Chen Wenqing

A native of Renshou County, a rural farming and coal-mining district in Sichuan province, Chen's childhood occurred against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution and the rise of the Red Guards movement.[1]

His father was a police officer at the Sichuan branch of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), where for 20 consecutive years, starting in 1951, the elder Chen was recognized as a Sichuan Province "progressive worker" by communist officials.[1] There are no records publicly available about the elder Chen's role, if any, in the Cultural Revolution, and the names of both Chen's mother and father remain unknown.[1]

Chen studied law and political science at Southwest University in Chongqing from September 1980 through August 1984.[1] He joined the Chinese Communist Party in March 1983.[2] He returned to school in March 1995, completing a postgraduate program in business management from Sichuan University in October 1997.[2]

Following his father, Chen entered the Ministry of Public Security in July 1984, beginning his service as an ordinary policeman at the Xiejia Town Police Station in the Pengshan District Public Security Bureau, in Meishan, Sichuan Province. Some accounts suggest Chen's early police work involved a particular focus on counterfeiting.[3][4] By late 1986 he was deputy director of the Public Security Bureau in Jinkouhe District, a closed city in the prefecture-level city of Leshan, Sichuan Province, home to the Heping gaseous diffusion plant (Plant 814) of Sichuan Honghua Industrial Corporation which produces high-enriched Uranium.[2][5]

From December 1986 to June 1990, Chen was Deputy Director and then Director of the Public Security Branch of Wutongqiao District, another district of Leshan.[2] In that time he was decorated for bravery for his role in stopping two armed fugitives. On November 8, 1988, Shao Jiangbin and Geng Xuejie, deserters from the Hubei province People's Armed Police, took stolen Type 56 assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition and began a three day murder spree through Hubei and Shaanxi to Sichuan. After a pursuit involving 1,516 soldiers and police officers, the "Baiyangou Bandits" were finally cornered by police during a nighttime standoff in a dimly lit area, when Chen reportedly left cover in order to climb behind a rock in an exposed position near where the pair were hiding, and installed searchlights to prevent them from escaping into the dark again.[6][7] Both fugitives were killed by police during the shootout. At the end of the year, Chen was selected as an "excellent police chief" of the year by superiors.[8][1]

In June 1990 he became Deputy Director of the Leshan Public Security Bureau (PSB), promoted to director in December 1992.

In 1994, Chen was transferred to the Ministry of State Security (MSS), becoming deputy director of the Sichuan provincial State Security Department (SSD), likely as a founding member of what was a newly established department created in the third of four waves of MSS expansion.[9][10] For many Public Security Bureau officers at the time of Chen's transfer to the Sichuan SSD, "they were police one day and state security the next."[10]

From January 1997 to January 1998, Chen was deputy director, deputy secretary and secretary of the Party Leadership Group at the Sichuan SSD. In January 1998, Chen took over leadership of the Sichuan SSD, and secretary of the Party Leadership Group. That September he also took up the role of deputy secretary-general of the provincial government. He stayed on as Sichuan SSD head until April 2002, when he was appointed chief prosecutor at the Sichuan provincial People's Procuratorate.[2]

External video
Chen speaking about anticorruption efforts in a 2014 interview with CCTV

In April 2004, Chen became more involved in legal affairs, first serving as chief prosecutor of the Sichuan Provincial People's Procuratorate before leaving Sichuan for Fujian in August 2006, becoming both deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.[2][9] His public profile began to increase in this position, holding interviews with state media about his "anti-corruption concept" as early as 2008.[8] By 2012 he was talking publicly in Fujian about a need to investigate the loyalties and intents of Taiwanese businesses in the cross-straight province.[11]

While at the CCDI, Chen helped lead the "tiger hunt" (a reference to the fact Mao once called South China tigers the "enemies of man" and drove them to near-extinction) against public corruption.[12]

At the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2012, Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Communist Party, and Chen moved to Beijing to become deputy secretary and member of the standing committee of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, both roles he retained until May 2015.[2]

Chen's activities during the year between his departure from CCDI in May 2015 and his appointment as party secretary of the MSS in October 2016 are entirely unclear.

From January 2012 to April 2013, Chen served as political commissar of a reserve anti-aircraft artillery division of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Ground Force in Fujian province.[2] Fujian is located directly across the strait from Taiwan, and is the garrison of Eastern Theater Command (previously Nanjing Military Region), charged with maintaining security in the East China Sea and the conduct of major operations against Taiwan. "Fujian experience" is considered especially prestigious, and a key prerequisite in the career track of many senior Communist Party officials and PLA officers.[13][14]

In 2016 command of the MSS was split between outgoing Minister of State Security Geng Huichang, and Chen as new Party Secretary. Geng was due to retire, but before leaving he was placed under investigation.[15][16] Chen appointed Tang Chao as a "special agent" to look into claims that Geng had used MSS technical means to monitor the communications of senior communist party officials, including Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.[16] Ultimately Geng was exonerated when the CCDI concluded that Zhou Yongkang had circumvented MSS leadership, including head of Counterintelligence Liang Ke.[16]

Despite no longer being blamed for the breach, Xi Jinping chose to replace Geng with Chen anyway, clearing the way for a slate of reforms meant to reduce MSS influence, and increase the influence of the First Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, which also conducts foreign intelligence operations.[16] There had already been a major shakeup of MSS regional offices underway before Chen's appointment, reportedly on the direction of Xi Jinping himself.[16] Under Chen's new leadership "arrests and purges began to multiply rapidly."[16]

Chen was appointed Party Secretary of the MSS in October 2016 and Minister of State Security on 7 November 2016.[17] He began by investigating and arresting his college friend and MSS counterintelligence head Ma Jian, reportedly as a test to prove his loyalty to the Xi Jinping faction.[16]

At the 20th National Congress in October 2022, Chen was made a member of the Politburo and Central Secretariat.[10][24] As the only member of the Politburo with a background in state security, Chen was made head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, succeeding Guo Shengkun.[19] John P. Burns, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Hong Kong, said Chen's appointment signaled the party's insecurity both internationally with a more contentious relationship with the US and Europe, and domestically on issues related to Xinjiang, Tibet, and other cities.[19]

In 2023, Chen Wenqing directed CCP committees at all levels to "attach great importance to, concern themselves with, and support covert front work."[25]

• Firmly Establish and Practice the Overall National Security Concept and Write a New Chapter of National Security in the New Era, Qiushi, April 2022.