China’s United Front chief has not entered the CPPCC leadership, an unusual departure from long-standing CCP personnel practices.
As China’s annual political meetings opened this week, an unexpected detail on the stage of the regime’s top advisory body drew quiet scrutiny from political analysts—the absence of a key official from a position he would typically occupy.
The meetings, known as the “Two Sessions,” convened on March 4 in Beijing and are expected to last a week. It brings together the regime’s rubber-stamp legislative body, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and the political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), to set the agenda for policy priorities in the year ahead.
However, beyond the official agenda, the seating arrangement for senior officials and the composition of the leadership personnel sparked discussions among analysts about the elite politics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Epoch Times recently spoke to several China-based analysts and insiders, who requested anonymity due to fears of reprisal.
Breaking From Tradition
For decades, the minister of the Chinese regime’s United Front Work Department, which oversees activities related to infiltration and espionage abroad, has typically held a concurrent role as a vice chairman of the CPPCC.
The arrangement underscores the close institutional link between the United Front system and the CPPCC, which serves as a political platform for the CCP’s influence and coalition-building efforts.
This year, however, the current United Front chief, Li Ganjie, has not appeared in the CPPCC leadership structure.
“The United Front minister almost always enters the CPPCC leadership,” a China-based analyst who has long followed the CCP’s senior personnel movements told The Epoch Times. “It has become a fairly fixed institutional arrangement over the past several decades.”
According to publicly available information from the CPPCC’s current session, Li is not listed as a member of the advisory body—an essential requirement for serving as its vice chairman.
“That’s clearly unusual when viewed against the Party’s established personnel conventions,” the analyst said.
Unusual Reshuffle
The situation traces back to an unusual personnel reshuffle last year.
In April 2025, Politburo members Shi Taifeng and Li Ganjie effectively swapped posts. Shi moved from leading the United Front Work Department to becoming head of the Organization Department, while Li moved in the opposite direction, taking over the United Front portfolio.
The Party’s Organization Department oversees appointments and promotions across the government, military, and Party bureaucracy, making it one of the most influential institutions in the CCP’s political system.
“Whoever runs the Organization Department controls the gate through which cadres rise or fall,” a veteran Chinese media editor told The Epoch Times.
