On January 31, 2026, Wang Xiangxi, the Party Secretary and Minister of the Emergency Management Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was sacked while in office. Wang Xiangxi, who had a long-standing career in his hometown of Hubei, had his former boss, the former Party Secretary of Hubei Province, Jiang Chaoliang, also fall from grace a year ago. Over the past six months, several senior executives of the National Energy Group, which Wang Xiangxi once headed, have been removed from their positions.
The CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported on January 31, 2026, that Wang Xiangxi, the Party Secretary and Minister of the Emergency Management Department, is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and the law.”
Wang Xiangxi is the second senior official to be investigated within three days after Sun Shaocheng, the former Party Secretary of Inner Mongolia, was investigated on January 29.
On January 29, Wang Xiangxi was conspicuously absent from a video conference on safety production in central enterprises. Shortly afterwards, news spread online that he had been taken away for investigation before the meeting.
On January 27, the CCP Emergency Management Department held its annual “democratic life meeting” for 2025, during which Wang Xiangxi was still presiding over the meeting and delivering concluding remarks.
Born in August 1962 in Xiantao City, Hubei Province, Wang Xiangxi has held various positions in his home province of Hubei, including Deputy Director of the Hubei Coal Industry Department, Deputy Director of the Economic and Trade Commission, Director of the Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Jingzhou City, and Secretary of the Suizhou City Party Committee.
After the 18th National Congress of the CCP, Wang Xiangxi served as the Secretary General of the Hubei Provincial Government and member of the Party Group from July 2012 onwards. He also served as the Secretary and Director of the Office of the Provincial Government. He was a key figure during the tenures of two Hubei governors, Wang Guosheng (February 2011 to July 2016) and Wang Xiaodong (September 2016 to May 2021).
Jiang Chaoliang succeeded Li Hongzhong as the Party Secretary of Hubei Province in October 2016. One year later, in June 2017, Wang Xiangxi was appointed as a member of the CCP Hubei Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, until he was transferred out of Hubei in March 2019, serving as a subordinate under Jiang Chaoliang in the Hubei Provincial Committee for one year and nine months.
At the end of 2019, the COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan, Hubei, during Jiang Chaoliang’s tenure as the head of the Hubei Provincial Government, initially resulting in the authorities concealing the outbreak and missing the golden opportunity for prevention and control. After the outbreak worsened, inadequate response measures led to the rapid spread of the epidemic across China and around the world.
With the pandemic out of control, Jiang Chaoliang was relieved of his position as the Party Secretary of Hubei Province on February 13, 2020. At the time, public opinion believed that Jiang Chaoliang was being made a scapegoat by senior CCP leaders.
Subsequently, Jiang Chaoliang served as Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for Agriculture and Rural Affairs during the 13th and 14th terms. Then, on February 21, 2025, Jiang Chaoliang was investigated and later disciplined on October 27, 2025.
Jiang Chaoliang was accused of seeking benefits for others and receiving bribes in cadres selection and staff recruitment, as well as dereliction of duty, engaging in power-for-money transactions, family-style corruption, exploiting his position for personal gain in enterprise operations, loan approvals, project contracts, and job promotions, and illegally accepting huge sums of money.
Prior to serving as the Minister of the Emergency Management Department, Wang Xiangxi held the position of Chairman of the National Energy Investment Group for over three years from March 2019 to July 2022.
The National Energy Investment Group, abbreviated as the National Energy Group, was formed in August 2017 through the merger and reorganization of the China Guodian Group and the Shenhua Group. It is a large central enterprise of the CCP primarily engaged in coal mining and sales, power and heat production.
According to its official website, as of the end of 2025, the total assets of the National Energy Group amounted to 2.35 trillion yuan, making it the largest coal production and sales, thermal power generation, wind power generation, and coal-to-oil coal chemical enterprise in the world.
Of note, since the second half of 2025, there has been a series of investigations into high-ranking officials of the National Energy Group.
On January 12, 2026, Wang Haichun, the Manager of the Coal Department of the National Energy Group’s Coal and Transport Industry Management Department, was removed from his position.
On January 8, 2026, Zhu Guoqing, the former Director of First-Level Business at Henan Power Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the National Energy Group, was investigated.
In December 2025, An Lin, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of the former Xinjiang Energy Company under the National Energy Group, was investigated.
In November 2025, Zhou Yong, the Party Secretary and Chairman of Wuhai Energy under the National Energy Group, Wei Guojun, the Director of the Mongdong Area Working Contact Office of Pingzhuang Coal Mining in the National Energy Group, and Liu Wenquan, the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Guangzhou Port and Shipping Co., Ltd., were successively investigated.
In July 2025, Yan Yongsheng, the former Director of First-Level Business at the National Energy Group, was investigated.
In May 2025, Zhang Jian, the former Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee of the National Energy Group, was investigated.