Former Mayor of Shenzhen, Tan Weizhong, was recently taken down from office. The case involving former Central Political Bureau member, Ma Xingrui, and connections in the Shenzhen official circle are once again under scrutiny. According to reports from Hong Kong media, Ma Xingrui’s mistress is also implicated in a bribery case. It was rumored previously that Ma Xingrui had at least four mistresses.
On September 21st, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China announced the downfall of Tan Weizhong, a member of the Party Committee of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress. This occurred less than a month after Tan Weizhong resigned from his position as the Mayor of Shenzhen. Two days after Tan Weizhong’s downfall, the Guangdong Provincial Committee held a rare Standing Committee meeting specifically to report on the situation regarding Tan Weizhong’s investigation.
On September 27th, Hong Kong’s “Sing Tao Daily” cited a retired scholar in Guangdong, stating that apart from corruption, Tan Weizhong was also involved in cliques. A senior official in Shenzhen who is not part of the party and government system believed that after Tan Weizhong, more Shenzhen officials are likely to be exposed. It was said that “two years ago, when rumors of Ma Xingrui’s trouble spread, various whispers were already circulating in Shenzhen about who was being investigated and who had just been called in for questioning.”
Ma Xingrui and Tan Weizhong had overlapping work periods. From January 2017 to December 2021, Ma Xingrui served as the Governor of Guangdong Province, while Tan Weizhong was the Vice Governor of Guangdong Province from March 2019 to April 2021.
In April 3rd this year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced the downfall of Ma Xingrui, the former Secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee. Ma Xingrui held the position of Party Secretary of Shenzhen from March 2015 to December 2016.
Insiders in Shenzhen revealed, “His (Ma Xingrui’s) wife and brother have insatiable appetites, and it is said that mistresses were also involved in bribery.”
On July 14th, Ma Xingrui was officially expelled from the Party and public office. One of the charges against him was “engaging in power, sex, and money transactions”, drawing attention from the public.
On July 16th, Jiang Mang, a commentator who frequently reveals behind-the-scenes information about high-level CCP officials, disclosed on X platform that Ma Xingrui’s marriage with his wife Rong Li was a political marriage. Ma Xingrui had started an extramarital affair as early as 1996. After Ma Xingrui was promoted to a member of the Central Political Bureau in 2022, his lover deleted all past photos with him.
Jiang Mang also mentioned that in 2013, when Ma Xingrui was working in Guangdong Province as the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and the Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, he had a relationship with a beautiful female police officer in the provincial public security department. This female officer quickly went to Hong Kong, obtained a Hong Kong identity card, and became Ma Xingrui’s agent in Hong Kong.
It is said that in 2016, when Ma Xingrui served as the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and the Governor of Guangdong Province, his secretary Li Guanglu arranged for a postgraduate student from South China University of Technology born in the 1990s to be introduced to Ma Xingrui. Ma Xingrui soon helped this woman obtain an investment immigrant status in Singapore.
Furthermore, on December 25, 2021, Ma Xingrui was appointed as the Secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee. Li Guanglu arranged for a postgraduate student born in the 1990s from Harbin Institute of Technology to be given to Ma Xingrui through the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Office of Government Affairs Management. Ma Xingrui later helped this women obtain Canadian citizenship.
Jiang Mang mentioned that Ma Xingrui’s four mistresses are currently under control by the authorities. It is alleged that, except for the first mistress, the assets and funds controlled by Ma’s other three mistresses amount to over a billion Chinese yuan.
However, the claim about Ma Xingrui having four mistresses has not been confirmed.
The official charges issued by the CCP also accused Ma Xingrui of “engaging in large-scale family corruption”.
The Hong Kong media report mentioned above stated that Ma Xingrui’s tenure as the Party Secretary of Shenzhen was short, but he steadily rose to become a member of the Political Bureau, attracting many political and business figures to Shenzhen, making it an important place for him to accumulate wealth, especially in projects such as the renovation of the old city, where “the profits are particularly high.” Ma Xingrui’s wife Rong Li, brother Ma Xingquan, and his secretary were considered the main operators of corruption. Guo Yonghang, who served as Ma Xingrui’s “chief secretary” in Shenzhen, was believed to be one of them. On March 27th this year, Guo Yonghang, the Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was officially announced to have fallen from grace.