In the roughly two months since the eve of the 2025 Two Sessions, open letters denouncing Xi's dictatorship and calling for an end to CCP one-party rule have circulated widely online, and a giant anti-CCP banner startled onlookers in downtown Chengdu. At the same time, media outlets in Hong Kong and Singapore — both deeply infiltrated and manipulated by various CCP factions — have published articles criticizing CCP leader Xi Jinping. Most politically sensitive of all, Ho Ching, wife of former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, shared an article critical of Xi on social media.

The signs suggest that CCP leader Xi Jinping's power crisis may be greater than the outside world imagines, and the tipping point for upheaval in China is drawing ever closer.

I. A New "Peng Lifa" Emerges: Giant Anti-CCP Banners Appear in Downtown Chengdu

On the morning of April 15, 2025, photos went viral online showing three banners with red characters on a white background hung from an overpass outside the Chadianzi bus station in Chengdu, Sichuan. The banners read: "Without political reform there can be no national rejuvenation," "The people do not need a party whose power is unchecked," and "China does not need anyone to point the way forward — democracy is the way forward."

On April 22, Yuan Hongbing, a legal scholar living in Australia, cited sources within the system saying the banners were not taken down until nearly three hours after they went up, and that what truly alarmed the CCP was not the content of the banners themselves but the sluggish response of its entire stability-maintenance apparatus.

Yuan said the incident exposed not only the collapse of the CCP's stability-maintenance system but also latent discontent and foot-dragging within the system toward the Xi regime — both of which serve as key warning signs for observing the CCP's political stability.

On April 24, Du Wen, a former Inner Mongolian official now living overseas, revealed on his social media program that Mei Shilin, a 27-year-old "warrior" from Sichuan who hung the anti-Xi banners on the overpass outside Chadianzi in Chengdu on April 15, had gone completely incommunicado.

Du said Mei Shilin was Sichuan's version of "Peng Lifa," and that he had spent a long time preparing for this.

On October 13, 2022, on the eve of the CCP's 20th National Congress, Beijing "warrior" Peng Lifa (Peng Zaizhou) hung two giant banners with red characters on a white background from an overpass at a Haidian District intersection. One read: "No to Covid tests, we want food; no to lockdowns, we want freedom; no to lies, we want dignity; no to Cultural Revolution, we want reform; no to a great leader, we want votes; don't be slaves, be citizens." The other read: "Go on strike, boycott class, remove the dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping."

II. Ho Ching Repeatedly Shares Articles Calling Xi a "Mob Boss," Along With an Image of Xi Sitting Alone

On April 18, 2025, Singaporean media published a commentary on CCP leader Xi Jinping's recent visits to Vietnam and other countries, saying that over his 12 years in power Xi "has consistently behaved like a mob boss" — a Chinese version of Don Corleone from The Godfather — always making everyone "an offer they can't refuse," and now hoping his victims will treat him as a friend and partner.

On April 21, Ho Ching, wife of former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, shared the commentary on Facebook, drawing outside attention.

Ho Ching had previously shared on Facebook an article by Singaporean think-tank scholar Michael Petraeus, published in Critical Spectator on April 10, 2025. The article noted that while Trump imposed 125% tariffs on Chinese goods, he suspended tariff increases for 90 days on 75 countries willing to negotiate, aiming to isolate the CCP and force Beijing into concessions in multilateral talks.

The article was illustrated with a photo of Xi Jinping wearing a mask, sitting alone in a chair outdoors, symbolizing the CCP's isolation from the world. Screenshots of Ho Ching sharing the article and image circulated widely online overseas.

Ho Ching has long served as a member and honorary member of the advisory board of Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) — a power base of former CCP Premier Zhu Rongji. In late 2024, former Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan succeeded Zhu Rongji as honorary chairman of the Tsinghua SEM advisory board.

In addition, Zhu Rongji and Wang Qishan have both had close interactions with Lee Kuan Yew and his son Lee Hsien Loong. Ho Ching's rare sharing of an article critical of Xi is highly politically sensitive.

III. Hu Dehua Dies; Hong Kong Media Reveals He Once Mocked Xi for Reading Little

Hu Dehua, son of former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang, died suddenly of a heart attack on March 30, 2025. Hu Dehua had served as deputy president of Yanhuang Chunqiu, a publication regarded as a stronghold of reformists within the CCP.

Hong Kong's Ming Pao published a special report on April 1 about Hu Dehua's death. The article said that since the CCP's 18th National Congress in late 2012, Hu Dehua had repeatedly spoken out on current affairs, becoming known as an outspoken figure among the "red second generation." At a gathering of the Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine in April 2013, he leveled serious criticism at the CCP's top leader, questioning whether China would continue reform and opening up, and mocking the leader for not reading much. Sources in Beijing said Hu Dehua's remarks angered the authorities, who sent people to convey to him that he "must not casually discuss the central leadership."

Notably, Hong Kong has long been a focal point of infighting among the CCP's top leadership, and Ming Pao has covert ties to factions within the CCP's upper echelons, often breaking insider news about the top leadership ahead of others.

In recent years, Hong Kong has implemented the so-called National Security Law, enforcing a white terror and tightly controlling society. In August 2024, Ming Pao's editor-in-chief Lau Chung-yeung even emailed columnists, "imploring" them to "know the law and abide by it" and "know their limits," warning that "otherwise there's no guarantee a crisis won't befall you one day."

Seven months later, Ming Pao — covertly tied to factions within the CCP's top leadership — publicly reported that Hu Dehua had once questioned the Xi regime and mocked Xi for not reading much, which amounts to openly opposing Xi.

Given Ming Pao's stark reversal, one possibility is that it has obtained inside information that Xi has already lost power and influence, and thus dares to openly oppose him. Another possibility is that it is being manipulated by forces behind the scenes to manufacture anti-Xi public opinion, echoing various anti-Xi actions.

IV. Open Letter Circulates Online as the Two Sessions Open: Overthrow the CCP, Settle Accounts for Xi's Crimes

On March 4, 2025, the opening day of the CCP's Two Sessions, the overseas X (formerly Twitter) account "Human Rights and Current Affairs" published "An Open Letter to All the People of China," calling to "overthrow CCP dictatorship and settle accounts for Xi Jinping's crimes."

The letter said: "We stand at a crossroads of history, a matter of life and death. Today's China is not a cage in which to survive on bended knee, but a battlefield demanding that we stand up straight and rise in resistance! Abolishing CCP dictatorship and settling accounts for Xi Jinping's monstrous crimes is now a mission that brooks no delay!"

The letter also said: "Xi Jinping's power may look as towering as a mountain, but it is in fact rootless duckweed. What he relies on is not popular support but guns and lies. His unpopularity is reflected in the reality of boiling public resentment, rule of man trampling the rule of law, a withering economy, and a fractured society. He is not an unbreakable iron wall but a paper tiger teetering in the wind. History has long proven that the fall of tyrants is never a myth, but an inevitability."

The open letter was published on March 4, 2025, and signed by Lü Zhanqiu. The "Human Rights and Current Affairs" account noted that Lü Zhanqiu's household registration is in Shangqiu, Henan Province.

Conclusion

Since the Third Plenum in July 2024, CCP leader Xi Jinping's health and power crises have repeatedly surfaced. Rumors abound of CCP elders, princelings, and the "red second generation" joining forces against Xi. Recently there have even been reports that Xi's retirement is only awaiting official announcement, that three elders born in 1942 — Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, and Hu Deping — are wielding power behind the scenes, and that Zhang Youxia has effectively taken control of the military.

Media in Hong Kong and Singapore, both deeply infiltrated and manipulated by various CCP factions, have successively published articles critical of Xi, pointedly noting that he reads little and that over his 12 years in power he has "consistently behaved like a mob boss" — further evidence that Xi has lost power and influence.

Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son Lee Hsien Loong have had extraordinary ties with numerous top figures in the CCP leadership. Lee Hsien Loong's wife, Ho Ching, wields considerable influence in Southeast Asian and even international political and business circles, and is especially close to anti-Xi elders such as Zhu Rongji and Wang Qishan. Her sharing of an anti-Xi article is highly politically sensitive.

At the same time, open letters denouncing Xi's dictatorship and calling for an end to CCP one-party rule have circulated widely online, and a giant anti-CCP banner has startled onlookers in downtown Chengdu. Opposition to Xi and opposition to the CCP are tightly intertwined, and Chinese society is brewing a storm of change.

At present, the CCP regime is beset by troubles at home and abroad, with its political and economic crises escalating sharply; the overseas anti-CCP tide is rising, and domestic calls against dictatorship and one-party rule are surging; infighting at the top of the CCP has reached a fever pitch, a fight to the death; CCP leader Xi Jinping has become a target of public condemnation, and it may be unavoidable that he will be buried along with the CCP. A sudden upheaval in top CCP politics could occur at any time, and China's transformation may not be far off.