Former Vice Chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Yao Yuzhou, is under investigation. Yao Yuzhou rose through the ranks in the Anhui Communist Youth League system in his early years, and both high-ranking CCP officials Li Keqiang and Wang Yang, known as members of the “Youth League faction” in the officialdom, are also from Anhui. Yao Yuzhou and Wang Yang once worked in Anhui Province at the same time.
According to a report released today (April 9) on the website of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, Yao Yuzhou, former Vice Chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the CCP, is being investigated for suspected “serious violations of discipline and law”.
Yao Yuzhou is the 20th senior cadre to be officially announced as under investigation by the CCP this year.
Public records show that Yao Yuzhou was born in March 1960. He served as the Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Communist Youth League of Huainan City, as well as the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Youth League of Anhui Province. In 2001, Yao Yuzhou became the Deputy Secretary of the Ma’anshan City Committee, and two years later he was appointed as the Mayor of Ma’anshan City. He held the position for 5 years before being transferred to serve as the Secretary of the Tongling City Committee in 2008, and in 2013, he became the Secretary of the Xuancheng City Committee.
In August 2016, Yao Yuzhou was appointed as the Secretary of the Chuzhou City Committee, and in November of the same year, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the CCP and the Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. In 2020, he was appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the CCP, but in January 2023, he no longer held the position of Vice Chairman of the Provincial Committee of the CCP.
It is worth noting that Yao Yuzhou’s career took off in the Anhui Communist Youth League system.
Former member of the CCP Political Bureau Standing Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Wang Yang, is from Suzhou, Anhui, and also comes from the Anhui Communist Youth League system. He previously served as the Deputy Secretary of the Suzhou County Committee of the Communist Youth League of Anhui Province, the Director of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Youth League of Anhui Province, and the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Youth League of Anhui Province. He also held positions as the Deputy Secretary and Mayor of the Tongling City Committee in Anhui Province.
During Wang Yang’s tenure as the Deputy Secretary of the Anhui Provincial Committee and Deputy Governor, Yao Yuzhou was serving as the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Youth League of Anhui Province.
The late Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, hailing from Dingyuan, Anhui, served as the First Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China from 1993 to 1998. During this period, Yao Yuzhou was the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Youth League of Anhui Province.