NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

Chinese President Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of its Central Military Commission, has emerged in the past two years as the country’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

Inside the Ring has learned the details of an internal U.S. assessment of Mr. Xi’s most important advisers. They include two key members of the Communist Party politburo standing committee and one former committee member who are part of what was regarded in the past as the collective dictatorship that rules China.

The most dominant figure after Mr. Xi in China today is former Beijing Mayor Cai Qi, who was elevated to the nine-member standing committee in 2022. Mr. Cai was picked by Mr. Xi in 2017 to head the party committee in Beijing, the first time a person was appointed to that position without first being on the party central committee.

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Mr. Cai then took on two important security roles in 2023. He was made deputy chief of the CCP national security commission and leader of the central cyberspace affairs commission, making him a key figure in restricting the flow of information in China.

A Western diplomatic source described Mr. Cai as the human equivalent of a “tightly coiled spring,” and the most dominant political power figure after Mr. Xi. Mr. Cai is said to have direct power even over Foreign Minister Wang Yi and is regarded as the key figure behind the ruling party’s current anti-spying and foreign influence campaign.

The campaign has set off a government anti-spy obsession that targeted U.S. businesses and Americans in China suspected of spying or undermining the communist system.

Mr. Xi’s second term in office began in 2018. During this period his main standing committee backer and adviser was Wang Huning, who led the CCP central leading group for propaganda and ideology.

Both Mr. Cai and Mr. Wang were part of the Chinese delegation at the November 2023 summit between Mr. Xi and President Biden in California.

Mr. Wang is the leading power behind Mr. Xi’s systematic program to revitalize communist ideology. That program has involved a nationwide crackdown on dissent, increasing violations of human rights, and strengthened controls over information and the internet domestically.

All 98 million Communist Party members were ordered to study Mr. Xi’s ideology, including required readings of his words on hand-held device apps. Mr. Xi’s brand of communism has been dubbed “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.”

Mr. Wang is also the driving force behind Mr. Xi’s ideological game plan to advance the thesis that the United States is a declining power, destined to be supplanted soon by China as the world’s sole superpower. When it comes to U..S.-China policy, Mr. Xi is said to listen to Mr. Wang more than any other official in China.

During Mr. Xi’s first term in power which began in 2013, his closest adviser was Wang Qishan, an alleged reformer who was in charge of many of China’s financial activities and who has since retired.

Mr. Wang, a standing committee member until 2017, became vice president a year later and left office in 2023 amid reports in the West that he was linked to corruption – despite his role in leading the party’s central committee for discipline inspection that was in charge of Mr. Xi’s large-scale anti-corruption campaign.

As vice president, Mr. Wang was a dominant figure during the early years of Mr. Xi’s tenure as a counselor and a link to the previous government under President Hu Jintao.

Mr. Wang in 2017 met with Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s former chief strategy advisers, and sought to learn about U.S. nationalism and populism for Mr. Xi. Mr. Wang also worked as one of two co-chairman of the CCP Foreign Affairs Commission, formerly a leading small group and one of Beijing’s most important policy units headed by Mr. Xi.

The U.S. leadership assessment concluded that despite the power of various standing committee members, Mr. Xi, who took on an unprecedented third term as president last year, has reached absolute power and there is little sign of the collective party leadership that existed under previous leaders.

Images of Xi replacing Jesus in Chinese Christian churches

China’s government is cracking down on Catholic and Protestant churches in the country by ordering the removal of images of Jesus and his replacement with photos of President Xi Jinping, according to a government report on anti-religious activities in China.

The officially atheist Chinese Communist Party has launched what the report calls a campaign of coercive “sinicization” of religion that is targeting all elements of spiritual activities in the country.

“Authorities target Catholic and Protestant Christians for sinicization,” the report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) states.

“The government has ordered the removal of crosses from churches, replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi, required the display of CCP slogans at the entrances of churches, censored religious texts, imposed CCP-approved religious materials, and instructed clergy to preach CCP ideology,” the report, made public last month, said.

The anti-religion campaign was launched by Mr. Xi and is backed by state-controlled religious organizations.

However, the report said “tens of millions” of Christians have rejected the government-controlled churches and instead are worshiping independently.

The coercive campaign has fundamentally altered the religious environment in China through a process described in the report as emphasizing “patriotism” for believers, a euphemism for supporting Mr. Xi’s brand of Marxism-Leninism. The report said the sinicization is “the complete subordination of religious groups to the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion.”

Communist founder Karl Marx defined religion as the “opium of the people.” His tract, the Communist Manifesto, stated that communism and religion were incompatible. The Chinese constitution, however, guarantees freedom of religious belief, at least on paper.

The USCIRF report said authorities are using new regulations and state-controlled religious organizations to incorporate communist ideology into every facet of religious life. The effort is not limited to Christians, also targeting Buddhists, Muslims, and Taoists.

Ultra-nationalism also is being used to forcibly eradicate religious elements considered contradictory to the regime’s policies and political agendas.

The government also appointed CCP loyalists as leading religious figures, altered houses of worship with party-approved architecture, and infused religious doctrines with propaganda, the report said. Unofficial religious activities not sanctioned by the party have been outlawed as well.

“These government measures have routinely violated the internationally protected right to freedom of religion or belief,” the report said.

The federal government estimated in 2021 that 18% of China’s 1.4 billion population are Buddhist, 5% Christian; and 2% are Muslim. Other significant religious traditions include Taoism, Falun Gong and folk religious practices.

Chinese coast guard fires water cannon at Philippines government vessels

Chinese coast guard vessels on Tuesday fired water cannon on two Philippines government boats that were resupplying fishing vessels in a disputed area of the South China Sea on Tuesday.

Beijing defended what it said were “control measures” taken in response to intrusions into Chinese waters.

The Philippine fisheries bureau said two of its vessels were engaged in a routine resupply mission for fishing boats when three Chinese coast guard ships and a People’s Liberation Army vessel shadowed the boats at close range.

“The [Chinese coast guard] vessels attempted to impede the mission …but were unsuccessful,” the fisheries bureau said in a statement. “The CCG vessels also opened and directed their water cannons, but this failed to reach the Philippine civilian boats.”

China defended its actions and said Manila was to blame for the confrontation.

“We urge the Philippines to immediately cease its violations,” Liu Dejun, a spokesman for China’s coast guard said in a statement.

The two Philippine ships were confronted by water cannon in what Mr. Liu said were “professional, reasonable and legitimate control measures.”

The incident was the latest clash between China and Philippines over the shoal that is located within Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

Scarborough Shoal has been a flashpoint since 2012 when China asserted control over the area over which the Philippines also claims sovereignty.

In an earlier incident, Chinese vessels rammed Philippines resupply boats near Second Thomas Shoal, also in the Spratlys. And in yet another confrontation last year, a Chinese vessel fired a laser at a Philippines coast guard boat, damaging the eyes of personnel on board.

Philippines is a U.S. defense treaty ally and the Biden administration has been under pressure to do more to provide support for Manila.

The latest incident coincides with a meeting of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos. Chinese aggression against the Philippines is expected to be a topic of discussion at the summit.

— Contact Bill Gertz on X at @BillGertz.