Cai Qi, China’s No 5 leader and and a former Party Secretary of Beijing, has been named President Xi Jinping’s new Chief of Staff, the most senior official to be appointed to the role in more than 40 years. Cai accompanied President Xi on his state visit to Moscow and was referred to in his new capacity as Director of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The confirmation of Cai’s appointment comes about 10 days after Xi began an unprecedented third five-year term as President of China. The General Office is responsible for arranging important meetings and handling key documents, and has access to sensitive and confidential information. The Office is also responsible for the top leader’s bodyguards and doctors. It also marks the first time that a Politburo Standing Committee Member will hold the title concurrently since Wang Dongxing, who served as Mao Zedong’s Chief of Staff for over a decade from 1965. Cai takes over from Ding Xuexiang, who was confirmed as Executive Vice Premier on March 12 during the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC).
Cai, 67, is a long-time Xi protégé whose political career has rapidly advanced over the past two decades. After spending nearly a decade at Xi’s side when he led Fujian and then Zhejiang province, Cai rose from a modest provincial official to take the top job in Beijing within seven years. Cai is a native of Fujian province whose political career took off in 2014, when he moved to Beijing and was promoted to Deputy Director of the General Office of the National Security Commission, a body founded by Xi as part of his reforms of foreign policy security. He was later promoted to Mayor and Deputy Party Secretary of Beijing, in May 2017, further rising to become Beijing Party Secretary.
He was promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee at the Party’s 20th five-yearly CPC National Congress in October 2022, after serving as the Beijing Party Secretary for five years. He also was appointed First Secretary of the Party’s Secretariat, which runs the major day-to-day affairs of the Party. Cai will work closely with Xi and is likely to accompany him on most of his international and domestic trips, the South China Morning Post reports.
