After being investigated for 40 days, Beijing’s Deputy Mayor Gao Peng has been removed from office.
On May 31st, at the meeting of the 16th Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Gao Peng was dismissed from his position as Deputy Mayor of Beijing. Prior to this, on the evening of April 21st, Gao Peng was officially announced to have fallen from grace, becoming the first deputy ministerial-level official in Beijing to do so since the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Public records show that Gao Peng, born in 1972, is a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Gao Peng has been working in Beijing for a long time. Before joining the government, he worked in state-owned enterprises for many years, holding positions such as Deputy District Mayor of Fengtai District, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, District Mayor of Shunyi District, and District Party Secretary.
In January 2023, Gao Peng was promoted to Deputy Mayor of Beijing, reaching the deputy ministerial level. Among the current eight deputy mayors of Beijing, Gao Peng ranks sixth, responsible for overseeing the Beijing Municipal Urban Management Committee, Beijing Municipal Transportation Committee, Beijing Tiananmen Area Management Committee, and Beijing Key Station Area Management Committee, among others.
Noteworthy is an incident that occurred during this year’s CCP’s two sessions when Beijing was under tight security. In the early hours of March 10th, a man drove his car and accelerated towards the main gate of the Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing (Xinhua Gate), which is about 1 kilometer away from the office of the CCP leader Xi Jinping.
The man was shouting “Communist Party murderers” when he was arrested. Some have described this as a “heroic suicide-style assault on Zhongnanhai,” suggesting a resemblance to another figure like the Tiananmen Square car crash hero, “Peng Lifan.” The related video footage has attracted public attention.
As the person in charge of the Beijing Tiananmen Area Management Committee, whether Gao Peng’s resignation was influenced by this incident and subsequent accountability remains unknown to the public.