Why did Xi's wife show up high-profile recently? She once disappeared in public for a year

the wife of current chinese president xi jinping is a famous soprano and a civilian officer in the military as well as a visiting professor at the china conservatory of music and an adjunct professor at peking university her name is pong li yuan recently pong has made frequent public appearances at high profile events and media interviews prompting speculation that the first lady of the chinese communist party or ccp might enter politics on november 11th and 12th the tianjin municipal government held a seminar and a symposium to learn from the spirit of professor pong li yuan's letter which it said would be conducive to promoting china-u.s relations back to the right track of stable development the letter refers to the congratulatory letter for the inauguration of the tianjin juilliard school campus on october 26th which was established jointly by the tianjin conservatory of music and the american juilliard school once a rather low-key person china's first lady has made frequent high-profile appearances in the public eye in the last three months on september 15th pung attended the 14th national games of china with xi jinping on october 15th pong attended and addressed the 2021 unesco prize for girls and women's education by video from beijing and on november 10th pong was interviewed in writing for a special issue of the unesco courier magazine the public interpreted pong's interview with a courier as an endorsement of her husband's poverty eradication policies and claims of building a community with a shared future for mankind pong was appointed unesco special envoy for girls and women's education on march 27 2014 although these activities are nothing out of the ordinary for china's first lady just as the wife of the u.s president attends all necessary occasions it's the unusual treatment by the ccp media that has been peculiar leading the public to speculate the ranking and weight of government officials reported by the ccp media is often an important tool for the chinese public and observers to analyze the ccp power charts recently pong's activities have been featured in high profile media outlets in china in particular on november 10th pong was interviewed in a special issue of unesco courier magazine during a major ccp meeting during that period there were no events or coverage of other top ccp leaders china's state news agency xinhua reported on punk's story and at the same time the story appeared as the second most important news item on state television punk has a military rank of major general and her treatment in the military is equivalent to the rank of deputy minister or minister of state in the civil government yet china's highest ranking state media such as cctv or the party media treat her in a way that places her higher than members of the ccp's politburo such as higher than the rank of a deputy state leader when mao zedong the first party leader after the ccp regime took power in mainland china launched the cultural revolution in his later years his biggest assistant was his wife jiang ching jiang ching was once a movie star during the cultural revolution she became a member of the ccp's politburo and moved around on mao's orders after mao died she was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the aftermath of the cultural revolution the ccp learned a lesson and developed a sub-rule that the wives of ccp leaders shouldn't get involved in politics as recently as october 15 2021 an article was published in the study times a newspaper of the specialized school for the communist party it described how she seldom took pong to events when he worked as a local government official where having his wife attend would have been okay he said when i brought my wife along all the time people would gossip and it would have a bad influence but during xi's administration pong's role appears to be elevating what this is about we will analyze later now let's take a look at she's family pong and she were introduced to each other in 1986 when she served as the vice mayor of xiamen city fujian province pong was already a household name in china as a singer chinese media reported that pong was from an ordinary family and that her parents didn't approve of the marriage not wanting their daughter to marry someone from a senior ccp family fearing that it would place her in a vulnerable position she reassured pong saying my father is the son of a peasant and is very easy going children in the family are looking for commoners children as spouses i will explain to your parents and they will accept me this is somewhat true she's father was once the head of the ccp central committee's propaganda department during the cultural revolution among the ccp leaders he and his family were one of the first families to be affected in 1968 when xi jinping was 15 years old he was repeatedly imprisoned and interrogated by the authorities because of his father afterwards she was sent to a small extremely poor village in shanxi province where he spent seven very difficult years he returned to beijing in 1975 to attend university she's older sister was persecuted and killed during the cultural revolution she later told the media that when he received the news of his sister's death i was digging a bomb shelter there and cried when i got the news foreign in september 1987 she and pong got married at the time no chinese media would have imagined that 25 years later she would be the head of the ccp and pong would be the first lady of china as a well-known chinese singer pong used to often give interviews to the chinese media she usually didn't reveal her husband's name or work position but did talk about her marriage and family from past interviews one can feel punk's happiness and pride in her husband in this 1999 television program the host asked pong if she had felt she had married down in social status because at the time xi jinping wasn't known in china's vast hierarchy of bureaucrats he wasn't as famous as his wife pong replied i've been married to him for more than 10 years and i'm filled with happiness she described her husband as a man with a successful career ambitious and very intelligent she also explained in the traditional concept of chinese women especially in shandong province the hometown of confucius where confucianism is practiced no matter how famous a woman is after she marries a man i am in a subordinate position she also said things like cooking tasty meals and keeping a clean and warm home made her very happy in traditional chinese culture there is a division of labor between the husband and wife in the family with the man usually taking charge of the external affairs and the woman taking care of the internal affairs of the family china has a cultural tradition of balancing yin and yang with the man as the young and the woman is the yin therefore in china's dynastic system for thousands of years the empress rarely participated in politics if the empress replaced the emperor to preside over political affairs from the ministers down to the people they would think that the yin and yang were out of balance which was a manifestation of the imbalance of energy in nature and an abnormal phenomenon a 1993 video filmed by beijing tv showed she in a family setting at that time she was a local official serving as a mayor in fujian province no [Music] the clip also showed she and pong cooking in the kitchen with she reminding his wife add some salt and sugar pong brought the stir-fried dishes to the table and told the reporter which dishes were made by her which were made by her husband and which were by her parents while she held the baby on his lap during the meal users on twitter said this old footage had allegedly been completely removed in mainland china it's now only available outside of china not surprisingly xi's family is like many other ordinary families in mainland china they have more or less inherited the mindset of traditional chinese civilization that lasted thousands of years but the communist party's culture has been attacking and altering chinese people and families in a very violent way the famous propaganda song of the ccp goes like this father is dear mother is dear but the party is the dearest of all the ccp's party culture can be summed up in three words hypocrisy wickedness and struggle the 10-year cultural revolution was an attempt to use the party culture to completely subvert the traditional chinese culture replacing the traditional thinking and the qualities of the chinese people so many chinese officials are friendly and kind in their families and friends circles and can communicate normally but when they appear in official circles they take on a different form using a distinctive set of party language and expressions in 2020 it was noted that pong virtually disappeared from public life for a year that is from december 2019 when pung attended a public event with xi jinping she remained invisible until her reappearance in november 2020 between may and june 2020 the ccp's push for a national security law in hong kong sparked worldwide controversy rumors circulated on the internet that there had been a family change between she and his wife over hong kong a well-known pro-democracy activist said that the secretary of a senior chinese official he knew wrote to tell him that pong and her daughter sympathetic to hong kong students officially separated from xi in december 2019 and refused to appear with him on any official occasion the ccp central office repeatedly approached pong to try to change her mind but to no avail since 2021 punk has returned to the public eye and has recently made high profile appearances this may be a signal that she needs the help of his family to consolidate his power the situation is somewhat similar to the era of mao zedong during the cultural revolution senior communist party officials had fewer and fewer trusted subordinates and allies in the brutal party struggle and the wives had to step in to help their husbands consolidate their power thus during that era both the number one and number two leaders of the ccp that is mao zedong and lin biao had their wives serve as members of the pull-up bureau which was the executive committee for the ccp xi's political rival within the party is the former party leader jiang zimin to combat the jiang faction she has brought down a large number of officials through the anti-corruption campaign since taking office and has created many enemies in recent years she has attempted to use slogans from mao's era to govern china these bankrupt communist theories have driven away the liberal and reformist factions within the ccp from trusting him as a result she has fewer and fewer officials to trust and rely on for xi jinping even though the ccp had persecuted his father and killed his sister he seems to be holding on to a gross delusion that the ccp system which runs counter to the universal human values can protect his power thus he has chosen to ride and die with the party rather than abandon the communist system and bring the nation back to normal society for pong li yuan it's possible that in order to protect the safety of her husband and family she will be forced into the brutal political game of the ccp whether she likes it or not [Music] you