(Adnkronos) – Everyone is talking about Zhou Hongxu. A face that has been in the spotlight, but until now shrouded in mystery. Now that his name, after Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House, has begun to circulate worldwide, after he ‘came out into the open’, some are convinced the Chinese leader “deliberately wanted to bring him into the limelight”. The name of Zhou Hongxu, director of the Central Security Bureau, similar to intelligence services, which deals with the protection of top Chinese leaders, was among the Chinese guests indicated by the White House for the State dinner.
His identity and position were thus confirmed by the White House after many rumors circulated about that man with glasses and short hair already seen alongside Xi, whom Chinese observers said was Zhou Hongxu himself, ‘grappling’ with diplomacy. Beijing, the American network highlights, has never publicly confirmed Zhou’s position, and his official biography reveals very little. Images broadcast by CCTV captured Zhou among the guests at the State dinner, standing behind US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
One year remains until the Chinese Communist Party Congress, a crucial transition that will redefine the elite’s balance of power as Xi, 73, consolidates his authority, and observers are looking at possible promotions. And, as Deng Yuwen, former editor of Study Times, an official publication of the Party’s training institute, explains to CNN, “if Xi were deliberately giving” Zhou “this kind of visibility, it would suggest that he is being entrusted with greater responsibilities and could obtain a more important role in the next leadership reshuffle.” And, he adds, “Zhou could be the first security chief involved in such high-profile diplomatic talks as far as publicly documented appearances are concerned.” Meanwhile, next year, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, will be 73 years old.
The American network recalls how Zhou was present, seated between the two deputy foreign ministers of the Dragon, at the early September meeting in New Delhi between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and how Chinese official media had said nothing about him despite him not staying out of the spotlight.
Furthermore, CNN reconstructs, Zhou was seated behind Xi when in 2019 the Chinese leader met the then-President of Nepal, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, in Kathmandu. And, the network’s analysis emphasizes, when Zhou’s predecessor, Wang Shaojun, died in April three years ago, Chinese official media confirmed his death three months later, thus revealing his position, and never announced the appointment of an ‘heir’.
Amidst rumors and mysteries, one year before the Party Congress, among the guests indicated by the White House for the State dinner were also the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mao Ning, the head of the Ministry’s Protocol Department, Hong Lei, and Lu Luhua, Xi’s personal secretary.
