Former Deputy Mayor Wang Renzhou of Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province surrendered to authorities on April 17, 2026. Wang Renzhou served as the chief steward and deputy to Liu Qi, the current Secretary General of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, during Liu Qi’s tenure as the leader in Ningbo.
Liu Qi, a former subordinate of the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in Zhejiang, has connections with Ma Xingrui, a disgraced member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, and Chen Weijun, a high-ranking official from Xinjiang who also fell from grace. Liu Qi had previously promoted Gao Shiwen, a former secretary of Ma Xingrui, during his time governing in Jiangxi.
According to the official announcement from the Zhejiang Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on April 17, 2026, Wang Renzhou, the former Deputy Mayor of Ningbo City, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and voluntarily surrendered, agreeing to cooperate with the investigation.
Public records show that Wang Renzhou, born in April 1957 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, held various positions in the Ningbo city government, including Director of the Ningbo Municipal Commission of Foreign Economic and Trade Cooperation, Director of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Director of the Ningbo Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Party Committee Member and Secretary General of the Office, and Deputy Mayor.
From October 2009 to April 2011, Wang Renzhou served as the Secretary General of the Ningbo Municipal Government and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Office and later acted as the chief steward for two mayors of Ningbo: Mao Guanglie (from January 2005 to January 2011) and Liu Qi (from January 2011 to May 2013). In April 2011, Wang Renzhou was promoted to Deputy Mayor of Ningbo, serving as the deputy to Liu Qi. Wang Renzhou worked under Liu Qi for five years as his chief steward, deputy, and subordinate in Ningbo.
Liu Qi, born in September 1957 in Yishui, Shandong Province, is a former colleague of Xi Jinping in Zhejiang. After Xi Jinping was transferred to serve as the Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Communist Party Committee in 2002, Liu Qi transitioned from being the Chairman of Juhua Group Company to become the Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Wenzhou. In March 2006, Liu Qi was appointed as the Director and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission. Before Xi Jinping was reassigned to the Shanghai Municipal Communist Party Committee in 2007, he and Liu Qi shared an overlapping work history in Zhejiang for five years.
From January 2011 to April 2013, Liu Qi served as the Deputy Secretary of the Ningbo Municipal Communist Party Committee and Mayor, and from April 2013 to February 2016, he held the position of member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Communist Party and Secretary of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee.
In February 2016, Liu Qi was transferred to Jiangxi, where he successively held positions as Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Communist Party Committee, Governor, and Secretary of the Provincial Communist Party Committee. In October 2021, he was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the 13th National People’s Congress Environmental and Resources Protection Committee. On March 10, 2023, upon turning 65 and retiring to the second line of leadership, Liu Qi returned to the forefront by becoming the Secretary General of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, serving as the chief steward to Zhao Leji, a member of the…