When Exactly Did Xu Qiliang Die? He Asked the Same Question Every Day Before His Death

Dark clouds hang over Tiananmen Square in Beijing. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

[People News] The CCP has officially announced that former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xu Qiliang, died of illness on June 2. However, on May 31, Chinese media figure Zhao Lanjian had already reported that Xu had died of a heart attack on May 28. So, when did Xu really die? After the CCP’s official announcement, Zhao Lanjian posted again, claiming that the Party was engaging in a “political time-modification operation.” He also cited a military source who revealed that, in the days leading up to his death, Xu would ask the same question every day: “Who was taken away today?”—a reflection of his extremely anxious mental state.

China’s official news outlet Xinhua published Xu Qiliang’s obituary on the afternoon of June 2. Zhao Lanjian reiterated that he had already posted the true time of death on May 31: early morning on May 28, Beijing time.

Zhao stated that this discrepancy was not simply a “timing error” but a deliberate act of what he called the CCP’s internal “political time-modification operation.” He described this as a “dislocation of death,” meant to conceal the regime’s deep-seated fears.

According to Zhao, the information he received from his sources within the military differed completely from the official CCP narrative. Xu Qiliang had died in the early hours of May 28, but the authorities deliberately “locked down” the news for several days. Only after carefully managing the internal narrative did they select a date to announce his death, falsifying the actual time of death.

Zhao believes this was not an ordinary death, but one that had been "politically processed."

Since before 2023, Xi Jinping has been carrying out an intense purge of military insiders. Zhao tallied that as many as 70 generals and other senior military leaders have been purged, with the entire CCP military system being uprooted from within.

One of Zhao’s longtime military friends told him that Xu Qiliang had to watch helplessly as the trusted subordinates and old comrades he had promoted were taken away one after another. People close to Xu said his mental state was pushed to the brink, and he relied on medication to sleep. What terrified him most was the possibility of “collective punishment,” which might implicate his family and former aides. Reportedly, Xu asked every day, “Who was taken away today?”

“It wasn’t a heart attack—he was literally scared to death,” Zhao said, citing what he described as the most direct and credible internal information.

Looking back at the history of the CCP since its founding, political struggles of all sizes have led to numerous deaths and purges of Party officials. The internal power struggles have always been brutal, zero-sum and life-or-death. The CCP is not only bloodthirsty and ruthless toward the people but also spares no mercy in dealing with its own. Once someone is no longer useful, they are purged—this is the true nature of the Party’s meat grinder.

Professor Shaomin Li of the Management Department at Old Dominion University in the U.S. once commented in an interview with Radio Canada International that the CCP system functions like a never-ending meat grinder. You might be the one grinding, or the one being ground—and the line between the two is blurred. In the process, everyone is calculating, because the next person to be thrown in could very well be you. And once you're shredded, the Party may posthumously “rehabilitate” you—then your children become part of the red aristocracy and continue grinding others.