A New Memorial Hall in Fuping, Shaanxi — An Attempt to Downplay Xi Zhongxun’s Status?

Xi Jinping's greatest concern is protecting his family. (People News)

[People News] A recent piece of news carries unusual implications. According to Chinese state media, the Guanzhong Revolutionary Memorial Hall officially opened on May 24. This new site primarily commemorates Xi Zhongxun, the father of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. The report states that the exhibition systematically showcases the "great revolutionary course" of the people in the Guanzhong region under the CCP's leadership, with a particular focus on Xi Zhongxun's "revolutionary career and noble character." The memorial is located in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province—Xi Zhongxun’s birthplace. The opening date coincides with the anniversary of Xi Zhongxun’s death in 2002.

What is strange, however, is that records show that as early as April 2006, the CCP had already built a Xi Zhongxun Memorial Hall on the southern side of his mausoleum in Dan Village, Fuping County. That museum covered an area of nearly 1,200 square meters and featured a reception room, screening room, and five exhibition rooms chronicling Xi Zhongxun’s life. In 2018, after Xi Jinping secured his “supreme” status at the 19th Party Congress, the memorial hall was rebuilt and expanded to nearly 2,000 square meters. The current building is three stories tall. By the end of 2019, the museum housed 363 sets of artefacts and was designated a "Patriotic Education Base" by Shaanxi Province.

Although the newly opened Guanzhong Revolutionary Memorial Hall is also located in Fuping, its address is clearly different; online information indicates it is located in Zhuangli Pilot Zone, Fuping County.

So, why build two memorials dedicated to Xi Zhongxun in the same county? Does the opening of the new memorial objectively lower the status of the original Xi Zhongxun Memorial Hall? If Xi Jinping still held absolute power, would such a development be possible?

In 2013, the year after Xi Jinping became CCP leader at the 18th Party Congress, Xi Zhongxun’s centenary memorial was marked with high-profile commemorative events from the central government down to the local level. Notably, significant ceremonies were held in Gansu and Guangdong provinces. Gansu was where Xi Zhongxun began independently leading armed struggles during the so-called “Liangdang Uprising,” while Guangdong was where he was tasked by Deng Xiaoping to forcefully push through reform policies.

According to mainland media reports, on October 9, 2013, at a commemorative symposium in Gansu, then-provincial Party Secretary Wang Sanyun (now imprisoned) and Xi Jinping’s younger brother Xi Yuanping attended. Many speakers highly praised Xi Zhongxun from various perspectives. On October 12, Xi Yuanping also attended the “Xi Zhongxun and Guangdong’s Reform and Opening” symposium in Guangdong, where then-Party Secretary Hu Chunhua gave a glowing assessment of Xi Zhongxun’s contributions.

In tandem with those events, many mainland media outlets republished a 2012 article from People’s Daily titled “Hu Yaobang and Xi Zhongxun Helped Each Other in Difficult Times During a Historic Turning Point,” emphasising the close relationship between the two figures. Additionally, CCTV aired a six-episode documentary on Xi Zhongxun, and the Party History Press published The Collected Works of Xi Zhongxun, Xi Zhongxun Commemorative Anthology, and Xi Zhongxun Picture Album, among others. Stories about the Xi family’s values—such as being "strict to the point of being unfeeling"—were also widely circulated.

The commemorative standards for Xi Zhongxun clearly exceeded those for other officials of similar rank, and this kind of praise, especially highlighting his roles in Gansu and Guangdong, was clearly linked to Xi Jinping’s status at the time. It also served as ideological groundwork for Xi’s future reform agenda. It is noteworthy that in the same year, 2013, Mao Zedong’s 120th birth anniversary, the officials involved in planning Mao's commemoration were of much lower rank, and media attention was significantly less.

In late September 2014, the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the CCP’s pseudo-government in the Shaanxi-Gansu border area was marked with a high-profile symposium in Gansu, surpassing the scale of the 70th anniversary. Wang Sanyun again played a major role in orchestrating the event, obviously to curry favor with the party leadership. According to reports, the official Gansu Daily dedicated nearly four full pages to the event, including the full texts of speeches by Wang Sanyun, Xi Yuanping, and others. Wang essentially attributed the CCP’s so-called "achievements" in that era to Xi Zhongxun’s leadership. State-run media outlets such as People’s Daily Online also carried the story.

At that event, Xi Yuanping—who held no official position—was ranked only behind Wang Sanyun. Other high-profile attendees included He Yiting (then Executive Vice President of the Central Party School), Qu Qingshan (Director of the Central Party History Research Office), Gansu Governor Liu Weiping, former Organisation Department head Zhang Quanjing, and other senior officials and historians. Family members of revolutionary figures, such as Xie Zichang’s son Xie Shaoming and Liu Zhidan’s granddaughter Wang Shanshan, were also present, along with numerous military representatives.

By the time of the 85th anniversary commemorative event in October 2019, quite a number of high-ranking officials were in attendance, including Gansu Provincial Party Secretary Lin Duo, Governor Tang Renjian, Provincial CPPCC Chairman Ouyang Jian, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Party History and Literature Wu Degang, former Deputy Director of the Central Party History Research Office and Vice President of the Chinese Communist Party History Society Gao Yongzhong, Gansu Provincial Party Committee Standing Member and Secretary-General Wang Jiayi, Provincial CPPCC Vice Chairman and Qingyang Party Secretary Yuan Jianmin, among others. Among the attending relatives of revolutionaries, Xi Yuanping (younger brother of Xi Jinping) and Liu Yulan were ranked after Governor Tang Renjian.

However, by the 90th anniversary commemorative event on October 11, 2024, aside from the top two leaders of Gansu Province, two deputy secretaries from Shaanxi, and Qu Qingshan—the director of the Central Party History Research Office who has consistently participated in the event—there seemed to be no other high-ranking officials of note. Even Xi Jinping’s close associate, Chen Xi, President of the Central Party School, did not attend. The General Political Department of the Chinese military also appeared not to have sent any senior military representatives. Judging from the attendees and the scale of the symposium, this event was clearly downgraded compared to 2014.

Furthermore, the speeches delivered by attendees, including that of Xi Yuanping, no longer particularly emphasised Xi Zhongxun. Instead, they referred to the founding of the pseudo-government by Chinese Communist Party members represented by Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, and Xi Zhongxun, and all expressed allegiance to “maintaining a high degree of unity” with the Party Central Committee, with Xi Jinping at its core. This occurred right after rumours from the July Third Plenary Session that Xi Jinping had suffered a stroke and lost control over the military and had seen a weakening of his power within the Party.

Those familiar with how the CCP operates will find it easy to see that over the past ten months, state media have released multiple signals suggesting Xi’s loss of power. Now, with an existing Xi Zhongxun Memorial Hall already established in Fuping County, Shaanxi, a new memorial hall has emerged. Although it is claimed that the new memorial is primarily to commemorate Xi Zhongxun, why was it not named after him? Why build a duplicate structure? After all, the artefacts on display cannot simply be duplicated.

Interestingly, after the opening of the new memorial hall, reports stated that “descendants of revolutionary martyrs and cadres and mass representatives” visited the site together. Yet there was absolutely no sign of the Xi family in CCTV’s news coverage. Isn’t that a rather bizarre omission? Could it be that the Xi family does not endorse this new memorial? If that’s the case, then the purpose of building this new memorial might actually be to downplay Xi Zhongxun’s stature, further confirming that Xi Jinping’s political power within the Party is no longer what it once was.

(First published by People News)