Former deputy secretary of the Anhui Province Political Consultative Conference, Kong Xiaohong, was sentenced to 9 years in prison and fined 1.6 million yuan for accepting nearly 49 million yuan in bribes. He is the first representative of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to be sentenced, signaling a wave of downfall among the current CPC National Congress representatives selected under the direct deployment of the CPC leader.
According to a report by Caixin on July 8th, Kong Xiaohong became the first officially announced former representative of the 20th National Congress of the CPC to be sentenced.
Official reports stated that the Intermediate People’s Court of Tongling City found that since Kong Xiaohong took office as the deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission in August 2008, he sought benefits for others in areas such as hotel fire inspection, demolition compensation, project bidding, and job promotion, illegally accepting a total of 48.69 million yuan in cash or through specific individuals, with an attempted bribery amount of 39.32 million yuan.
Public records show that Kong Xiaohong, 58, born in July 1966 in Lujiang, Hefei, Anhui Province, has held various positions in Anhui Province, including deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, deputy mayor and member of the municipal party committee in Huaibei, and vice secretary of the Chuzhou Municipal Party Committee. In 2015, he served as the mayor of Huangshan. He later became the mayor of Xuancheng in 2019 and the secretary of the municipal party committee in 2021, before being listed as a representative of the 20th National Congress of the CPC in October 2022. Kong Xiaohong was then appointed as the deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference until he was investigated in May 2023.
The official report also mentioned that Kong Xiaohong was accused of being “disloyal and dishonest to the party,” leading to his expulsion from the CPC and termination of his status as a representative of the 20th National Congress of the CPC.
Kong Xiaohong’s status as a representative of the 20th CPC National Congress has drawn attention because the selection process supposedly adhered to “strict standards and strict review” when electing representatives. A report by Xinhua on September 28, 2022, claimed that Xi Jinping personally planned and deployed the election of representatives of the 20th National Congress, providing specific guidance.
However, many representatives of the 20th National Congress of the CPC have since fallen from grace after being elected.
On January 26 of the same year, along with Kong Xiaohong, Mo Hua, the former Secretary of the Yulin Municipal Committee of Guangxi Province, was also announced to have terminated his status as a representative of the 20th National Congress of the CPC on the same day.
According to CPC regulations, if a party representative dies, is expelled from the party, or placed under “party supervision” during their term, their representative status will be terminated.
According to Caixin’s statistics, at least five people who were representatives of the 20th National Congress of the CPC have had their status terminated and have been expelled from the party, including Mo Hua and Kong Xiaohong, as well as Cui Maohu, the former deputy minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and former director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, Liu Liangge, former party secretary and chairman of the Bank of China, as well as Dong Yunhu, former director of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress.
In addition, in September 2023, Tang Yong, the party committee secretary and chairman of Shudao Investment Group, Shang Ligang, the vice provincial committee secretary of Shanxi, and Bai Tinghui, the director of the Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, were investigated, all of whom were representatives of the 20th National Congress of the CPC.
Former Ministers of National Defense, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, were expelled from the party and removed from their military ranks last month, leading to the termination of their status as representatives of the 20th National Congress of the CPC.
Upon investigating the list of representatives of the 20th National Congress of the CPC, it was found that several high-ranking officials who have fallen from grace have not had their positions as representatives terminated. These include Qin Gang, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Li Yuchao, affiliated with the military, and Liu Shiquan, Wu Yansheng, and Yuan Jie, all related to state-owned enterprises.
Tang Yijun, the former Minister of Justice, Gou Zhongwen, the former director of the National Sports Administration, and Wu Yingjie, the former Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, have also been ousted as representatives of the 20th National Congress.
Before the 20th National Congress of the CPC, four out of 2,300 elected party representatives were removed. Among them were the former Secretary of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, Zhou Weichuan, who reportedly fell from a building and passed away, the former Secretary of the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee in Zhejiang Province, Zhang Bing, who was investigated, as well as Shang Hong, the commander of the Strategic Support Force Aerospace System Department, and Gao Jingchao, a female delegate from Heilongjiang Province, whose reasons for dismissal were unclear.
Furthermore, Qin Gang, Li Yuchao, as well as former Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu and former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian, were all members of the 20th Central Committee. Among the current alternate members of the Central Committee who have fallen from grace are Yuan Jie, former chairman of the Aerospace Science and Industry Group, and Li Shisong, former member of the Yunnan Provincial Committee. These Central Committee members were also reportedly monitored closely under Xi Jinping’s oversight.
The upcoming Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC this month has raised significant interest in whether there will be further actions taken against the aforementioned officials.