Former vice secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Chengdu Municipal Committee and mayor of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Wang Fengchao, who fell from grace last November, has recently been formally charged with corruption.
On October 15th, the CPC’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate website announced that the investigation into Wang Fengchao’s bribery case, involving his tenure as vice secretary of the Chengdu Municipal Committee and former mayor of Chengdu, has concluded. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued a decision to arrest Wang Fengchao on suspicion of bribery and designated the Changsha Procuratorate in Hunan Province to review the case for prosecution. Recently, the procuratorate has filed a public prosecution with the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court.
The procuratorate’s accusation alleges that Wang Fengchao, while holding positions such as the head of the Air Conditioning Products Business Unit and vice chairman at Sichuan Changhong Electronics Group Co., Ltd., as well as various roles at Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., including vice general manager, vice chairman, executive vice general manager, executive president, and general manager, and while serving as the deputy mayor of Neijiang City in Sichuan Province, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Sichuan Province, chairman of Sichuan Development (Holdings) Co., Ltd., vice governor of Sichuan Province, and mayor of Chengdu, exploited the convenience of his positions to seek benefits for others, illegally accepted property from others, and the amount involved was particularly large. He shall be held criminally responsible for the crime of bribery.
In November last year, Wang Fengchao, who was the mayor of Chengdu at the time, was officially investigated. In June this year, he was expelled from the CPC, dismissed from public office, and had his qualification as a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress revoked, and was sent to judicial authorities.
Public records show that Wang Fengchao, born in December 1965 in Zhongjiang, Sichuan Province, graduated from university in July 1986 and started his career with a 19-year tenure at Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., where he served as vice chairman and executive president.
In 2005, Wang Fengchao became the deputy mayor of Neijiang City, Sichuan Province; in 2007, he served as the deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Sichuan Province; and after 2010, he successively held positions at Sichuan Airlines Group such as vice chairman, general manager, chairman, and Party Secretary. In 2015, Wang Fengchao became the chairman and Party Secretary of Sichuan Development (Holdings) Co., Ltd. In 2019, he was appointed vice governor of Sichuan Province, reaching vice-ministerial level; and in 2020, he assumed the roles of vice secretary of the Chengdu Municipal Committee, vice mayor, and mayor. Wang Fengchao was investigated on November 26th last year.