On December 9, former Secretary of the Communist Party Committee in Hainan Province and former Governor of Hainan Province, Luo Baoming, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for bribery.
According to the charges, from 1995 to 2024, Luo Baoming used his positions as Director of the Tianjin Municipal Commerce Commission, Deputy Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, Governor of Hainan Province, Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, and Deputy Director of the Twelfth National People’s Congress Overseas Chinese Committee to provide assistance to relevant units and individuals in project contracting, bank loans, and commercial cooperation, illegally accepting a total of over 113 million yuan in bribes.
The court held that Luo Baoming’s actions constituted the crime of bribery, with an especially large amount of money involved. Considering that there were unsuccessful attempts in his bribery crimes and he voluntarily confessed to his crimes, his sentence was lightened.
Luo Baoming, originally from Tianjin, had previously served as Director of the Tianjin Municipal Commerce Commission, member of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee, and Minister of Propaganda.
In July 2001, Luo became the Deputy Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee; in 2007, he became the Governor of Hainan Province; and in August 2011, he was appointed as the Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee.
In April 2017, before turning 65, Luo stepped down from his position as the Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee and took on the role of Deputy Director of the Twelfth National People’s Congress Overseas Chinese Committee. The following year, he became the Deputy Director of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress Overseas Chinese Committee, until he resigned in March 2023.
Luo Baoming had been a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for the Fifteenth and Sixteenth terms and a member of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Central Committees.
On July 25th last year, after resigning from his position as the Secretary of the Communist Party Committee in Hainan Province for seven years, Luo Baoming surrendered himself and accepted investigation.
Following the party’s 19th National Congress, Luo Baoming became the second high-ranking official to fall in Hainan Province after the former Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Liu Xingtai. He was the first former Provincial Party Committee Secretary to be investigated since the establishment of Hainan Province and the third former Provincial Party Committee Secretary investigated after Sun Zhigang from Guizhou Province and Wu Yingjie from Tibet since the 19th National Congress.
Luo Baoming was the first senior official at the ministerial level to be investigated since the second half of last year.
Previous media reports suggested that Luo Baoming was believed to be a close associate and trusted individual of former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin. In 2015, Jiang Zemin, accompanied by three generations of his family, climbed Mount Dongshan in Hainan with Luo Baoming, a move seen as signaling a potential comeback, challenging the current leadership under Xi Jinping.
The downfall of Luo Baoming also reflects the ongoing internal power struggles within the Communist Party of China.
On January 24th this year, official reports stated that Luo Baoming had been expelled from the Party and stripped of his entitlements due to serious violations of discipline and the law.
Luo Baoming was accused of maintaining improper relationships with political swindlers, causing significant financial losses and negative political impact, resisting investigation, engaging in superstitious activities, failing to explain issues truthfully, allowing personal connections to interfere in the appointment of key officials, accepting gifts from enterprises, improperly intervening in disciplinary and law enforcement activities, being greedy and corrupt, using public power for personal gain, engaging in trading power for money, and leveraging his position for personal financial gain.
On February 10, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that Luo Baoming was arrested on suspicion of bribery. In June, Luo Baoming was indicted on bribery charges.