Two of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s former henchmen and important allies have recently been sentenced to death. Experts believe that some of Xi’s political allies might have been alienated from within by anti-Xi forces. The two ministerial officials given suspended death sentences are Dong Hong, former deputy head of Central Inspection Group which supervises the party’s leadership at the provincial (ministerial) level; and Wang Fuyu, former deputy secretary of the Guizhou provincial Party committee and chairman of the province’s committee of the Political Consultative Conference. Dong Hong was an assistant to Wang Qishan, vice chairman of a CCP committee for years, while Wang Fuyu was the former deputy assistant of Li Zhanshu, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Wang Qishan was a united force in Xi’s attempts to crack down on his political opponents, taking down hundreds of senior officials spanning the party, political and legal …