A White House guest list has publicly confirmed Zhou Hongxu as director of the Central Guard Bureau, the secretive Chinese agency that protects leader Xi Jinping, CNN reported.

The confirmation came in the list of Chinese guests and their official titles published for the recent state banquet hosted by US President Donald Trump for Xi, according to CNN. Beijing had never publicly confirmed Zhou’s job title, and his official biography contains few details.

Zhou, a bespectacled official with a crew-cut, has made a handful of appearances alongside Xi in recent years, and China watchers had long believed he ran the bureau, an office with a role similar to that of the US Secret Service. In footage broadcast by state broadcaster Chinese Central Television, Zhou appeared at the state banquet wearing a buttoned-up Mao suit and standing just behind US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CNN reported.

Zhou also made a rare high-profile diplomatic appearance earlier this month, when Xi met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Official footage showed him sitting between China’s two vice ministers of foreign affairs, although state media did not identify him, according to CNN.

Analysts told CNN the increased visibility was significant. “Zhou might be the first ever top security guard being involved in such high-profile diplomatic talk, as far as publicly documented appearances are concerned,” Deng Yuwen, a former deputy editor of the Study Times, the official publication of the party’s top training institute, told CNN.

Deng said Zhou’s appearance at the White House banquet may suggest “Xi deliberately wanted to bring him into the public eye,” adding: “And if Xi is intentionally giving him this kind of exposure, it would suggest that he is being entrusted with greater responsibilities and may be given a more important role in the upcoming leadership reshuffle.”

The Central Guard Bureau protects China’s top leaders and the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in central Beijing. Chinese state media has described it as “an exceptionally unusual organization, straddling both the police and military spheres, and one that requires the deep trust of the country’s top leadership.”

A 2014 report by state-affiliated China Net, one of the few official articles on the bureau, said its structure sits within the Ministry of Public Security, where it is known as “Bureau 9,” but that it operates independently and answers to Xi’s cabinet. The bureau was founded in 1950 and traces its origins to the Chinese civil war; its first chief, Wang Dongxing, was one of Mao Zedong’s personal guards and later became party vice chairman and a member of the politburo standing committee.

Zhou’s predecessor was Wang Shaojun, who died in April 2023. State media confirmed his death only three months later, citing an unspecified illness, and confirmed his position as director of the bureau only after he died. No successor was announced.

State news agency Xinhua reported that Zhou was chosen as a delegate to the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress in 2022, the gathering that gave Xi a precedent-breaking third term. Almost nothing is public about Zhou’s education or background, though older state media images show him attending events with Xi in Kathmandu in October 2019 and at the APEC summit in San Francisco in 2023. Zhou was also seen on a 2018 inspection tour of the People’s Liberation Army’s Northern Theater Command alongside Wang, with both men in military uniforms, suggesting he also came up through the PLA, according to CNN.

The quiet surrounding Zhou reflects a broader tightening of information about officials who serve Xi directly, CNN reported.

The party’s 21st National Congress, held twice a decade and typically the occasion for major leadership changes, is scheduled for October next year. Most current senior officials will be over 70 by then, including top diplomat Wang Yi, who turns 73, and observers will watch whether a younger generation of cadres is promoted into the politburo and its standing committee.

Other younger officials who attended the White House banquet included foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, 53, protocol chief Hong Lei, 57, and Xi’s personal secretary Lu Luhua, a near-permanent presence on overseas visits, according to CNN.