On October 8th, Zhang Shuofu, a member of the Party Group of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, was placed under investigation. Rumors of Zhang’s investigation had been circulating on overseas websites as early as August, with some reports linking him to the Ma Xingrui case. Of the previous five secretaries of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, four have now encountered troubles.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission of the Chinese Communist Party announced on October 8th that Zhang Shuofu is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is under investigation.
According to Caixin’s report, Zhang Shuofu was last seen in public on September 28th when he attended the 27th meeting of the 14th Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress held in Guangzhou. However, he did not appear at the meeting the following day. After the meeting concluded on September 29th, there was no mention of Zhang Shuofu in the official announcements from the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress.
Public records show that Zhang Shuofu was born in August 1965 in Changsha, Hunan Province. He previously held positions such as cadre at the Hunan Provincial Department of Water Resources and Hydropower, Director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Water Resources, and Mayor of Loudi City. Zhang later served as the Secretary of the Yongzhou Municipal Committee of Hunan Province in June 2011, Deputy Governor of Hunan Province in January 2013, a member of the Standing Committee and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Yunnan Province in April 2015, a member of the Standing Committee and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Beijing in January 2017.
In July 2018, Zhang Shuofu became a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee. In December 2021, due to the large-scale felling of urban trees in Guangzhou, the Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Mayor were removed from their positions on the same day. Lin Keqing, the Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province, replaced Zhang Shuofu as the Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, and Guo Yonghang, the Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province, succeeded Wen Guohui as the Mayor. In January 2022, the 56-year-old Zhang Shuofu was appointed as the Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, retreating to a secondary position.
Rumors about Zhang Shuofu’s downfall had surfaced as early as August this year.
OCcpNEWs, a self-media platform, reported on August 27 that Zhang Shuofu, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, was under investigation in connection with the case of former Political Bureau member Ma Xingrui. However, this information has not been confirmed yet.
When Ma Xingrui served as the Governor of Guangdong Province, Zhang Shuofu was the Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee. Ma Xingrui was placed under investigation on April 3 this year.
Feng Zhonghua, who took office in December 2025 as the current member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee (also serving as the Minister of the Organization Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee), followed a series of unfortunate events in the appointments of Guangzhou’s past five secretaries since 2011.
Among them, Wan Qingliang took office in December 2011 and was investigated in June 2014 during his term, ultimately being sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery.
Ren Xuefeng was transferred from Vice Mayor of Tianjin to serve as a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee in August 2014. He was later appointed as Deputy Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee in February 2017 before relinquishing the position of Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee in July 2018 and subsequently being transferred to Chongqing as the Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Chongqing. Ren Xuefeng passed away in October 2019 – official reports attributed it to ineffective medical treatment, but media reports suggested it was a suicide by jumping from a building at the West Guesthouse in Beijing, the venue of the Fourth Plenum.
Guo Yonghang, who was promoted from Mayor of Guangzhou to member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee in June 2023, was relieved of his position as Secretary on December 24 last year, and was announced to be under investigation on March 27 this year. Guo Yonghang was known as the “steward” during Ma Xingrui’s governance of Shenzhen.
Following his demotion in 2021 due to the Guangzhou tree cutting incident, Zhang Shuofu was reassigned to a secondary position in the Guangdong People’s Congress before the current investigation.
The next Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee to replace Zhang Shuofu, Lin Keqing, currently serves as the Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.