**High-ranking Chinese officials have increasingly gone “missing” in the Communist Party’s political arena over the past two years, drawing attention from the public.**
**Many analysts believe that these officials may have been subjected to “internal handling,” with a significant number potentially facing secret executions.**
**As the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is currently in session, the recent announcement of the CPPCC Standing Committee lineup did not include two current members of the military-industrial complex, former Hunan provincial party secretary Xu Dazhe and the chief engineer of China National Nuclear Corporation, Luo Qi. Both individuals were also absent from the opening ceremony of the CPPCC on March 5. Additionally, following his removal as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Jin Zhuanglong, who hails from the aerospace system, was not present at the CPPCC opening.**
**These individuals are just the latest additions to the growing list of high-ranking Chinese officials who have “disappeared” in recent years. Previous examples include the removal of Liu Shiquan, the chairman of China Weapon Group, from the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 2023 without any official explanation. Additionally, after the prolonged disappearance of Yuan Jie, the chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and Chen Guoying, the general manager of China Weapon Equipment Group, both individuals were quietly dismissed from their positions with their whereabouts remaining unknown.**
**Independent commentator Du Zheng noted in an article for Taiwan’s Up Media on March 8 that the Communist Party’s political arena is currently trending towards “internal handling,” with many individuals secretly sentenced or even executed.**
**Du highlighted an example involving Japanese scholar Suzuki Eiji, who was arrested in Beijing in 2016 on charges of espionage and sentenced to six years in prison. Upon his return to Japan, Suzuki revealed to the media that the reasons behind his prosecution were absurd, stemming from a casual mention during a chat with Chinese friend and diplomat Taizo Tangimoto about the execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle, Chang Seong-taek. Suzuki expressed a belief that Tangimoto, also arrested, may have been secretly sentenced to death. During his detention, Suzuki had heard rumors circulating in the prison about the secret death sentence of a Chinese ambassador to Ireland on charges of espionage.**
**Du Zheng mentioned that former high-ranking official Zhou Guogang, who fled to the United States, disclosed that a senior official of the Chinese National Military Commission had revealed during a political study session that many officials are sentenced to death each year, but these cases are never made public.**
**In July 2023, former Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang was dismissed from office, but his whereabouts remained unknown until he “resigned” from his positions as a Central Committee member and a National People’s Congress representative in July 2024. There were conflicting reports about Qin Gang being reassigned to a low-ranking position at the publishing house under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party, with some rumors suggesting his involvement in espionage, leaking of state secrets, and even his death.**
**The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s translator, Gao Zhikai, had previously disclosed on Peninsula TV in August of last year that Qin Gang had been swiftly dealt with, hinting at a potential secret execution if he had indeed been involved in leaking classified information. Therefore, the fate of Qin Gang remains uncertain, possibly living in seclusion within a “corrupt official concentration camp.”**
**Critics have suggested discrepancies in the Communist Party’s anti-corruption campaign, with Du Zheng comparing various data sets under Xi Jinping’s leadership and estimating a significant number of high-ranking officials being dealt with secretly.**
**For instance, according to the Anti-Corruption National Supervisory Committee’s data released at the beginning of this year, 92 officials at the provincial and ministerial levels were investigated in 2024. However, an analysis of the official information revealed that only 58 officials were actually investigated, suggesting that the fate of the remaining 34 individuals may have been kept under wraps.**
**In January 2024, Secretary of the Anti-Corruption National Supervisory Committee Li Xi reported that 87 officials at the provincial and ministerial levels were investigated in 2023. However, an examination of the official records indicated that only 45 officials were investigated, raising doubts about the handling of the other 42 individuals.**
**According to the Cercius Group, a Canadian think tank specializing in Chinese elite politics, around seventy individuals linked to the Chinese Rocket Force have been taken away for investigations thus far.**
**Exiled liberal legal scholar Yuan Hongbing revealed that after the downfall of Xi Jinping’s confidant and political commissar of the Central Military Commission, Miao Hua, over six hundred senior military officers under him have been intensively scrutinized, marking a significant blow to Xi Jinping and escalating disloyalty within the military.**
**Du Zheng believes that the mass disappearance of officials, potentially leading to secret executions, reflects Xi Jinping’s emphasis on “self-revolution,” which may ultimately turn into a “self-destructive” model. The cancer of corruption within the Communist Party remains untreatable, with the opaque and increasingly sinister nature of the regime’s so-called anti-corruption efforts indicating a dark trajectory for the ruling party.**