Qiu Xiaoxiong, former chief secretary of Premier Wen Jiabao and former director of the Premier's Office, recently retired./ Source from search engine Baidu

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - China is a socialist country, yet it has many feudal traditions and the peripehry of authorities can still exercise power. Every year, a lot of those close to the highest-ranking party officials get unseated on charges of corruption. Around the official world, there is even a statement saying, "Those involved in corruption are bastards and those who aren't involved in corruption are stupids," representing the reality very well.

Despite this reality, there is a man who sought to be a "fool" for a long time and recently retired at the regular retirement age after serving as chief secretary of a highest man of power, garnering attention among Chinese people. According to the Jan. 7th report of the CPC party's newspaper Guangmin Daily, the man is Qiu Xiaoxiong, 61, who once served as a former chief secretary of Premier Wen Jiabao and withdrew his position of deputy head of the State Administration of Taxation last year. Unlike other secretaries of top leadership who got unseated due to corruption charge, or those who got promoted fast based on strong background, Qiu is known to have worked quietly behind the scenes and retired quitely.

Born in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Qiu gave up school during his youth and worked in a factory in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. He started studying again as the Cultural Revolution ended, and was able to graudate from the Bejing School of Economics in his later years. Later, he entered into General Office of the Communist Party of China and met Wen Jiabao, who then worked as deputy director. In 1995, he started working as an official secretary of Wen Jiabo, who kept being promoted as secretary of Secretariat of the Central Committee and deputy Premier. His ties with Wen Jiabo continued when Wen became Chinese Premier at last. From 2003 to 2011, Wen Jiabao let Qiu serve as his secretary.  

Qiu Xiaoxiong, forner director of the Premier's Office, accompanied Wen Jiabao as if he were his shadow./ Source from search engine Baidu

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While in office, he was famous for being a 'shadow secretary'. Other chief secretaries of top leadership were talkative, but Qiu Xiaoxiong always accompanied former Premier Wen Jiabao quietly as if he were his shadow. When Wen Jiabao resigned from his position, Qiu received an offer from the authorities for higher position, however he dropped the offer with civility. We could say that he was indeed a good example of what a secretary should be like.