Even at normal times, the Soviet-style Jingxi hotel in west Beijing is out of bounds for walk-in guests and foreigners.
When the Communist Party of China’s top leaders gather there annually – as they are doing this week – for the party Plenum, the hotel transforms into a fortress.
The current four-day meeting is the fourth time that China’s roughly 375-person Central Committee—the CPC’s highest decision-making body when the National People’s Congress, the legislature, is not in session—is meeting since October 2017.
As part of the protocol, the members aren’t allowed to leave the hotel during the plenum.
Affiliated to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the Jingxi hotel is considered an integral part of China’s power-packed corridors —the Great Hall of the People, China’s Parliament hall, Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound, and Diaoyutai State Guest House — where Chinese leaders often host their foreign counterparts.
“It has the same political significance as buildings such as the Great Hall of the People and the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. As a venue for hosting important meetings and events of the party, government and military, Jingxi Hotel has the reputation of ‘the safest hotel’ and ‘the crown of the venue,’” says an entry on the hotel’s history in Chinese social media.
A Shanghai-based Chinese historian who did not wish to be named said the hotel is under the supervision of the PLA and is considered one of the safest venues for the CPC leadership to gather.
The hotel was unveiled in 1964 and as the chaos of the Cultural Revolution overcame the Chinese polity over the next few years, it became the first choice for CPC leaders to hold meetings.
China’s iconic leader Mao Zedong preferred the venue because of the layers of military security behind which it functioned.
In the CPC’s history, many important decisions were taken at meetings held at the hotel, the historian said.
One was the launch of China’s economic reforms and opening-up policy at the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee, held from December 18 to 22, 1978 at the hotel.
It was also the venue for the trial of General Chen Zaidao who went against CPC’s Cultural Revolution; it was at Jingxi that the CPC leaders took the decision to crackdown against the “Gang of Four”, including Mao’s wife Jiang Qing. It was the same hotel that the CPC leaders gather to endorse the military crackdown on the Tiananmen protesters in 1989, just weeks after the protests were crushed.
According to a report by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, the hotel’s security is handled by elite soldiers and its telephone operators are female soldiers fluent in dozens of dialects and languages.
“Civilian staff, selected from hospitality schools, must first pass political background checks run by the Ministry of Public Security and then be selected by Beijing’s city government before earning an interview with the hotel itself,” the report added.
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