After 19 months of being removed from office, Zhu Zhisong, a former member of the Shanghai Municipal Committee and former Secretary of the Pudong New Area Committee, who came from a military-industrial background, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in the first instance for accepting bribes totaling more than 139 million yuan.
On June 23, the Intermediate People’s Court of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, publicly pronounced the first-instance judgment, sentencing Zhu Zhisong, former member of the Shanghai Municipal Committee and former Secretary of the Pudong New Area Committee, to death with a two-year reprieve for the crime of bribery.
The court stated that from 2003 to 2024, Zhu Zhisong, while serving as Vice President and President of the Eighth Research Institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Company, Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, Deputy Secretary and District Head of the Minhang District Committee, Secretary of the Minhang District Committee, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal Government, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of the Lingang New Area, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Administrative Committee of the Lingang New Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Committee and Secretary of the Pudong New Area Committee, abused his positions to provide assistance to relevant units and individuals in business operations, project contracting, financing, and other matters, by directly or indirectly accepting illegal gains through himself or others, totaling more than 139 million yuan.
Zhu Zhisong was officially announced to be under investigation on November 27, 2024. In an official announcement on June 10, 2025, it was reported that he had been expelled from the Party, his qualifications as a delegate to the 20th National Congress, the 12th Party Congress of Shanghai, and the 5th Party Congress of Pudong New Area, Shanghai, were revoked, and his suspected criminal issues were referred to the prosecution for review and prosecution.
On January 22 of this year, the Intermediate People’s Court of Nanchang City held a public trial of the case.
Public records show that Zhu Zhisong, 57 years old, from Jiangsu, graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology majoring in mechanical manufacturing. He had long been involved in military-related work in the Shanghai aerospace system, serving as Assistant Director General, Deputy Director General, Director General, and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Aerospace Bureau from June 2000 to 2014.
In May 2014, Zhu Zhisong was transferred to Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, and later served as Head and Secretary of the Minhang District, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee.
In 2021, Zhu Zhisong was appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, Secretary of the Pudong New Area Committee, and Director of the Administration Committee of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, until he was removed from office.
At that time, it was reported by Economic Observer Net that Zhu Zhisong’s case was related to anti-corruption activities in the aerospace military system since 2023, where Zhu Zhisong had worked for a long time in this field. Besides Zhu Zhisong, several individuals closely related to him were also reported as being “out of contact,” including his family members, colleagues, and a department head of the Pudong New Area government.
It is worth noting that the Shanghai Aerospace Bureau, also known as the Shanghai Institute of Aerospace Technology, China Aerospace Science and Technology Group’s Eighth Research Institute, is headquartered in Minhang District, Shanghai. From 1999 to 2011, Jiang Mianheng, the son of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin, served as Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was involved in the Chinese aerospace system, with a significant power base in the Shanghai Aerospace Bureau located in Minhang District.
Starting in 2007, during Zhu Zhisong’s control of the Shanghai Aerospace Bureau, the “Aerospace City” was established in Minhang District. Shanghai lawyer Zheng Enchong once reported that one of Jiang Zemin’s mansions was located within this “Aerospace City,” exceeding in luxury and area the mansion Mao Zedong had in Shanghai before – the Shanghai Xijiao Guesthouse.