{"id":74815,"date":"2025-10-18T01:32:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/oct\/17\/a-high-level-operator-cai-qis-rapid-rise-to-become-xi-jinpings-right-hand-man"},"modified":"2025-10-18T01:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:32:22","slug":"a-high-level-operator-cai-qis-rapid-rise-to-become-xi-jinpings-right-hand-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=74815","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A high-level operator\u2019: Cai Qi\u2019s rapid rise to become Xi Jinping\u2019s right-hand man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CCP official alleged to be leading a Westminster spy ring is the de facto gatekeeper to the Chinese president<\/p>\n<p>In a world of identikit bureaucrats, Cai Qi, the man described as Xi Jinping\u2019s top lieutenant and recently revealed as the suspected ringleader of an alleged Westminster Chinese spy ring, stands out.<\/p>\n<p>As the fifth-ranking member on the standing committee of the Chinese Communist party\u2019s (CCP) ruling politburo, Cai is one of the most powerful people in China. But his importance outstrips even his senior title, because as the Chinese leader\u2019s de facto chief of staff, he is also effectively the gatekeeper and right-hand man to Xi himself.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/oct\/17\/a-high-level-operator-cai-qis-rapid-rise-to-become-xi-jinpings-right-hand-man\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CCP official alleged to be leading a Westminster spy ring is the de facto gatekeeper to the Chinese presidentIn a world of identikit bureaucrats, Cai Qi, the man described as Xi Jinping\u2019s top lieutenant and recently revealed as the suspected ringleader&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3580,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,3411,667,3205,52,42,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-crown-prosecution-service","category-espionage","category-prince-andrew","category-uk-news","category-world-news","category-xi-jinping"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74816,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74815\/revisions\/74816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}