In a new development in the 2024 case of the “top tiger” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), former director of the China Geological Survey, Zhong Ziran, has been arrested by the authorities on suspicion of bribery and deliberately leaking state secrets.
On July 9th, the investigation into Zhong Ziran’s alleged crimes of bribery and intentionally leaking state secrets, as a former member of the CCP Central Committee of the Ministry of Natural Resources and former secretary of the Party Committee of the China Geological Survey Bureau, concluded by the National Supervisory Committee. The case has been transferred to the prosecution for review and indictment. Recently, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the CCP made the decision to arrest Zhong Ziran on charges of bribery and intentionally leaking state secrets. The case is currently under further investigation.
In January of this year, the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission announced an investigation into Zhong Ziran for “serious violations of discipline and law,” making him this year’s “top tiger.”
Prior to his downfall, Zhong Ziran had made public appearances. According to official information from the CCP Ministry of Natural Resources, on December 14, 2023, Minister Wang Guanghua of the Ministry of Natural Resources presided over a symposium where Zhong Ziran was also in attendance.
Public records show that Zhong Ziran was born in August 1962 in Tongcheng, Anhui province. He had worked for many years in the former Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources of the CCP and the former Ministry of Land and Resources. He held positions such as Director of the Geological Exploration Division of the former Ministry of Land and Resources, Deputy Director of the China Geological Survey Bureau, and Chief Engineer of the former Ministry of Land and Resources. In 2014, he became a member of the CCP Central Committee of the former Ministry of Land and Resources and the director of the China Geological Survey Bureau.
After the establishment of the CCP Ministry of Natural Resources in 2018, Zhong Ziran became a member of the Ministry’s CCP Central Committee and served as director and secretary of the Party Committee of the China Geological Survey Bureau. In September 2022, he stepped down from the positions of director and Party Committee secretary of the China Geological Survey Bureau.
The China Geological Survey Bureau is a deputy-ministerial-level institution directly under the Ministry of Natural Resources. According to the national land and resources survey plan, it is responsible for the unified deployment and organization of national basic, public welfare, and strategic geological and mineral exploration work, providing geological basic information for the national economic and social development.
It is noteworthy that former CCP Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, deemed by the authorities as an “ambitious person,” and former Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, Ling Jihua, have been officially charged with crimes involving state secrets. Zhou Yongkang was charged with “deliberately leaking state secrets,” while Ling Jihua was charged with “illegally acquiring state secrets.”