Ten months after falling from power, 67-year-old “Tigress” Li Weiwei, a ministerial-level official of the Chinese Communist Party, has been charged with corruption.
On May 26, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the CCP reported that the investigation into the bribery case involving Li Weiwei, former Deputy Director of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has concluded. Upon the designation of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the case has been reviewed for prosecution by the First Division of the Hainan Provincial Procuratorate. The prosecution has officially filed charges at the First Intermediate People’s Court of Hainan Province.
According to the prosecution’s indictment, Li Weiwei allegedly used her positions as member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department, member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Politics and Law Commission, Party Group Secretary and Chairperson of the Hunan Provincial CPPCC, as well as Deputy Director of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC, to seek benefits for others, illegally accepting large sums of money and property. She is accused of the crime of bribe-taking due to the significant amount involved.
Li Weiwei fell from power in July 2024.
Public records indicate that Li Weiwei was born in March 1958 in Ningxiang, Hunan Province, and began working in July 1975.
In December 1981, Li Weiwei was appointed as a teacher at the Second Middle School of Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. Just two years into her tenure at the school, she was transferred to the position of Deputy Secretary of the Zhuzhou City Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, and two years later, she was promoted to the Secretary of the Zhuzhou City Committee of the Communist Youth League, reaching the level of departmental director.
Chinese media described Li Weiwei’s rapid rise from a regular teacher to a departmental director in just 4 years as a “rocket-like” promotion.
In November 2006, at the age of 48, Li Weiwei was appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department, becoming the youngest deputy ministerial-level official in Hunan Province. Nine years later, she was appointed as the Secretary of the Politics and Law Commission of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee.
In January 2016, Li Weiwei was appointed as the Chairperson of the Hunan Provincial CPPCC. In March 2023, she became the Deputy Director of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC, a position held until her investigation was announced in July last year.
On January 24th this year, the CCP officially announced that Li Weiwei had been expelled from the Party and removed from office. The announcement at the time stated that Li Weiwei was involved in large-scale corruption and illicitly received substantial amounts of property. In February, she was arrested.