# Mishu

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For the American comedian, see [Mishu Hilmy](/source/Mishu_Hilmy).

A **confidential secretary** or ***Mishu*** (Chinese: 机要秘书, tɕíjâʊ mîʂú) in Chinese politics is a personal [secretary](/source/Secretary) often trusted with [secret](/source/Secrecy), private information. [Chinese Communist Party](/source/Communist_Party_of_China) (CCP) leaders, as well as other [political](/source/Politics_of_China) and military leaders are often assigned confidential secretaries, who are in charge of processing secret documents and telegrams, as well as translation and record-keeping.

Chinese political leaders often have multiple secretaries. For example, during the [Republic of China](/source/Republic_of_China) era, leaders such as [Sun Yat-sen](/source/Sun_Yat-sen) and [Chiang Kai-shek](/source/Chiang_Kai-shek) employed "confidential secretaries" and "attendant secretaries" (侍从秘书) in addition to the official secretarial staff attached to their office. When [Mao Zedong](/source/Mao_Zedong) ceased to hold a government post, he still retained various secretaries including a "confidential secretary" and a "personal secretary" (生活秘书).

*Jiyao mishu* is sometimes shortened to "*mishu*", especially in Western works,[1] but the latter term simply means "[secretary](/source/Secretary)" in [Chinese](/source/Chinese_language) and can mean any of a whole range of different positions from an administrative assistant in a small business to a policy advisor to the paramount leader (政治秘书, political secretary).

[Xi Jinping](/source/Xi_Jinping) was [Geng Biao](/source/Geng_Biao)'s mishu after graduating from Tsinghua University in 1979.[2]

## See also

- [Cadre system of the Chinese Communist Party](/source/Cadre_system_of_the_Chinese_Communist_Party)

## References

1. Li, Wei & Pye, Lucian W. (1992-01-01). "The Ubiquitous Role of the Mishu in Chinese Politics". *The China Quarterly*. **132** (132): 913–936. [doi:10.1017/S0305741000045483](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741000045483). [JSTOR 654188](https://www.jstor.org/stable/654188). [S2CID 154746174](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:154746174)

1. Sheridan, Michael (2024). *The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China*. London, U.K.: Headline Press. p. 73. ISBN 9781035413485. Xi Jinping became one of Geng's three private secretaries, or *mishu*, a role combining confidential work, bag-carrying, research, running a diary, seeing to the superior's every need, and acting as his eyes and ears.

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