After eight years of retirement, 71-year-old Zhou Liyuan, former Secretary-General of the Liaoning Provincial Government, has been investigated by the Chinese authorities. Zhou Liyuan had served as a key aide to the then Liaoning Provincial Governors Li Xi and Chen Qiufa. Li Xi is currently a member of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo Standing Committee and the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Chen Qiufa comes from the Chinese space industry system.
On January 18, 2026, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China announced based on information from the Liaoning Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection that Zhou Liyuan, former Director of the Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress Legal Committee, is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law.”
Born in November 1955 in Linghai, Liaoning Province, Zhou Liyuan started working in the Liaoning Provincial Government Office in 1988. In March 1997, he became the Director of the Liaoning Provincial Government Office in Shanghai. In December 2000, he successively held positions as Deputy Director of the Liaoning Provincial Government Office, Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government, Secretary-General of the Provincial Government, and Director of the Provincial Government Office.
In January 2016, Zhou Liyuan stepped down from the position of Secretary-General of the Liaoning Provincial Government and took on the role of Director of the Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress Legal Committee, retiring in January 2018. After eight years of retirement, the 71-year-old Zhou Liyuan was officially placed under investigation.
Throughout the years from December 2000 to January 2016, Zhou Liyuan served in various capacities within the Liaoning Provincial Government for a total of 15 years.
He worked under five different Liaoning Provincial Governors: Bo Xilai (January 2001 to February 2004), Zhang Wenyue (February 2004 to December 2007), Chen Zhenggao (December 2007 to April 2014), Li Xi (April 2014 to May 2015), and Chen Qiufa (May 2015 to October 2017).
During Bo Xilai’s tenure as Liaoning Provincial Governor, Zhou Liyuan was the Deputy Director of the Provincial Government Office and was promoted to Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government (ministerial rank) in February 2004. Bo Xilai was brought down from his position as the Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee in April 2012 and sentenced to life imprisonment in September 2013.
While serving under Chen Zhenggao as Liaoning Provincial Governor, Zhou Liyuan was promoted in March 2013 to Secretary-General of the Provincial Government and Director of the Provincial Government Office. Chen Zhenggao later became the Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the Communist Party of China and passed away at the age of 72 on June 16, 2024.
After Li Xi took over as Liaoning Provincial Governor in April 2014, Zhou Liyuan continued to serve as Secretary-General of the Provincial Government and Director of the Provincial Government Office, acting as Li Xi’s key aide for a year.
Li Xi was appointed as the Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee in May 2015 and later assumed the role of Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress. Zhou Liyuan moved from the position of Secretary-General of the Liaoning Provincial Government to become a member of the Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress Legal Committee in January 2016.
At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017, Li Xi was promoted to a member of the Politburo, taking over from Hu Chunhua as the Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee. In October 2022, at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Li Xi ascended to a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, replacing Zhao Leji as the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
On November 28, 2025, Li Xi and Politburo member Ma Xingrui both missed a collective study session of the Communist Party of China’s Political Bureau, sparking speculation and attention from the public.
Since Ma Xingrui was removed from his position as Secretary of the Xinjiang Regional Party Committee on July 1, 2025, rumors surrounding him have been circulating. Over the past two months, Ma Xingrui has been consistently absent from high-level Communist Party meetings.
During Li Xi’s tenure as the Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, Ma Xingrui served as the Governor, and the two worked together for four years.
In December 7, 2025, Shanghai commentator Jiang Wang leaked that Ma Xingrui’s case was being handled by the first deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Liu Jinguo; Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Li Xi, and his family are involved in Ma Xingrui’s case; and there are 51 other high-ranking officials involved. Jiang Wang also stated that Ma Xingrui’s case has reached the highest echelons of power, implicating Xi Jinping.
Both Li Xi and Ma Xingrui are high-ranking officials continuously promoted and trusted by Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. In recent years, as Xi Jinping faced challenges to his power, some members of the Xi family have quietly toned down their praises for Xi. However, Li Xi continues to use expressions like “two upholds” and “two safeguards” to pledge loyalty to Xi in meetings.
After Chen Qiufa succeeded Li Xi as the Liaoning Provincial Governor in May 2015, Zhou Liyuan continued to serve as Secretary-General of the Provincial Government and Director of the Provincial Government Office until he stepped down in January 2016, acting as Chen Qiufa’s key aide for seven months.
Born in December 1954 in Chengbu, Hunan Province, Chen Qiufa graduated from the Radar Countermeasure Department of the National University of Defense Technology in 1978, following which he held various positions in the Chinese aerospace system, including Deputy Director of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, Director of the National Atomic Energy Agency, Director of the National Defense Science and Technology Industry Administration, and Director of the National Space Administration.
After Xi Jinping came to power at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chen Qiufa transitioned from the military-industrial system into politics, serving as Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Liaoning Provincial Governor, Liaoning Provincial Party Secretary, and later moving to a national role in the National People’s Congress in October 2020. Following the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chen Qiufa became the head of the 17th Central Inspection Team of the Communist Party of China in 2023.
Chen Qiufa, Ma Xingrui, and former Hunan Provincial Party Secretary Xu Dazhe all come from the aerospace military-industrial system, with Chen Qiufa and Xu Dazhe also being fellow natives of Hunan. From July 2010 to September 2016, Chen Qiufa, Ma Xingrui, and Xu Dazhe took turns serving as Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China concurrently serving as Directors of the National Defense Science and Industry Administration and Administrators of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
In recent years, the Chinese aerospace military-industrial system has become a key target for scrutiny, with many high-ranking officials who have been investigated or encountered issues being colleagues or former subordinates of Ma Xingrui, Xu Dazhe, and Chen Qiufa.
Following Ma Xingrui’s dismissal, Xu Dazhe began frequently missing meetings of the National People’s Congress by the end of 2024; on October 28, 2025, Xu Dazhe was stripped of his status as a national representative.