Xi’s security chief among cohort of rising officials at White House banquet

Zhou Hongxu, the official who oversees President Xi Jinping’s security, made an appearance at the White House state banquet on Thursday night, alongside a cohort of other rising Chinese officials.
The banquet’s guest list described the 55-year-old People’s Liberation Army (PLA) major general as both director of the Central Guard Bureau and deputy director of the Communist Party’s General Office – the ruling party’s powerful administrative nerve centre.
Earlier this month, Zhou joined Xi for a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on September 12, footage from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed.

Zhou has accompanied Xi at major international events for several years, including the Group of 20 summit in Bali in 2022 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco in 2023.
His dual role as deputy director of the General Office aligns with precedent established during the tenure of previous Chinese leaders. According to Zhou’s scant official CV, he was born in the southwestern city of Chongqing and holds a master’s degree from the PLA’s artillery academy.

Zhou was born in 1971 and has served as commander of an artillery regiment in the 14th Army Group’s 40th Division, head of the military training department at the former Chengdu Military Region headquarters and deputy chief of staff of the Northern Theatre Command Ground Force.
Zhou assumed the helm of the Central Guard Bureau around 2021 and was chosen as a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022.
Zhou is among a prominent cohort of officials in their 50s and early 60s emerging at the front line of China’s most consequential diplomatic events.
Also in attendance at the White House banquet was 63-year-old Tang Fangyu, the director of the Communist Party’s Central Policy Research Office, its top think tank.
Tang, a veteran theorist little known outside the party, was made director of the research office in January, replacing Jiang Jinquan, who had led the office since 2020.
Tang has frequently accompanied Xi on trips around China and abroad since becoming chief policy adviser.

The most prominent holder of Tang’s current role in recent history may be Wang Huning, the ideology guru who held the title from 2002 to 2020. Wang is now China’s fourth-ranking official and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Alongside Zhou, other relatively young senior officials joining the state banquet were Lu Luhua, born in 1971, the top political secretary of the Chinese president’s office; assistant foreign minister and chief of protocol Hong Lei, 57; assistant foreign minister and director of North American and Oceanian affairs Cai Wei, 55; and foreign ministry information department director Mao Ning, 53.
Hong has been protocol chief since 2019 and an assistant foreign minister since 2024. He leads the foreign ministry’s operational team for high-level diplomatic etiquette, meeting arrangements and international state protocol.