Recently, the Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Government, Lan Tianli, was officially charged. He was removed from office in May of last year.
On April 29th, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China released a report stating that the investigation into the case of Lan Tianli, former Deputy Secretary of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee and former Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government, on suspicion of bribery has concluded and has been transferred to the judicial authorities for review and prosecution. The Procuratorate has made the decision to arrest Lan Tianli on charges of bribery and has designated the Changde City Procuratorate in Hunan Province to review and prosecute the case. Recently, the prosecution has filed charges against Lan Tianli at the Intermediate People’s Court in Changde City.
The prosecution alleges that Lan Tianli took advantage of his positions as Secretary of the Hechi City Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Vice Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government, Chairman of the Autonomous Region Political Consultative Conference, Deputy Secretary of the Autonomous Region Party Committee, and Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government to seek benefits for others, illegally accepting large amounts of property from others, and should be held accountable for the crime of bribery.
On May 16th last year, Lan Tianli was officially removed from office, becoming the second provincial-level government leader to be investigated during his tenure since the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2022.
According to reports by Caixin on the same day, news of Lan Tianli’s investigation had already circulated on May 12th, and his wife was also under investigation. Lan Tianli had served in the Guangxi political arena for over thirty years, and his downfall was expected to implicate a large number of officials.
In December last year, Lan Tianli was “double-opened,” stripped of his credentials as a delegate to the 20th National Congress and handed over to judicial authorities.
Public records show that Lan Tianli, born in October 1962 in Hechi, Guangxi, was a key figure groomed by the Chinese Communist Party as a “Zhuang elite” and a member of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Central Committee.
In 2011, at the age of only 49, Lan Tianli was promoted to Vice Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government, reaching the deputy provincial level. In April 2015, he was promoted to member of the Guangxi Party Committee. In 2016, he was appointed as the Executive Vice Chairman, filling the vacancy left by Tang Renjian, who had then transferred to the Agriculture Office. In 2018, he was promoted to Chairman of the Autonomous Region Political Consultative Conference, reaching the full provincial level.
At the end of 2020, Lan Tianli was appointed as Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government, a position he held until the investigation was launched.