in the case of the violent death of Liu Wenjie, head of the Hunan provincial finance department.
Zhang Shengmin absent from the sixth CCDI plenum
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. It was attended by 116 CCDI members, the lowest attendance yet, and the plenum elected Zhao Shiyong and Zhang Zhong as deputy secretaries of the commission.
Reviewing footage from the CCP mouthpiece CCTV’s Xinwen Lianbo broadcast, the X user “China Personnel Watch” counted that the number of CCDI members from the CCP military attending had fallen again from the previous plenum, dropping from 22 at the start of the term, at the fourth plenum in January 2025, to only nine this time.
The nine military members who attended the sixth plenum were: Zhang Shuguang, secretary of the CCP military discipline commission, an army general; Hu Yuhai, director of the navy’s political work department, who is in charge of navy political work, a navy vice admiral; Liu Xunyan, former secretary of the navy discipline commission, a navy vice admiral; Zhu Guobiao, former deputy political commissar of the armed police force, an armed police lieutenant general; Mo Yongcheng, political commissar of the navy logistics department, a navy rear admiral; Ma Xuedi, deputy political commissar of the Western Theater Command air force, an air force major general; Liu Jun, former director of the political work bureau of the Central Military Commission equipment development department, an air force major general; Zhang Aihua, a full-time member at corps leader grade of the CMC discipline commission, an army major general; and Han Xianfeng, former deputy head and discipline commission secretary of the CMC national defense mobilization department, an air force major general.
Footage broadcast by CCTV’s Xinwen Lianbo showed that Zhang Shengmin, a CCDI deputy secretary and a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, did not attend the sixth plenum. He did not appear on the dais as he usually would, nor did he attend as an ordinary CCDI member. He has been in a similar position before.
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In October 2025, after Zhang Shengmin, then secretary of the CCP military discipline commission, was promoted to vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, he failed to attend several CCDI standing committee meetings in succession. He did attend the fifth plenum of the 20th CCDI in January 2026 and was seated on the dais.
On July 3, 2026, a CCDI standing committee meeting was held in Beijing, chaired by CCDI Secretary Li Xi, and Zhang Shengmin was again absent. On the same day, Zhang Shuguang, secretary of the military discipline commission and director of the CMC supervision commission, and air force commander Wang Gang were both promoted to general by Xi Jinping, an indication that Zhang Shuguang had already taken over from Zhang Shengmin as secretary of the CCP military discipline commission.
Zhang Shengmin has still not been publicly removed from the post of CCDI deputy secretary since stepping down as secretary of the military discipline commission, and Zhang Shuguang, the new secretary of that commission, was not added as a CCDI deputy secretary at the sixth plenum.
The reason Zhang Shengmin missed the CCDI standing committee meeting of July 3 this year and then the sixth plenum of the 20th CCDI on Aug. 22 is unknown. As many as 13 military members were also absent from the sixth plenum.
Deputy secretaries Xiao Pei and Fu Kui seated below the dais, a rare sight
Two former subordinates of Wang Qishan, the former CCDI secretary, also appeared in unusual circumstances.
Footage of the meeting shown on CCTV’s Xinwen Lianbo on the evening of Aug. 22, 2026, indicated that before the “election” was held at the plenum, a total of 14 officials were seated on the dais. They were CCDI Secretary Li Xi; five CCDI deputy secretaries, Liu Jinguo, Yu Hongqiu, Sun Xinyang, Liu Xuexin and Zhang Fuhai; and eight members of the CCDI standing committee, Wang Aiwen, Wang Hongjin, Xu Luode, Zhao Shiyong, Li Xinran, Hou Kai, Yin Bai and Mu Hongyu.
CCDI deputy secretaries Xiao Pei and Fu Kui were seated below the dais.
On this point, “China Personnel Watch” posted on X that 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 indicated, the post said, that they were no longer serving as CCDI deputy secretaries, and that they had not stepped down at this plenum but had already ceased to hold the posts before it convened. The addition of Zhao Shiyong and Zhang Zhong as deputy secretaries at this plenum, the post said, filled the vacancies left by Xiao Pei and Fu Kui.
The reason for their departure has also prompted speculation. On this, “China Personnel Watch” noted that Yu Hongqiu, a woman older than both Xiao Pei and Fu Kui, remains a CCDI deputy secretary, which suggests that Xiao and Fu were not removed in the normal course on account of age.
Public records show that Fu Kui is from Danjiangkou, Hubei province. He began working at the CCDI in August 1986 and held posts including director of the discipline inspection and supervision research institute and CCDI deputy secretary-general concurrently serving as director of the comprehensive supervision office.
Wang Qishan served as secretary of the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection from Nov. 15, 2012, to Oct. 25, 2017. In January 2014, Fu Kui became a full-time deputy director of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention and director of the CCDI’s corruption prevention office. In March 2014 he became a full-time deputy director of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention and director of the CCDI’s international cooperation bureau, concurrently serving as director of the newly established international cooperation bureau of the CCDI and Ministry of Supervision and as head of the central office for pursuing fugitives.
In July 2015, Fu Kui was transferred to become a member of the Hunan provincial party standing committee and secretary of the provincial discipline inspection commission. In January 2021 he was added as a deputy secretary of the CCDI, and in February 2021 he was appointed a deputy director of the National Supervisory Commission.
Fu Kui served as secretary of the Hunan provincial discipline inspection commission for more than five years. Zhou Liang, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, who fell in March 2026, and Jiang Chaoliang, the former Hubei provincial party secretary, who fell in February 2025, are both natives of Hunan, and both are former subordinates of Wang Qishan.
On Feb. 22, 2025, Cai Shenkun, a US-based independent commentator, posted on X that before the Wuhan outbreak at the end of 2019, Jiang Chaoliang was party secretary of Hubei, a post Wang Qishan had recommended him for to Xi Jinping. Wang Qishan, he wrote, supported Xi’s all-out anti-corruption campaign during Xi’s first term and supported Xi’s amendment of the constitution, and Xi accepted almost every cadre Wang Qishan recommended.
Wang Qishan also has ties to Hunan officialdom.
From March 2018 to March 2023, Wang Qishan served as a deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress for Hunan province. During the CCP’s annual sessions in that period, Wang Qishan took part in deliberations with the Hunan delegation.
Claims that Fu Kui was caught up in the death of Hunan’s finance chief Liu Wenjie
CCP authorities have still not formally announced the removal of Fu Kui from the post of CCDI deputy secretary or given a reason. Fu Kui has been alleged to have been caught up in the case of Liu Wenjie, the head of Hunan’s provincial finance department, who fell to her death.
In September 2024, Liu Wenjie, director of the Hunan provincial finance department, was killed, and the suspects Jiang Yihui and Jiang Hui died in a fall.
On Sept. 27, 2024, Cai Shenkun said on his self-media program that Liu Wenjie’s husband was a deputy-bureau-level official in the Hunan provincial audit department, and that Liu Wenjie had become acquainted with the suspect Jiang Yihui while she was a deputy division head at the finance department. From 2015 to 2018, Fu Kui was secretary of the Hunan provincial discipline inspection commission and was close to Liu Wenjie.
According to the claim, Fu Kui’s son was short of money in a real estate business, and Fu approached Liu Wenjie for help in raising 60 million yuan. Liu Wenjie turned to Jiang Yihui to raise the funds, at 15 percent interest and with Liu Wenjie as guarantor. Jiang Yihui borrowed the 60 million on the private lending market. Liu Wenjie subsequently rose smoothly to become head of the audit department and then head of the finance department. Because the real estate market had gone cold, Fu’s son was unable to repay the principal and interest. Jiang Yihui, left with no choice, repeatedly telephoned Liu to demand repayment, and the tragedy eventually followed.
Cai Shenkun said at the time that Liu Wenjie’s husband, at the audit department, had already been taken into custody, and that Fu Kui would probably not escape detention either.
Claims that Liu Wenjie may have been borrowing for the “Seven Princelings of Hunan”
In September 2024, Jiang Wangzheng, an Australia-based commentator, told the overseas Chinese-language outlet The Epoch Times that the private lending Liu Wenjie had guaranteed might have amounted to between 240 million and 250 million yuan, and that a large part of it may have flowed to the “Seven Princelings of Hunan.”
According to a list circulating unofficially, the “Seven Princelings of Hunan” are Yi Shiwei, son of Yi Lianhong, the former Zhejiang provincial party secretary and former Changsha party secretary; the son of Yi Huiman, the former chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission; the son of Yi Pengfei, a former vice chairman of the Hunan provincial CPPCC; the son of Li Weiwei, a former chairman of the Hunan provincial CPPCC; the son of Huang Lanxiang, a former vice chairman of the Hunan provincial CPPCC; the son of Mei Kebao, a former deputy head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision and former deputy party secretary of Hunan; and the son of Hu Henghua, the former mayor of Chongqing and former Changsha party secretary.
Of those, Yi Lianhong, Hu Henghua, Li Weiwei and Yi Pengfei have all already fallen.
On March 18, 2026, shortly before the CCP officially announced Hu Henghua’s fall, Jiang Wangzheng claimed that after six months of examination by the CCDI, Hu Henghua had been taken away for investigation by the CCDI’s fifth supervision office. Jiang Wangzheng also claimed that the CCDI had a mole inside it, and pointed to Fu Kui, then a CCDI deputy secretary.
It is not possible at present to confirm the truth of the claims above.
Separately, Xiao Pei, another former subordinate of Wang Qishan, has also drawn attention.
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, 2026, a CCDI standing committee meeting was held and Xiao Pei was absent, which may mean that he had already moved to the second line early, without completing a full term as a CCDI deputy secretary.
In May of the same year, Cai Shenkun claimed that Xiao Pei had been named by Zhou Liang, the fallen deputy head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, and was subsequently removed and investigated.
During this sixth CCDI plenum, Fu Kui and Xiao Pei, both CCDI deputy secretaries and both former subordinates of Wang Qishan, were seated below the dais, which is highly unusual.
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