At the age of 55, Tan Weizhong recently resigned from the position of mayor of Shenzhen and was appointed to a new position as a delegate of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress. Tan Weizhong has been described as a protege of former Politburo member Chen Xi, both of whom graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Tsinghua University. During the tenure of the disgraced Politburo member Ma Xingrui as the Governor of Guangdong Province, Tan Weizhong served as his deputy for two years.
According to a report from Guangdong TV’s “Guangdong News Broadcast” on August 28, 2026, the Party Group of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress held a meeting. Huang Chuping, the Secretary and Director of the Party Group of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, presided over the meeting and gave a speech. Members of the leadership team of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, including Ye Zhenqin, Zhang Shuofu, Tan Weizhong, Xiao Yafei, Liu Yahong, Tan Ling, and Xu Hong, attended the meeting.
The above information indicates that Tan Weizhong has been appointed as a leader of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress.
The latest information from the official website of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress “Members of the Party Group of the Standing Committee” shows that Tan Weizhong has been appointed as a member of the Party Group of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress.
On August 24, 2026, the Standing Committee of the Seventh Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress decided to accept Tan Weizhong’s request to resign from the position of mayor of Shenzhen, and appointed Li Yun as the Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen, acting as the mayor.
According to public records, Li Yun was born in Songzi, Hubei in September 1973. He has worked in the China Agricultural Bank system for a long time, serving in positions such as the President of the Guizhou Branch of China Agricultural Bank and the Vice President of China Construction Bank. He began serving as the Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province in March 2025.
According to a report by Hong Kong’s “Ming Pao” on August 25, it was mentioned that in the spring of 2026, it was not surprising that Tan Weizhong was transferred after not being promoted to the position of Party Secretary of Shenzhen, and there were rumors that he would become the Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress.
Tan Weizhong had served as the mayor of Shenzhen for 5 years and eventually left. In October 2025, Meng Fanli, the former Party Secretary of Shenzhen, was promoted to the Governor of Guangdong Province. It was initially speculated that Tan Weizhong, who was also a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, would be promoted. However, in March 2026, Jin Lei, the former Standing Committee member and Minister of the Organization Department of Sichuan Province, was appointed as the Party Secretary of Shenzhen.
Tan Weizhong was born in July 1971 in Yulin, Guangxi, and graduated from Tsinghua University with a major in Polymer Chemical Engineering and minors in Electronics and Computer Technology in 1993. He obtained a master’s degree in Polymer Materials from Tsinghua University in 1996 and later joined China Petrochemical Corporation.
Tan Weizhong completed his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University, and he is a disciple of the former Minister of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China, Chen Xi, who also graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Tsinghua University and served as the Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Party Committee at Tsinghua University.
During Chen Xi’s tenure as the Executive Deputy Minister and Minister of the Organization Department, Tan Weizhong served as the Vice General Manager of China Petrochemical Corporation in 2017. In March 2019, he became the Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province. In April 2021, he was appointed as the Deputy Party Secretary and Acting Mayor of Shenzhen. In May 2021, he officially became the Mayor of Shenzhen, becoming the first mayor born in the 1970s in Shenzhen and the youngest “top leader” of a sub-provincial city in the Communist Party at that time. Tan Weizhong later served as a candidate member of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and a delegate to the 14th National People’s Congress.
In June 2026, 72-year-old Chen Xi stepped down from his positions as the President of the Central Party School and the President of the National School of Administration, with both roles being taken over by Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. Following his retirement, rumors circulated online linking Chen Xi to the case of Wei Xiaodong, the Chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which led to his demotion from the deputy national level to the deputy department level.
From January 2017 to December 2021, Ma Xingrui served as the Governor of Guangdong Province. During his tenure, Tan Weizhong served as the Deputy Governor and Party member of Guangdong Province from March 2019 to April 2021, acting as Ma Xingrui’s deputy for two years.
Politburo member Ma Xingrui was removed from his position on April 3, 2026. During Ma Xingrui’s downfall, the political scene in Guangdong and Xinjiang, where he had previously held power, continued to be shaken, with officials being intensively investigated.
Several officials from the administration of Shenzhen, which was governed by Ma Xingrui and Tan Weizhong consecutively, have also been investigated.
On March 27, 2026, Guo Yonghang, former Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was removed from office, and on June 26 of the same year, he was stripped of his position as a delegate to the 14th National People’s Congress. Guo Yonghang was a key aide to Ma Xingrui during his time in Shenzhen and his closest secretary.
On December 15, 2025, Dai Beifang, former Party Secretary and Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Shenzhen, was investigated. On July 2, 2026, Du Ling, former Party member and Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Federation of Trade Unions, was investigated. On July 17, Wang Qiang, former Standing Committee member of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee and Director of the United Front Work Department, voluntarily surrendered. Dai Beifang, Du Ling, and Wang Qiang were all subordinates of Ma Xingrui during his tenure in Shenzhen.
Furthermore, on July 19, 2026, Ouyang Weimin, former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the state-owned China Development Bank, was investigated. While Ma Xingrui served as the Deputy Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Governor, Ouyang Weimin successively served as the Deputy Party Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee and Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province. During the same period, Tan Weizhong and Ouyang Weimin also worked together in the Guangdong Provincial Government.