Former director of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Zhang Jianlong, was reported today (22nd) to be under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law”.
According to the website of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission on January 22, Zhang Jianlong, former party member of the Ministry of Natural Resources, former party secretary and director of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation.
Public records show that Zhang Jianlong was born in Inner Mongolia’s Hangjin Banner in January 1957. He is of Mongolian ethnicity from Minqin, Gansu. In August 1982, he started working in the Three-North Shelterbelt Development Bureau of the Ministry of Forestry, where he held positions such as director of the Propaganda Department and director of the bureau. In July 1998, Zhang Jianlong was transferred to the Protection Department of the State Forestry Administration to head the department. In March 1999, he was appointed as the director, and in December 2001, he was transferred to the Technology Department of the State Forestry Administration.
In October 2003, Zhang Jianlong became the deputy director of the State Forestry Administration. In November 2006, he also assumed the role of secretary of the Party Committee of the State Forestry Administration’s direct organs. In June 2012, he became the deputy secretary and deputy director of the Party Committee of the State Forestry Administration. In June 2015, he was appointed as the director and party secretary of the State Forestry Administration, and in September 2018, he became a party member of the Ministry of Natural Resources, director, and party secretary of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration. He stepped down in June 2020 until the recent investigation.
There have been several corruption cases and mysterious deaths of officials in the CCP State Forestry and Grassland Administration in recent years.
On May 13, 2025, Li Chunliang, former deputy director of the CCP State Forestry and Grassland Administration, was investigated.
On July 30, 2024, the CCP State Forestry and Grassland Administration’s Central and Southern Investigation and Planning Institute released a statement on its official website, disclosing an old case from four years ago. Luo Huaibin, former deputy director of the Information Technology Department and senior engineer at the institute, died suddenly while on a business trip to Tibet. However, Luo Huaibin’s wife continued to claim that he was murdered while on a nature conservation mission in Luozha County, Shannan, Tibet on April 27, 2020. This murder case remains concealed and unreported, with no progress on investigation.
It is reported that Luo Huaibin had previously reported violations of law and discipline by Liu Jinfu, deputy director of the Central and Southern Investigation and Planning Institute, Yang Ning, deputy director, and others in the CCP State Forestry and Grassland Administration.
The forestry and grassland system is regarded as a domain of interest for Jiang Zemin’s sister, Jiang Zehui, former CCP leader.
Jiang Zehui came to Beijing in January 1996, as a member of the CCP Forestry Ministry (vice-ministerial level). From February 1996 to December 2006, she served as the director of the Chinese Academy of Forestry and the secretary of its branch party committee. She held positions such as party member of the State Forestry Administration (vice-ministerial level), deputy director of the State Forestry Administration’s Technology Committee, member of the CCP Association for Science and Technology, executive deputy director of the State Forestry Administration’s Technology Committee, and overall person in charge of the China Forestry Resource Accounting Research Project.