Xi’s Secret Love Files: 6 Mistresses, 5 Vanished Men & Hong Kong’s Darkest Kidnapping

Since the Yan Lan Lan case, a flood of reports about Xi Jinping's extramarital affairs has surfaced. The burning question on everyone's mind is, just how many lovers does Xi Jinping have? In 2015, West Point Publishing in Los Angeles released a book titled Xi Jinping and His Lovers, which detailed his relationships with six women, including Peng Liwan. At first, the book was dismissed as a tabloid-style novel. But when five key staff members of Hong Kong's Causeway Bay Books, linked to the publication, mysteriously disappeared that same year, curiosity about its content skyrocketed. So, what exactly made the book so politically fatal? Let's take a look. The Fuzhou Dream Without Snow The book claims that after marrying Peng Liwan, Xi Jinping became party secretary of Fuzhou in 1990. Since his wife was often away performing, he grew lonely and began an affair with a Fujian Southeast TV host named Meng Shui. Their romance was an open secret in Fujian. When the rumors reached Peng Liwan, she didn't make a scene. She took their newborn daughter back to Beijing and tearfully confided in her in-laws. Knowing that Xi was an important political asset to their son, Xi's parents intervened. His father summoned him to Beijing, where Xi wrote a letter of apology and a pledge to break things off. Though hard to verify officially, records confirm that Fujian Southeast TV did indeed have a young female host named Meng Shui at the time, whose real name was Ma Xin. According to Baidu, Meng Shui was originally from northeast China. She began her career in 1989 at Shen Yun People's Radio, where her clear voice and natural, approachable style made her stand out. Her news program Hotline Bulletin enjoyed high ratings. In 1991, she moved south to Fujian, hosting shows for China-Hawaii Broadcasting. She quickly won national awards, including first prize in a broadcasting contest. By 1993, she was producing and hosting essays on TV programs and popular youth shows, consistently taking top honors. In 1997, Meng Shui's Time, a celebrity interview show named after her, premiered, marking the first time in Fujian She interviewed luminaries across politics, culture, sports, and entertainment, and the show became one of the network's highest rated. At the height of her career, Meng Shui juggled roles as producer, planner, director, and anchor, even winning a national bronze award for television hosts. Then, strangely, after 2008, she vanished entirely from the media world. No one knew where she went. What's more, her rise and disappearance eerily paralleled Xi Jinping's own trajectory. As he rose from local leadership to the central stage, Meng Shui faded away. As a princeling, Xi needed to sever old ties to avoid suspicion of factionalism. So the story goes. A brief first love. Back when Xi Jinping was sent as a sent-down youth to Yan'an Shaanxi, he experienced his first love, revealed in the March 2013 issue of Bojan magazine. According to the account, Xi won the heart of a young woman using his own method, playing the role of the hero rescuing the damsel in distress. But the romance only lasted three months before fading away without closure. The girl, Xiao Hong, was the daughter of a senior officer at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, carrying the aura of a red aristocrat. Xi and Xi were both among the group of educated youths sent down to Yan'an. Xi was assigned to Lianjiahe Village while she lived in Panjagu. During the Lunar New Year of 1969, the local authorities organized a cultural performance for the Beijing youths. Xiao Hong and several other young women performed a graceful Tibetan dance, captivating the audience. After the event, Xi and a few young men played a mischievous prank. They disguised themselves as ghosts along the road to frighten the girls, then staged a heroic rescue. Out of this playful ruse blossomed Xi's first romance with Xiao Hong. But it was short-lived. At the time, Xi's father, Xi Zhongshun, was being persecuted, and Xi himself grew disillusioned with the way local cadres treated him. Unable to endure the hardships of rural labor, he stormed off in anger and returned to Beijing. Xiao Hong later traveled to Beijing to check on him, but was barred from seeing him. All she could do was leave behind some money and food before returning alone to Shaanxi. Six months later, Xi came back to Liangzhi, having changed his heart and mind to accept re-education through labor. But his relationship with Xiao Hong had already dissolved in silence. In 1977, the two crossed paths again at a gathering in Beijing. By then, Xi was a student at Tsinghua University, while Xiao Hong was married. When Xi inquired after her, he learned her husband was a military officer. These were Xi Jinping's tender, youthful years, proof that first loves always carry a certain beauty. Yet one mystery remains. Why, when he returned to Shaanxi, did he not seek Xiao Hong out again? Perhaps it was nothing more than a personal matter. Still, as the saying goes, from a single leaf one can know the coming of autumn. Was this the same method Xi later used to abduct the five key staff members of Causeway Bay Books? A failed marriage. On August 28, 2015, an unexpected article appeared on mainland China's WeChat. Under the headline, UK Chinese Times interviews Xi Jinping's ex-wife, Kei Lingling. It revealed that Kei Xiaoming, better known as Kei Lingling, was also a second-generation Red, the youngest daughter of former Chinese ambassador to the UK, Kei Hua, real name Lin Desheng. She was Xi Jinping's first wife from 1979 to 1982 and was two years older than him. Kei Hua had graduated from Yenching University before joining the Communist Party in Yan'an. From 1940 onward, he worked in the party's Northwest Bureau under Xi Zhongshun, Xi Jinping's father. The two families had long been connected. In 1978, Kei Hua became ambassador to the UK. The following year, through family arrangements, Xi and Kei married. What seemed like a perfectly matched union on paper, however, ended in complete failure for both sides. The Financial Times once ran a feature on Xi Jinping's two marriages to Kei Lingling and Peng Liyuan, citing U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The reports claimed the couple's lifestyles were drastically different and that they quarreled almost daily. Having lived abroad for a long time, especially in Britain, Kei Lingling had a liberal outlook. As early as the early 1980s, she was already considering emigration. She wanted Xi to remain with her in the UK, where her father's position gave her advantages. Xi, however, had no such intention. At the time, he was serving as secretary to Geng Biao, vice-premier and secretary-general of the Central Military Commission, a loyal princeling eager to rise in politics. With his father's help, he was preparing to take up the post of deputy party secretary of Zhengding County, Hebei, with a promising future ahead. This clashed irreconcilably with Kei's plan to emigrate. When Kei Lingling eventually returned to the UK, Xi refused to follow. The marriage ended in divorce. Where is she now? Reports suggest that she later became a senior director at a private hospital in the UK and a visiting professor at the London School of Oriental and African Medicine with a highly successful career. So how did Kei Lingling see Xi Jinping? According to UK Chinese Times, At that time, Xi Jinping was campaigning to become party secretary of Zhengding County. He firmly rejected the chance to emigrate to Britain with me and criticized me for being too enamored with Western prosperity. After many failed attempts to persuade him, we finally parted ways. She recalled, In those days, divorce was a very serious matter. My marriage with Xi Jinping was very short. The main thing was that we had almost nothing in common, so there was no question of regret. Back then, he was extremely determined, focused on building a great career. Whatever I said, he never seemed to listen. So I chose divorce. Distance made it impossible to build a real marriage or relationship. My father strongly opposed it. He thought I was being far too impulsive. During my first three years in the UK, he phoned me almost every week. You know, in those days, calling from China to Britain was very inconvenient. Telephones weren't widely available in China, not like now. But I never picked up a single call. It broke his heart. I know he tried to save the marriage, but I was resolute. Over time, we stopped contacting each other. I think deep down he still held some feelings. He was a man of ideals. I always believed he had potential. But to me, at that time, his potential meant nothing. He was not a dreamer. He worked methodically, step by step, with a plan. I was probably more idealistic, as women often prefer romantic men. But Xi Jinping was not like that. Often, I found him too rigid, something shaped by his upbringing and education. When he later became vice president, we met once in Shenzhen. I was there with my sister and father to visit a grave. Xi was on an inspection trip and came to pay respects to my father. I was present. He shook hands with the whole family, including me. It was an awkward meeting, about half an hour of small talk. I only felt that he had aged a great deal. The Book Xi Jinping Hates the Most The three romances mentioned earlier are only the ones widely known to the public, and they may have been included in the book Xi Jinping's Lovers. That same year, the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated Hong Kong and abducted Li Bo in connection with Causeway Bay Books' large-scale publication of political works, Banned Books. At the center of the storm was an upcoming title said to chronicle Xi Jinping's love life from 1985 to 2002. Just three weeks before Li Bo vanished, The Guardian had interviewed him. At the time, Li said, I think some people don't want that book to reach the market. They kidnapped those involved in order to make sure it wouldn't be published. He also explained that the book's contents had been planned entirely by someone else, while the other three men who disappeared were only responsible for selling the books. Yet they were abducted, most likely because of this planned publication. Political commentator Sang Pu observed, Freedom of speech and freedom of publishing are outward expressions of freedom of thought, and they are the foundation of human dignity. Unless words or writings pose a clear and present danger, they cannot be censored. What clear and present danger did Li Bo and the others create by trying to publish a book about Xi Jinping and his lovers? If the public learned that Xi had mistresses besides Peng Liwan, would that endanger anyone in an immediate and tangible way? If so, tell me how. I honestly cannot see it. It defies logic. If national security refers to things like this, then such a nation is nothing more than a house of paper which should have collapsed long ago. The CCP's abduction of Li Bo and four others, along with its crackdown on Causeway Bay books, was nothing less than a violent assault on Hong Kong's freedom of speech and publishing. It was a classic case of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, a warning to intimidate the rest of society. In popular discourse, people often refer to these political works about mainland China as banned books. But this is a deeply misleading label. Has the Hong Kong government ever officially designated which books are banned? Has the mainland government ever openly published such a list? No. There has been no law, no government decree, no court judgment declaring that Xi Jinping's lovers should be prohibited. So where does this so-called definition of banned books come from? I have to note that Sang Pu is a political commentator and lawyer, a graduate of National Taiwan University's law school, now living in Hong Kong. Since 2007, he has published extensively in both print and online media, including Apple Daily, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Home News, Open Magazine, Liberty Times, Taiwan, BBC Chinese, The Observer US, and China Democracy. Sang Pu further remarked, People's psychology can be strange. They often deny what isn't there, and the more they cover up, the more obvious it becomes. Recently, the CCP even released a song titled Big Big Xi Loves Mama Peng with lyrics like, Big Big Xi loves Mama Peng This love is like a legend Mama Peng loves Big Big Xi With love, the world becomes great Tell me, what ordinary man would enjoy having such words sung on the streets? In truth, someone who has been through extramarital affairs inevitably carries a deep inner void. They try to patch it over, to display loyalty and perfection before their wife and the public, overcompensating in hopes of silencing nightmares. But as folk rumors about Xi's love life kept surfacing, that inner void began to erupt. The lie that Xi Jinping is indifferent to women could no longer hold. Unable to bear it, he lashed out by ordering the kidnapping of Li Bo and the others, deceiving the public yet again. But when others see through him, he still insists he is right, digging his own grave. In the end, Xi can abduct living people, but he cannot abduct texts, songs, truths, or justice. Inevitably, he will realize that he has, in his own way, tied himself up, nailing himself to the pillar of history's judgment. And with that, dear viewers, if you found this interesting, don't forget to like and subscribe so you won't miss the next episode. Thank you, and see you next time.