Cai Qi on the Brink, Ma Xingrui Taken Down—Is Xi Losing Control?

Much of China is being ravaged by storms and consumed by catastrophic floods. Inside Zhongnanhai, the power struggle has reached a critical moment. Tsai Chi's position is hanging by a thread. The first family's trusted financial proxy has officially fallen. The long-rumored great disaster is drawing near. How much longer must the Chinese people wait for the change they've long hoped for? Welcome back to Final War with Catherine Hu. This is one of the most devastating summers China has ever endured. From Guangxi province in the far south to Liaoning province in the northeast, much of the country has been engulfed by catastrophic flooding. As typhoons Maysak and Bavi struck in rapid succession, once-in-a-century winds and torrential rains battered vast regions across China. Dam after dam collapsed without any government warning, leaving entire communities submerged beneath raging floodwaters. Yet when disaster struck, Xi was nowhere to be found. He never appeared at the breached dikes, the flooded communities, or the evacuation centers. All the Chinese people saw were dry Xinhua news agency reports and a few written directives from Zhongnanhai. The contrast couldn't have been more striking. While the disaster zones were left in ruins, Zhongnanhai remained eerily untouched. Because behind those closed doors, the battle inside Zhongnanhai had reached the point where neither side could back down. Let's start with Tsai Chi. His latest moves have attracted growing attention. On July 14th, Xinhua news agency released an important announcement. At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will lead a Chinese party and government delegation on an official visit to North Korea from July 15th to 17th. At first glance, it was just a two-line announcement. But something about it didn't add up. What was unusual? The answer is in the wording. The Chinese delegation was invited by both the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the North Korean government. This was first and foremost a party-to-party visit, with the Workers' Party taking the lead. Under normal circumstances, Tsai Chi, not Wang Huning, should have led the delegation. Tsai oversees party affairs and inter-party relations, while Wang serves as chairman of the CPPCC National Committee. So why was Wang Huning leading the delegation instead? The most likely explanation is that Tsai was unable to travel abroad for some special reason. That would also fit a pattern we've been seeing in recent weeks. Tsai has repeatedly been absent from major diplomatic events, where he would normally have been expected. In recent weeks, overseas Chinese-language political circles have been gripped by a stunning claim. An intense power struggle unfolded during the Politburo meeting that had just concluded in late June. As a result, Politburo Standing Committee member Tsai Chi may have been removed from one of the most powerful positions in the Chinese Communist Party. Within the CCP's power structure, the Director of the General Office is often known as the regime's gatekeeper. Its greatest power lies in its authority over the Central Guard Bureau, the elite security force responsible for protecting Whoever controls the General Office holds the political fate of Zhongnanhai's top leaders in their hands. If Tsai Chi has indeed been stripped of this position, it would trigger nothing short of a political earthquake inside Zhongnanhai. Today, we'll walk through the key clues emerging from recent overseas reports and a series of highly unusual developments that suggest Tsai Chi may already have lost control of the General Office and the high-stakes power struggle unfolding behind the scenes. The most reliable way to tell whether a senior CCP official's political standing has changed is to watch how often they appear in state media. For the Director of the CCP General Office, the rule is simple. Wherever Xi goes, whether on an inspection tour or meeting foreign leaders, the General Office Director is expected to remain at his side. In many ways, he serves as Xi's shadow. But in June, that long-standing rule was broken. According to official Chinese state media reports, Tsai Chi was absent from at least five major appearances in the second half of the month. June 16, Xi met with Myanmar's leader, Min Aung Hlaing, in Beijing. Tsai was notably absent. June 24, Xi traveled to Dazhou, Shandong Province for an inspection tour. For the first time in years, the CCP's gatekeeper was nowhere to be seen. June 26, Xi held back-to-back meetings with Cambodia's Senate President Hun Sen and Bangladesh's Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus. Tsai was absent from both meetings. June 29, Xi met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Diaoyu Thai State Guesthouse. Even at such a high-profile diplomatic event, Tsai once again failed to appear. Four summit-level meetings with foreign leaders, one provincial inspection tour. 13 days. Tsai was absent from every single one. In Beijing's highly sensitive political environment, such a complete disappearance from Xi's side can hardly be explained by something as simple as a health issue. It points to a far more significant possibility. Tsai may have already lost his real authority. Some may disagree. After all, Tsai did appear alongside the other Politburo Standing Committee members at the concert marking the CCP's 105th anniversary on the evening of June 29. So how could he possibly be in trouble? Ironically, many overseas observers believe it was that very appearance that offered one of the clearest signs he had already lost power. In the official high-resolution photographs released by Xinhua news agency and the People's Daily after the event, Tsai, seated in the front row according to the Standing Committee's protocol ranking, appeared visibly tense, his face drawn, and unusually grim. Some may disagree. They might argue, But Tsai did appear in Xinhua's July 15th coverage of Xi's inspection tour in Shanghai. That's true, he did. But look more closely. In Xinhua's official photo release, Tsai appeared in only the first and fifth photos. He wasn't the focus of either image. And once again, he wore that same troubled expression. Anyone familiar with the CCP's propaganda system knows that every official photograph of China's top leaders goes through an extraordinarily rigorous political review process. If a photo portrays a senior leader in an unfavorable light, it would almost certainly be rejected long before it was ever released. Yet this official image was different. State media published a photo capturing Tsai Chi with a visibly grim expression. To many overseas observers, that was no coincidence. In the visual language of CCP politics, the image appeared to signal that Tsai had fallen out of favor, or had been subjected to internal criticism. For now, Tsai is still holding on. It may be a while before his removal is officially announced, which is probably why he's still making the occasional public appearance. Ma Xingrui, however, wasn't so fortunate. Widely seen as the Xi family's trusted proxy, he has now been officially brought down. And what awaits him may be far more serious than an ordinary criminal sentence. Ma Xingrui, the former party secretary of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, was once widely seen as one of Xi's rising political stars. A vice state-level leader, believed to be groomed for the next generation of the party's top leadership. Now he has been expelled from the party, stripped of all public office, and handed over to prosecutors. There is little doubt that on the eve of this year's Beidaihe meeting, his downfall sent shockwaves through Zhongnanhai. For most people in the West, Ma is not a familiar name. So before we go any further, let's take a look at who he is. Ma was born in Heilongjiang province, with ancestral roots in Shandong province. That made him a fellow Shandong native of China's first lady, Peng Liwan. He was widely regarded as Peng's most trusted political lieutenant, while his wife, Rong Li, was known to be one of Peng's closest friends. Ma spent much of his career in China's aerospace and technology sector. Over the years, he served as party secretary and general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, president of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space program, commander-in-chief of the country's next generation launch vehicle program, director of the China National Space Administration, and chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority. In short, Ma was a textbook technocrat. He later moved into regional leadership, serving as party secretary of Shenzhen, governor of Guangdong province, and eventually party secretary of Xinjiang. For a time, Ma was widely seen as the face of Xi's technocratic generation and one of the regime's most promising political rising stars. His career seemed to follow the perfect script, from aerospace expert to economic policymaker to one of China's most powerful regional leaders, and finally, into the ranks of the country's vice state-level leadership. His rise and his dramatic fall offers a rare window into the power struggle now unfolding at the very top of Beijing's leadership. So what exactly did Ma do that the party simply couldn't tolerate? On July 14, 2026, Xinhua News Agency released a brief announcement. The CPC Central Committee has decided to expel Ma Xingri from the party and dismiss him from all public office. The announcement then laid out the reasons for his downfall. The list of accusations was remarkably long. It covered nearly every major party discipline violation one could imagine. The allegations were staggering. Let's take a closer look. Ma Xingri has lost his ideals, convictions, and political principles. He has abandoned the party's purpose and its original mission. He seriously violated the party's political discipline and political rules, failed to fulfill his primary responsibility for exercising full and rigorous party self-governance, tolerated and failed to properly supervise serious disciplinary violations, illegal activities, and suspected criminal offenses committed by members of his staff, resulting in serious adverse consequences. He seriously violated the party's organizational discipline by failing to truthfully explain relevant issues during organizational inquiries, sought benefits for others in the selection and appointment of officials, and improperly arranged jobs for others through himself and his relatives. He seriously violated the party's integrity discipline by illegally accepting gifts and money, helping relatives purchase property at below-market prices, engaging in exchanges of power for sex and money for sex, allowing his relatives to exploit the influence of his office to obtain enormous illicit benefits, and engaging in large-scale family corruption. He turned public power into a tool for personal gain, using his official position to seek benefits for others in business operations, engineering contracts, and official promotions, while he himself, together with his relatives and other closely associated individuals, illegally accepted enormous amounts of money and valuables. Ma Xingrui has completely abandoned the principles of party discipline and seriously violated the political standards required by the Party Central Committee for Senior Officials. His conduct seriously violated party discipline, constituted serious violations of public office, and is suspected of accepting bribes. Even after the Party's 18th National Congress, he showed no restraint and did not stop. The nature of his misconduct is extremely serious, and its impact has been extremely damaging. That's a long list of charges, almost overwhelming at first glance, but if you take a closer look, two things immediately stand out. First, look at what Ma was actually accused of. Failing to supervise his staff, helping relatives buy property at below market prices, arranging jobs for others, engaging in exchanges of power for sex and money for sex, running a corrupt family network, and accepting bribes. Anyone familiar with the CCP system might find that list almost absurd, because these aren't extraordinary offences, they've become part of the system itself, their standard practice. Almost every senior official plays by the same rules, you could even argue that refusing to do so would make it nearly impossible to rise through the ranks. And yet Ma, a Politburo member and someone widely regarded as being close to the First Family, was brought down over precisely these routine, systemic forms of corruption. The message behind that couldn't be much clearer. So just how much money was involved in Ma's case? One of the earliest overseas commentators to report Ma's downfall claimed that Ma and his wife were involved in a case involving assets worth as much as 1 trillion yuan. The same source claimed that Ma's secretary, Li Guanglu, was tied to about 6 billion yuan, while both his younger brother and younger sister were allegedly involved in cases exceeding 10 billion yuan each. Because of the Ma family's close ties to Peng, Xi's wife, one view has long circulated among people familiar with elite CCP politics, that most of the assets allegedly linked to the Ma family were actually being held on behalf of the First Family. If that's true, then Ma's downfall would also explain why Peng seemed to lose her political voice almost overnight. Now let's turn to the second part of the announcement that deserves our attention. Even after the party's 18th National Congress, he showed no restraint and did not stop. The nature of his misconduct is extremely serious and its impact is extremely severe. You could argue that this is an indirect way of pointing the finger at Xi and Peng. Why? The answer lies in Ma's career timeline. He left the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation in March 2013, just as Xi had taken over as China's president and consolidated all three top positions. That means the corruption described in the disciplinary announcement largely took place after Ma entered regional politics, particularly during his years in Guangdong province, not during his time in the aerospace sector. In other words, the overwhelming majority of the misconduct cited in the announcement allegedly occurred after Xi had personally elevated him through the ranks. So two basic questions naturally follow. Who promoted Ma? And who was he really working for? The answer is obvious. Finally, while the charges against Ma are largely routine by CCP standards, the official conclusion that the nature of his misconduct is extremely serious and its impact is extremely severe is exactly the same wording used in the cases of He Weidong and Miao Hua. Based on that precedent, Ma will most likely receive a suspended death sentence. Behind these sweeping purges and unusually harsh official statements, another major shift is quietly taking shape. China's foreign policy is being redirected under the Central Decision-Making and Coordination Commission. By now, one thing is clear. The two wars unfolding today, the war in Ukraine and the war involving Iran, are both closely connected to the CCP. For more than a decade, Xi has stood behind both Russia and Iran. He has been the central force holding this so-called axis of evil together. So if the CCP, now being steered by the Central Decision-Making and Coordination Commission, wants to escape its diplomatic crisis, it must first bring the Xi faction's political performance to an end. According to a source familiar with senior leadership in Beijing, party elders have already opened communication with the Ukrainian government about inviting President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit China. If that visit takes place, it could allow the CCP to shed its image as part of the so-called axis of evil. That would mark a major shift in Beijing's foreign policy. But why would the party elders make such a move? According to the same source, Vladimir Putin is now mobilizing his allies inside the CCP in an effort to prop up Xi's leadership and support his bid for another term in power. In early 2022, Putin traveled to Beijing to discuss the planned invasion of Ukraine with Xi. Xi then gave him the promise of a China-Russia partnership with no limits, helping set the stage for a war that has brought devastating losses to both sides. But the war did not unfold the way Putin or Xi expected. Russia failed to win, and the longer the fighting continues, the clearer it becomes that Russia is heading toward defeat, and that Putin's rule may fall with it. Putin later encouraged Iran to direct Hamas to attack Israel, setting off a wider war in the Middle East. He also pressed Xi to follow through an earlier commitment and ignite a conflict across the Taiwan Strait. Last month, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one of Putin's closest allies, traveled to China. He was there to sound out the situation and to deliver Putin's demand that Xi move quickly on Taiwan, easing the pressure now closing in on Moscow. But Xi was already on the verge of losing power. He had long since lost control of the military and no longer had the ability to start a war across the Taiwan Strait. If party elders hadn't stepped in, the Xi leadership would almost certainly have launched a Taiwan Strait conflict before October 2027, using war to pave the way for Xi to remain in power for life. For Putin, there are no good moves left, but the party elders still have options. If Xi steps down, China's diplomatic isolation can still be eased. That's why a shift away from Xi also means a shift away from Putin and from Russia. In that context, inviting President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit China has become one of the Central Decision-Making and Coordination Commission's most important steps toward resetting China's foreign policy. As for when that move will be made public, we'll just have to wait and see. China today is being battered by one crisis after another. Natural disasters and man-made tragedies are unfolding across the country. And as if that weren't enough, COVID-19 is once again on the rise. According to data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on July 8th, nearly 79,000 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed across China in June, with infections continuing to climb. For thousands of years, the Chinese have believed that natural disasters are never merely acts of nature. They are heaven's warning, and at times, heaven's judgment upon those who rule. Today, a number of well-known prophets and researchers of prophecy around the world have warned that the summer of 2026, or the months ahead, could bring disasters to China far greater than the floods and the resurgence of COVID-19 we are witnessing today. Let's help awaken more Chinese people to the reality before them. And let us hope that more people will hold on to their faith, their compassion, and the goodness in their hearts, whatever may lie ahead. Get the real story behind the CCP's shifting power games, and see where U.S.-China relations are headed next. Support the vision of a new China without communism. Subscribe now and join us in bringing the truth to light.