Chongqing Mayor Hu Henghua has been absent from high-level collective activities of the Chongqing Municipal Committee on March 18 and 19. Reports circulating on March 17 suggested that Hu Henghua is under investigation. In less than three months of the year 2026, around 30 officials in Chongqing have been intensively investigated. In the week following the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party’s Two Sessions, four senior officials in Chongqing were successively caught in a corruption probe.
According to Chongqing Daily, on the morning of March 19, Chongqing Municipal Committee Secretary Yuan Jiajun, Chairman of the Municipal People’s Congress Wang Jiong, Chairwoman of the CPPCC Cheng Lihua, and Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Committee Chen Xinwu participated in a tree-planting activity.
Among the top leaders of the “four sets” in Chongqing, Yuan Jiajun, Wang Jiong, and Cheng Lihua attended the activity, but Mayor Hu Henghua was notably absent from the official announcement.
This marks the second consecutive public absence of Hu Henghua from the official events of the leadership team in Chongqing, following his unusual absence from a special learning session of the Chongqing Municipal Committee on March 18.
Hu Henghua’s most recent public activity was on March 16, 2026. On that day, he presided over the meeting of the talent work leading group of the Chongqing Municipal Committee as the executive deputy team leader.
On March 17, 2026, there were social media reports alleging that Hu Henghua is under investigation.
Hu Henghua, born in June 1963 in Hengnan County, Hunan Province, held various positions in Hunan, including Director of the Hunan Provincial Economic Commission, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Yiyang City, Director of the Hunan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Changsha City, and Member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, and Secretary of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Following his cross-provincial appointment in October 2020 as Deputy Secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, Hu Henghua was transferred to Deputy Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee and Acting Mayor in December 2021. He officially became the Mayor of Chongqing in January 2022 and has been in charge of Chongqing for over four years.
During Hu Henghua’s unusual absence from high-level activities, on March 19, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported that Li Weidong, Secretary of the Wuxi County Committee of Chongqing, and Tang Junyi, Party member and Deputy District Chief of Liangping District Government in Chongqing, had been arrested.
Public records show that Li Weidong, born in December 1970 in Zhong County, Chongqing, previously held positions such as Member of the Standing Committee of the Qianjiang District Committee of Chongqing, Minister of Organization Department, Principal of the District Party School, and Deputy Secretary of the District Committee, and became Secretary of Wuxi County Committee in Chongqing in August 2021.
Tang Junyi, born in July 1969 in Liangping, Chongqing, had served as Deputy Director, Director, and Party Secretary of the Finance Bureau of Liangping County, Director and Party Secretary of the Finance Bureau of Liangping District, and was promoted to Deputy District Chief of Liangping District in January 2022.
Prior to that, following the conclusion of the Two Sessions, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported on March 15, 2026, that Yang Shuhai, Director and Chairman of the Agricultural and Rural Committee of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Congress, had been investigated, and on March 14, the Deputy General Manager of the Jiangxin New Area Development Investment Group Duan Candon fell from power.
According to the official website of the Chongqing Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission, in less than three months in 2026, around 30 officials in Chongqing have been investigated. Other officials under investigation include Mu Jun, Deputy General Manager of Chongqing Expressway Group, Deng Zhaojun, former Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Nanchuan District, Qian Hu, Deputy District Chief of Dazu District, Huang Daoguo, former Deputy County Chief of Changkou County, Ran Qiming, Deputy County Chief of Shizhu County, Lv Hong, former Director of the Health and Health Committee of Nanchuan District, Luo Linqi, former Deputy Secretary of the JiuLongpo District Committee, and more.
Since the Wang Lijun incident on February 6, 2012, the Chongqing officialdom has become a high-risk area. Both former Chongqing Municipal Party Secretaries, Bo Xilai and Sun Zhengcai, fell from power during their terms. Three public security bureau chiefs of Chongqing, Wang Lijun, He Ting, and Deng Huilin, were successively investigated. In addition, Ren Xuefeng, Deputy Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee, committed suicide by jumping off a building during his tenure, and Wu Cunrong, former Deputy Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee, was arrested during his tenure as Chairman of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the CPPCC. Chen Min’er, Chongqing Municipal Party Secretary, faced obstacles entering the Central Committee during the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was later transferred to serve as Municipal Party Secretary of Tianjin.