Fujian “localist” official Zhang Zhinan sentenced to 14 years in prison
CCTV reported that Zhang Zhinan, the former vice governor of Fujian Province, was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined 3 million yuan in the first instance at the Nanchang Intermediate Court in Jiangxi Province on March 22 on charges of accepting bribes.
In 2020, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China stated in the “Shuangkai” bulletin that Zhang Zhinan not only accepted bribes, but also failed to prevent epidemics, which was the first case of a CCP official being sacked.
According to court documents, from 1996 to 2019, when Zhang Zhinan served as the director of the Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission of the Communist Party of China, the vice governor of the Fujian Provincial Government, a member of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the vice governor of the Fujian Provincial Government, Zhang Zhinan received a total of more than RMB 34.32 million in property from others. Yuan. In addition, from 2007 to 2017, Zhang Zhinan abused his power in the projects he was responsible for approving, resulting in a total loss of more than 148 million yuan in financial funds.
According to public information, Zhang Zhinan is a Fujian “localist” official and a native of Longyan, Fujian. Since May 2002, Zhang Zhinan has served as the Deputy Secretary General of the Fujian Provincial Government of the Communist Party of China, and has served in the Fujian Provincial Government System for 18 years; in January 2008, he was promoted to Vice Governor, and in November 2011, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and served as Executive Deputy Governor. He has been in charge of development and reform, science and technology, finance, ecological environment, transportation, emergency management, statistics, medical insurance, and digital Fujian construction.
Several local officials were investigated on the same day
On the day Zhang Zhinan was sentenced, several local CCP officials were investigated.
The website of the CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on March 22 that Chen Shengliang, the former deputy mayor of Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province, and the former director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, voluntarily surrendered and is currently under investigation;
The Ningxia Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China announced on March 22 that Han Jianglong, a member of the party group and deputy director of the Ningxia Civil Affairs Department, is currently under investigation;
On March 22, the website of the CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection reported that Lin Yijun, vice chairman of the Wenzhou Municipal Political Consultative Conference in Zhejiang Province, voluntarily surrendered and is currently under investigation.
In addition, Hangzhou reported 2 cases of poor performance in responding to the CCP virus pneumonia epidemic.
Served as the first deputy of the members of the “Oil Gang”
Zhang Zhinan is the first central management cadre to be officially dismissed in 2020, becoming the “first tiger” in Fujian after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the third provincial leading cadre in Fujian to be dismissed after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The other two were in 2015. Fujian Vice Governor Xu Gang was sacked in March, and Fujian Governor Su Shulin was sacked in October 2015.
Su Shulin is the first incumbent governor to be sacked since the 18th Communist Party of China. He is a member of Zhou Yongkang’s “Petroleum Gang”, the former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Communist Party of China. He used to be the deputy general manager of PetroChina and the general manager of Sinopec. Deputy secretary of the province, acting governor, was promoted to governor in July of the same year.
Xu Gang and Zhang Zhinan are both Su Shulin’s deputy. In February 2013, Xu Gang was promoted from Secretary of the CPC Quanzhou Municipal Party Committee to Vice Governor of Fujian Province and became Su Shulin’s deputy. He was investigated two years later. Although Zhang Zhinan had served as the vice governor of Fujian Province as early as 2008, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee during Su Shulin’s tenure, and was promoted to executive vice governor in February 2013, becoming Su’s first deputy.
Xu Gang was sentenced to 13 years in prison in the first instance on December 29, 2016 for accepting bribes; Su Shulin was sentenced to 16 years in prison on July 26, 2018 for accepting bribes and abusing power by state-owned enterprise personnel.
Zhou Yongkang, Su Shulin, and Zhang Zhinan all participated in the persecution of Falun Gong. Zhang Zhinan, then vice governor of Fujian, served concurrently as deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the CPC Provincial Committee in August 2008 until November 2011. The Politics and Law Committee is the CCP’s authority to persecute Falun Gong.
Fujian officialdom implicates more than ten senior state officials
In March 2015, on the day Fujian Shouhu and Vice Governor Xu Gang sacked, the CCP mouthpiece People’s Daily published an article saying that Fujian is a relatively special province, and many “party and state leaders” used to work here. Xu Gang’s sack shows that there are no geographical restrictions in anti-corruption, and it will not vary from place to place.
Hong Kong Media East.com published a signed commentary, listing nearly ten current or former senior officials of the CCP at or above the deputy national level, who were implicated in Fujian officialdom.
According to Hong Kong media articles, including Xi Jinping, former chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin, and former secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection He Guoqiang, at least three high-level officials of the Communist Party of China have served as officials in Fujian. In addition, the mother of former CCP vice-chairman Zeng Qinghong lived in Fujian all the time, and the family of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin’s sister also lived in Fuzhou, and his nephew was a provincial government official.
Zhang Gaoli, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, is also from Fujian. There are countless other senior officials of the central government who have worked in Fujian. The deputy state-level senior officials include Wang Zhaoguo and Chen Zhili, former vice-chairmen of the CPC National People’s Congress, Sun Chunlan, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Lu Zangong, vice-chairman of the CPPCC.
The article said that almost all high-ranking officials have a group of close officials in Fujian, so that the forces of various gangs and factions in Fujian officialdom are intertwined. Many of the “tigers” in Fujian’s officialdom are likely to have a “national level” background.
Except for Xi Jinping, almost all of the senior officials of the Communist Party of China listed in the article are from the Jiang faction or have a Jiang faction background. For example, Zeng Qinghong was the number two figure in the Jiang faction, Jia Qinglin, He Guoqiang, and Zhang Gaoli were all members of the Standing Committee promoted by Jiang Zemin, and Chen Zhili was accused of being Jiang Zemin’s concubine. Wang Zhaoguo used to be the first secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Youth League of the Communist Party of China, but he was eventually abandoned by Deng Xiaoping because of his attack on Hu Yaobang. Sun Chunlan was accused of being a member of the Liaoning Gang, who actively followed Jiang Zemin and Zhou Yongkang to brutally persecute Falun Gong.