Who is Cai Qi? PM Modi meets Chinese Communist Party leader after talks with Xi Jinping — Video

Ministry of External Affairs said that the prime minister shared with Cai his vision for bilateral relations and sought his support to realise the vision of the two leaders.

“Cai reiterated the Chinese side’s desire to expand bilateral exchanges and further improve relations in line with the consensus reached between the two leaders,” it said.

In a post on X, sharing photos of PM Modi and Cai Qi, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal wrote, “Building on, and in line with, the leaders’ meeting today, they touched on bilateral economic, political and people-to-people exchanges between India and China.”

Who is Cai Qi, the influential Chinese Communist Party leader?

Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, is Xi Jinping‘s chief of staff. He is the first person to hold both positions since the Mao era, and is said to enjoy exceptional trust and empowerment from Communist China’s supreme leader.

His role as China’s No. 5 also makes him the highest-ranked official on the body in charge of convening the Politburo.

A Fujian province native, Cai first met Jinping in the 1980s. Today, he is considered to be on a similar standing to China’s No. 2 Premier, Li Qiang, thanks to Jinping, who has stacked the party’s top body with loyalists.

People who worked with Cai remember him as intelligent and approachable. He was remembered as a prolific social media user with 10 million followers who brought attention to issues such as youth suicide.

But after Jinping became the leader, Cai’s online accounts went silent, and his public persona hardened. He was called to Beijing to serve on China’s top national security commission.

Cai was soon catapulted to the top decision-making Politburo, a rare leap for an official who had never served in the much larger Central Committee, which was normally a prerequisite.

In 2017, Cai became Beijing’s party chief, in charge of securing the home of the nation’s top rulers. He earned a reputation as a hardliner.

According to a Bloomberg report, after a deadly fire in Beijing threw a spotlight on its poorer population, Cai vowed to “see blood” in a campaign against illegal migrant dwellings that left thousands homeless, and drew widespread public criticism.

Cai Qi is one of the first officials to publicly refer to Xi Jinping in equal terms to Mao, saying that he was “piloting at the helm,” a phrase previously reserved for Mao.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, said, “Cai’s power comes from enjoying the confidence and patronage of Xi,” he added.

“The security of a hatchet man rests ultimately on retaining the trust of the supreme leader,” Tsang added.