Yu's Strike? Xin Qi's Father Investigated — Li Peng’s ‘Power Empire’ in Trouble?

Recently, Xin Bao'an, former chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China, reportedly fell from power. Earlier, mainland Chinese actor Yu Menglong died under tragic circumstances, and rumors circulated online that Xin Qi, who was alleged to be deeply connected to the case, was Xin Bao'an's adopted son. At the same time, the family of Li Peng, said to be related by blood to Jiguangguang Li Ming, has also run into trouble. Could this be karma beginning to unfold? Xin Bao'an suddenly falls from grace. At 9.45 p.m. on July 31, 2026, China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, CCDI, and National Commission of Supervision announced on their official website that Xin Bao'an, former party secretary and chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China, was under investigation on suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law. On July 30, 2026, U.S.-based independent commentator Kai Shenken wrote on X, Xin Bao'an, chairman of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, chairman of the China Electricity Council, and former party secretary and chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China, recently led a delegation to New York to attend a United Nations event on global energy interconnection. Shortly after returning to Beijing, he was taken away by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Xin Bao'an spent many years working in the power sector. Under Xi Jinping, after cultivating ties with the Xi brothers, he rose to become the top figure at State Grid. Yet in the end, he too has fallen from grace. In another post, Kai Shenken wrote, The speed of this is truly remarkable and dramatic. It hasn't been long since Xin Bao'an led a delegation to New York, and just last weekend, he was still in Hangzhou attending a meeting. As recently as July 28, China News Service published a feature about him. Today, it was officially announced that he is under investigation. While in New York, friends invited him to dinner, and he was still full of confidence, saying that he was even busier than when he headed State Grid. With so many concurrent positions, he said he barely had any free time. Who would have thought that with a mere wave of the hand from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, he would suddenly have all the free time in the world? Truly tragic. On July 31, 2026, Australia-based content creator Jiang Wangzheng wrote on X that Xin Bao'an was allegedly implicated both in several projects in Xinjiang connected to the case of Ma Xingrui, a fallen member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo, and in the case of Wei Xiaodong, the ousted former chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, involving allegations of buying and selling official positions. These claims have not yet been independently verified. According to publicly available information, Xin Bao'an is 65 years old and a native of Huai County, Henan Province. He previously served as deputy general manager of China Huadian Corporation and later as deputy general manager, general manager, and chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China. He stepped down from his state grid position in March 2024. Notably, Xin spent 11 years as deputy general manager of China Huadian Corporation. The State Grid Corporation of China, commonly known as State Grid, is a massive centrally administered, state-owned enterprise primarily engaged in electricity transmission and distribution. Its operations cover 26 provinces, autonomous regions, and centrally administered municipalities across China, with its power supply network spanning approximately 88% of the country's territory. By the end of 2023, State Grid's total assets had reached RMB 5.54 trillion. As of August 2024, State Grid ranked third among companies on the Fortune Global 500 by revenue, behind Walmart and Amazon. Is Xin Qi the adopted son of Xin Bao'an? After news broke that Xin Bao'an was under investigation, some netizens began asking whether his downfall was a form of retribution connected to the tragic death of actor Yu Menglong. In September 2025, mainland Chinese actor Yu Menglong died after falling from a building in the Yangguang Shandong residential complex in Beijing's Chaoyang District. He was 37 years old. At the time, claims spread widely online that he had been driven to his death by the unspoken rules of mainland China's entertainment industry, while theories involving a so-called sacrifice also emerged. These rumors further implicated families associated with the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party, including Zhiguang Guang, described as a grandson of former Chinese Premier Li Peng, as well as a mysterious figure known as Xin Qi. Rumors later emerged that Xin Qi, who was alleged to have been deeply involved in the Yu Menglong case, was in fact the adopted son of Xin Bao'an, while his biological father was supposedly a senior CCP official. These claims were widely circulated at the time, but their authenticity has still not been independently verified. Xin Qi's real name is Xin Xiaoxiong, and he was born in September 1991. He entered the film and television industry as early as 2011 and soon became the de facto controller of EE Media. At the time, he was only in his early 20s. In China, even a relatively minor position, such as county magistrate, may be held by descendants of powerful families or by individuals with exceptionally strong political connections. EE Media is an enterprise whose scale can be compared with that of some counties in China. Could resources of this magnitude, such a lucrative prize, really be handed over casually to someone from an ordinary background? The argument presented by those making these claims is that this is highly unlikely and that Xin Qi, therefore, must have had powerful backing. Xin Qi's maternal aunt is Tian Hairong, who was also mentioned in discussions surrounding the Yu Menglong case, while his biological mother is Tian Haiyan. The article claims that his mother had ties with certain senior officials and, on that basis, speculates that Xin Qi was very likely from a so-called red political lineage. On July 30, 2026, the CCP Central Committee's Politburo held a meeting and decided that the fifth plenary session would be convened in October. In the second half of 2027, ZCP's 21st National Congress is expected to take place, an event regarded as particularly sensitive for the party. Against this backdrop, observers generally believe that CCP leader Xi Jinping will continue purging rival or dissenting forces within the party during this period, and that factional struggles among the CCP's senior leadership may enter a new and more intense phase. Is Xi Jinping purging the Li Peng family's power empire? Behind Xin Baoyuan lies another family said to be connected to the Yu Menglong case and now facing scrutiny. According to Secret China, China's power industry after the CCP took power as a virtual family domain of former Premier Li Peng, whom it calls the Butcher of Tiananmen. Li Peng was among the first generation of electrical engineers in the CCP government. With deep experience in both northeast China's power system and Beijing's electricity supply network, he began building influence over the sector while serving as Minister of Electric Power. His eldest son, Li Xiaopeng, also studied electrical engineering and built his career in the power industry. After joining Huaneng in 1991, he rose rapidly through China, Huaneng Group, and Huaneng Power International, earning the nickname Asia's Power King, a status the article attributes largely to the sector's monopoly structure. In 2002, Wen Jiabao and Li Peng reportedly clashed over control of the power system during a broader restructuring of China's economy. Under the resulting political arrangement, Li Xiaopeng left the power sector and entered politics in Shaanxi, where coal and electricity were central industries. Yet the network he had built over 26 years in the power system continued to exert influence. Li Xiaopeng became Minister of Transport in 2016, but his political standing later declined. After the CCP's 20th Party Congress, he was sidelined, and in 2024 he was moved to a largely ceremonial post as Deputy Director of the CPPCC Economic Committee. The article argues that Xi Jinping is unlikely to launch an anti-corruption investigation into him, claiming that Wang Qishan remains an obstacle. Li Peng also steered his daughter, Li Xiaolin, into the power sector. She studied at North China Electric Power University and later earned a master's degree in power systems and automation from Tsinghua University. In 1986, at age 25, she moved from the North China Power Administration to the Ministry of Energy, where she worked on international economic and trade affairs. Li Xiaolin later became known as the Big Sister of the power industry, after Li Peng helped establish China Power International in Hong Kong. By 1994, as Assistant General Manager, she had effectively taken control of the ministry-backed company, and in 2008 she became its chairwoman as well as a member of the CPPCC. The article also alleges that Li Xiaolin profited from foreign capital entering China's insurance sector, and points to past investigative reports concerning her financial interests. Hong Kong's Asia Weekly once reported that she was linked to valuable land in Hainan worth more than RMB 10 billion. Documents exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists were also cited as showing that she held about $2.48 million at HSBC and was linked to several other bank accounts. According to the article, detailed records concerning Li Xiaolin and her husband Liu Zhiyuan, including offshore accounts, were allegedly retained in confidential files associated with Wang Qishan. The relationship between Wang Qishan and Li Xiaolin is almost like a blood oath. Yao Mingshan, the third daughter of Yao Yilin, met Wang Qishan when they were both sent to the countryside for labor in Shaanxi, and the two later married. Yao Mingshan is also one of Li Xiaolin's closest friends, a bond rooted in ties between their parents' generation. Back then, General Secretary Zhao Ziyang's authority over personnel appointments had effectively been stripped away by Deng Xiaoping. Zhao could do little but follow Deng's arrangements, while senior party elders dictated terms from the sidelines. When Zhao Ziyang was looking for a premier, Wang Li, Tian Jiyun, and Yao Yilin were all among the candidates. But Yao Yilin reportedly accused Tian Jiyun's relatives of misconduct while himself firmly declining the premiership, effectively handing the position to Li Peng. Li Peng was said to have been deeply grateful, and from then on the two families became close allies who stood by each other through adversity. The article argues that Wang Qishan became a protector of the Li Peng family's interests, largely because of his wife. That meant that whether Xi Jinping wanted to seize the Li family's share of China's power sector or simply redistribute it, Wang Qishan stood in the way. Xi could therefore only isolate Li Shaolin within the system. In May 2015, she was transferred from China Power Investment Corporation to a lower-ranking post as deputy general manager of China Dateng Corporation, one of China's five major centrally controlled power generation groups. From that point on, Xi Jinping effectively cut off what the article describes as Li Shaolin's path to amassing vast wealth. The Li Peng family's power empire then entered a period of decline. Yet, as the article puts it, it was widely believed that the Three Gorges Dam and the Three Gorges Hydropower Project belonged to the Li Peng family's sphere of influence, while the bloodshed of June 4th was inseparably associated with Li Peng himself. Xi Jinping launched anti-corruption campaigns in the power sector without directly targeting the Li Peng family. Like someone afraid to smash the vase while trying to hit the rat. The legacy of the June 4th crackdown, the article argues, remained an invisible sword hanging over the issue. In short, not long after taking power in 2012, Xi Jinping inherited what the article portrays as the CCP's deeply troubled and fragmented system. His answer was the slogan of strict party governance. In practice, the article argues, Using anti-corruption campaigns to restructure the energy sector, overhaul the power system, reorganize the financial framework, and build an entire model of governance centered on party authority. From the Chinese dream, this gradually evolved into what the article calls Xi Jinping's authoritarian new era. Now, as this so-called new era enters a critical stage, opposition to Xi is said to be surging. Ahead of the CCP's 21st Party Congress, efforts to cut into the foundations of Xi Jinping's power are portrayed as carrying the chill of a new white terror, with political knives drawn on all sides. The article contends that Xi Jinping seeks to build an authoritarian party state demanding absolute loyalty and governed as if by the embodiment of a supreme leader. In its use of officials and system-wide governance, it argues, Xin Bao'an, in this telling, is merely a Do you think this is simply a coincidence? Or is it karma unfolding before our eyes? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Thank you and see you next time.