On August 27, 2026, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission announced that Ye Jianchun, the Deputy Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and the Governor, is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law.”
Ye Jianchun, 61 years old and native of Fujian province, had previously served for a long time in Shanghai and the Ministry of Water Resources of the Communist Party of China. In recent times, both Ye Jianchun’s home province in Fujian and the official circles in Jiangxi, where he has served for a long time, have been undergoing various purges. Ye Jianchun’s downfall has implicated various factions within the Communist Party, including the Shanghai faction, the Jiangxi faction, and the Fujian faction, making it a topic of much interest.
Since August 2026, Ye Jianchun has made several public appearances, including presiding over the executive meeting of the Jiangxi Provincial Government just three days earlier on August 24.
Even before the official announcement of Ye Jianchun’s downfall, there were rumors circulating on the internet about his investigation. An online user account named “Office Secretary” leaked on August 26 that Ye Jianchun was taken away for investigation in Ruijin City, Ganzhou, Jiangxi on the night of August 25, and his residence was thoroughly searched.
On August 26, political commentator Jiang Wang, currently in Australia, revealed on a certain platform that Ye Jianchun was under investigation in connection with the case of Wei Xiaodong, a former Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference Chairman, from Fujian, and his home was also raided on August 26.
Five months ago, on March 24, 2026, Xu Yanbin, Secretary-General of the Jiangxi Provincial Government of the Communist Party, was announced to have been put under investigation, six months after being demoted to the position of Director of the Poyang Lake Water Conservancy Hub Construction Office.
Xu Yanbin had previously served as the secretary of Qiangwei, the former Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee. After Ye Jianchun took office as the Governor of Jiangxi in October 2021, Xu Yanbin served as a member of the Party Group and Secretary-General of the Jiangxi Provincial Government from March 2023 to September 2025, acting as Ye Jianchun’s chief steward for two and a half years.
On the day Xu Yanbin was put under investigation on March 24, 2026, the commentator Jiang Wang had already revealed that Ye Jianchun, Deputy Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Governor, was being investigated with a 50% chance of being officially announced as fallen.
After Ye Jianchun’s announcement of being put under investigation, Taiwan’s United Daily News reported that sources had indicated Ye Jianchun was considered part of the “Shanghai faction” and had ties to the faction of former Vice President of the Communist Party, Zeng Qinghong.
Former Inner Mongolia official Du Wen posted on a certain platform that Ye Jianchun was an important old subordinate of Zeng Qinghong, one of the “5,000 Zeng’s troops.”
According to his publicly available resume, Ye Jianchun, born in July 1965, is from Zhouning, Fujian, and graduated in August 1984 from the Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Department at Hua Dong Water Conservancy College (now known as Hohai University). During his 21-year career at the Shanghai Survey and Design Research Institute from 1984 to 2005, he held various positions, culminating in his role as the Director and Deputy Party Secretary of the institute from December 2003 to June 2005.
The Shanghai Survey and Design Research Institute, founded in 1954, is one of the first batch of “old eight major design institutes” established based on the Leningrad Hydraulic Power Design Institute of the former Soviet Union. Ye Jianchun worked there for 21 years before he was appointed as the Director and Deputy Party Secretary of the institute. During his tenure, the institute underwent restructuring several times and is currently under the control of the Three Gorges Group.
Ye Jianchun’s career at the Shanghai Survey and Design Research Institute from 1984 to 2005 coincided with the period when Zeng Qinghong held various high-ranking positions in the Communist Party from 1984 to 1989, including Deputy Minister and Minister of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Organization Department, Member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee, and Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee. After the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2002, Zeng Qinghong was promoted to the Political Bureau Standing Committee and continued to serve as the Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, overseeing party building and organization-related matters.
Subsequently, Ye Jianchun was appointed as the Director and Deputy Party Secretary of the Shanghai Survey and Design Research Institute in December 2003, and from June 2005 to June 2016, he served as the Director and Party Secretary of the Taihu Basin Management Bureau of the Ministry of Water Resources of the Communist Party for 11 years.
The Taihu Basin Management Bureau, a river basin management institution directly under the Ministry of Water Resources of the Communist Party, is located in Shanghai. It is responsible for administrative management related to water resources and river and lake governance in the Taihu Basin and the Zhejiang-Fujian region. The administrative region of the Taihu Basin covers Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui.
During his 32-year tenure at the Shanghai Survey and Design Research Institute and the Taihu Basin Management Bureau from 1984 to 2016, Ye Jianchun accumulated a wealth of experience in his career.
Ye Jianchun was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the Ministry of Water Resources of China in June 2016, and from February 2017 to February 2021, he served as the Deputy Minister of Water Resources. During his tenure, he also concurrently served as the Secretary-General of the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Since 2026, China has been frequently hit by typhoons and heavy rains, causing flooding and disasters. At the same time, there have been significant personnel changes at the top levels of the Ministry of Water Resources. From 2026 until now, more than ten officials with ministerial-level or higher positions in water resources have been reported to have fallen, including Wang Rongxi, the former Director of the Anhui Provincial Water Resources Department; Jiang Ruhua, the former Deputy Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Water Resources Department; Zhu Haisheng, the former Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Water Resources Department; and Zhu Zehua, the Director of the Dujiangyan Water Resources Development Center in Sichuan.
It is worth noting that the Anhui Provincial Water Resources Department, Zhejiang Provincial Water Resources Department, and Jiangsu Provincial Water Resources Department all have to accept the overall coordination, guidance, and supervision from the Taihu Basin Management Bureau at the basin level. The officials who have fallen from these departments, including Wang Rongxi, Jiang Ruhua, and Zhu Haisheng, are all old subordinates of Ye Jianchun from the period when he was in charge of the Taihu Basin Management Bureau.
Additionally, Tian Xuebin, a former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, was put under investigation on January 5, 2026. Tian Xuebin had served as Deputy Minister and Party Group member of the Ministry of Water Resources from July 2015 to January 2024, actively participating in water conservancy infrastructure and water resource management projects. Ye Jianchun and Tian Xuebin had worked together as colleagues holding the position of Deputy Minister for four years.
Ye Jianchun was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, the Secretary of the Party Group of the Jiangxi Provincial Government, and the Acting Governor of Jiangxi Province in February 2021. He officially assumed office as the Governor of Jiangxi Province in January 2022 until his downfall in August 2026.
Ye Jianchun’s predecessor as the Governor of Jiangxi Province, Yi Lianhong, was put under investigation on February 10, 2026, which occurred during his tenure as the Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Three months ago, on May 27, 2026, Li Wei, a deputy ministerial-level official, member of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, and Minister of the United Front Work Department, was put under investigation during his term in office.
By the end of July 2026, Gao Shiwen resigned from his position as the Mayor of Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi Province, and was stripped of his qualifications as a deputy to the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress. Gao Shiwen had long served as the secretary to Ma Xingrui, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, who was announced to be under investigation in April 2026.
In addition, in the past four months from late April 2026, at least nine department-level officials in Jiangxi Province have been put under investigation, including:
– Chen Min, member of the Party Group and Deputy Mayor of the Yingtan Municipal Government, on August 12, 2026;
– Li Deping, former Deputy Director and Inspector at the Jiangxi Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, on July 2, 2026;
– Liang Jian, former member of the Party Group at State Grid Jiangxi Electric Power Co., Ltd., on June 23, 2026;
– Liu Da, former Deputy Director and first-level supervisor at the Jiangxi Provincial Audit Office, on June 18, 2026;
– Guo Bing, former member of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee and Deputy Director of the Legal Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, on May 26, 2026;
– Yu Xiaoshe, member of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee and Deputy Director of the Agriculture and Rural Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, on May 8, 2026;
– Wang Jiangjun, former member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference and former Deputy Director of the Social and Legal Committee, on May 6, 2026;
– Qiu Ling, the Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Communist Youth League, on April 28, 2026;
– Yu Zhiyong, Deputy Director of the United Front Work Department of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Party Group Secretary of the Ethnic and Religious Bureau, on April 27, 2026.
Jiangxi Province is the stronghold of high-ranking officials from the Jiangxi faction, such as former Standing Committee members Zeng Qinghong and Wu Guanzheng, and former Political Bureau member and Secretary of the Political and Legal Commission Guo Shengkun. Zeng Qinghong is from Ji’an, Jiangxi; Wu Guanzheng is from Yugan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi; and Guo Shengkun is from Xingguo County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi.
Among the fallen department-level officials mentioned, Wang Jiangjun is from the same hometown as Zeng Qinghong in Ji’an, and Guo Bing and Yu Zhiyong previously worked in Ji’an where Zeng Qinghong held his positions. Qiu Ling and Guo Shengkun are both from Xingguo and are reportedly relatives – Qiu Ling is said to be the nephew of Guo Shengkun’s wife, with Guo Shengkun allegedly being the grandnephew by marriage of Zeng Qinghong.
During his nearly five-year tenure as the Governor of Jiangxi Province from October 2021, Ye Jianchun had worked with two Jiangxi Provincial Party Secretaries: Yi Lianhong (from October 2021 to December 2022) and Yin Hong (since December 2022). Yi Lianhong fell from grace half a year ago, and Ye Jianchun had been working with Yin Hong for almost four years.
Yin Hong, born on June 24, 1963, in Huzhou, Zhejiang, had a long career in Shanghai before his transfer to Jiangxi. He held various positions within the Shanghai administration before his appointment to Jiangxi, where he eventually became the Deputy Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee.
From the late 1980s to June 2016, Ye Jianchun and Yin Hong both worked in Shanghai, with their careers overlapping for nearly thirty years.
The extensive downfall of high-ranking officials in Jiangxi, including Ye Jianchun, could have a significant impact on Yin Hong’s career path, and this situation warrants further attention.
Ye Jianchun hails from Zhouning County, Ningde City, Fujian.
It’s worth noting that the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, used to govern Ningde. Xi Jinping served in Fujian for 17 years, holding various positions from Vice Mayor of Xiamen to Party Secretary of Ningde, Xiamen, and Fujian, eventually becoming the Deputy Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and the Governor before moving to Beijing.
Wei Xiaodong, the Chairman of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference, fell from grace on June 6, 2026, and half a month later was stripped of his membership in the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. After Wei Xiaodong’s downfall, there were reports from online media outlets claiming that Wei Xiaodong was a political broker for the “Fujian Five Tigers” (Cai Qi, Huang Kunming, He Lifeng, Wang Xiaohong, and Chen Xi).
Wei Xiaodong, a native of Zhangzhou, Fujian, was a university classmate of He Lifeng at Xiamen University and had been promoted through the support of Chen Xi. He had connections with Cai Qi, Wang Xiaohong, and other officials in Beijing.
Among the “Fujian Five Tigers,” Cai Qi had governed Sanming, the hometown of the Fujian faction. Wang Xiaohong had worked in Xiamen and Fuzhou, He Lifeng had taken charge of Quanzhou, Xiamen, and Fuzhou, and Huang Kunming had a long career in Longyan, his hometown. From 2026 to the present, several officials in Xiamen, Fuzhou, Sanming, Quanzhou, and Longyan have been put under investigation.
Recently, officials in Ningde, Ye Jianchun’s hometown, have also fallen from grace. In February 2026, Chen Hongfei, former Deputy Inspector at the Ningde Municipal People’s Congress, and former District Head of Jiaocheng District actively surrendered. Chen Hongfei had previously served as the Secretary of the Zhouning County Party Committee in Ye Jianchun’s hometown. In June 2026, Yan Hanchun, former Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jiaocheng District in Ningde City, was investigated.
Ye Jianchun is the first ministerial-level official to fall from grace since the Beidaihe Conference; his career is deeply tied to the Shanghai, Jiangxi, and Fujian factions of Zeng Qinghong, Xi Jinping’s team, and various factions in the Communist Party.
As the Fifth Plenary Session of the 21st Central Committee of the Communist Party approaches, at this crucial moment of high-level personnel competition, Ye Jianchun’s downfall raises questions about the leading figures behind these actions. It remains to be seen who else will be implicated among the central and local high-ranking officials and calls for further observation.
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This translated and rewritten version of the news article provides a detailed overview of the investigation and downfall of Ye Jianchun, highlighting his career in various positions and the implications of his actions within the Communist Party.