The Deputy Director of the Finance Department of Hunan Province, Liu Wenjie, fell from her dormitory building and died recently, and the police confirmed that she was “murdered”. The official obituary mentioned that she was a delegate to the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Since the selection of delegates to the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, over twenty individuals have either died or are under investigation.
On September 20th, the Finance Department of Hunan Province issued an obituary for Liu Wenjie, stating that she was “unfortunately murdered”.
On the same day, the Tianxin Sub-bureau of the Changsha Public Security Bureau reported that on the morning of September 19th around 7 a.m., two suspects named Jiang entered Building 1, Block 2 on Chengnan West Road and lurked in the stairwell on the 13th floor. When Liu Wenjie opened her door, the suspects, armed with knives, abducted her into the room. At 9:12 a.m., Liu Wenjie and Jiang fell from the balcony to their deaths simultaneously (there were signs of struggle on the balcony). At 9:17 a.m., Jiang fell to his death from the 12th floor while trying to escape by hanging onto the curtains.
The report indicated that both suspects, Jiang and Jiang, were registered in Wukou Town, Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, with Jiang being 31 years old and Jiang being 35 years old. However, only Jiang was mentioned as the legal representative and shareholder of Tianhao Industrial Co., Ltd. in Pingjiang County, and no information was provided about the other suspect, Jiang’s occupation, or past experiences.
The official obituary described Liu Wenjie as “devoted to the people”, but rumors circulating online suggest that her murder may be related to the former Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Li Weiwei, implying a case of “officials targeting each other”. According to the obituary, Liu Wenjie was also a delegate to the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and a current delegate to the National People’s Congress.
Under the regulations of the Chinese Communist Party, if a party delegate dies, is expelled from the party, or placed under “party disciplinary review” during their term, their delegate status is terminated.
Before the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, 2,300 party delegates were announced elected from various regions. However, by the end of September 2022, four individuals had been removed from the list of delegates. Former Gansu Provincial Committee Secretary-General Zhou Wei passed away, former Jiaxing Municipal Committee Secretary of Zhejiang Province Zhang Bing was investigated, Commander Shang Hong of the Strategic Support Force’s Aerospace System was implicated in a corruption case, and Gao Jingchao, a female delegate from Heilongjiang Province, was expelled for reasons unknown.
On July 24, 2022, official news from Gansu reported that Zhou Wei, member of the Gansu Provincial Committee and Secretary-General, passed away on the 21st due to illness, although there were rumors online that he committed suicide by jumping off a building. His official obituary, published in over 200 words in the second edition of the Gansu Daily on the 24th, had the second edition mysteriously missing in the electronic version, thus Zhou Wei’s obituary was “disappeared”. Zhou Wei had only recently been promoted to the provincial committee’s secretary-general before his death, making him the first party delegate of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to pass away.
After the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, at least eighteen delegates from the Congress have been investigated.
On July 9, 2024, Kong Xiaohong, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was charged with accepting bribes totaling nearly 49 million RMB, and sentenced to nine years in prison with a fine of 1.6 million RMB. He became the first delegate of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to be imprisoned. The official report also noted that Kong Xiaohong was involved in so-called “disloyalty and untruthfulness to the party”, leading to his expulsion from the Chinese Communist Party and termination of his status as a delegate to the 20th Congress.
Another delegate, Mo Hua, former Secretary of the Yulin Municipal Committee of the Guangxi Region, had his delegate status terminated on January 26 this year.
Delegates who have been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and had their status as delegates to the 20th Congress terminated include Cui Maohu, former Deputy Minister of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee, former Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Bank of China, Liu Lian, and former Director of the Shanghai People’s Congress Standing Committee, Dong Yunhu.
Additionally, in September 2023, Tang Yong, former Party Secretary and Chairman of the Shudao Investment Group, Shan Lianguang, former Deputy Secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee, and Bai Tinghui, former Director of the ShangHai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, were investigated. All three individuals were delegates to the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Former Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of National Defense, Li Shangfu and Wei Feng, were expelled from the party, stripped of their military ranks, and had their delegate qualifications for the 20th Congress terminated in July this year.
Former Foreign Minister of the Chinese Communist Party, Qin Gang “resigned” from his position as a Central Committee member and National People’s Congress delegate, but his party membership and delegate position for the 20th Congress were not removed. Another delegate, former Rocket Force Commander Li Yuchao, had his party membership rescinded.
During the third plenary session of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in July, when filling vacancies for alternate members of the Central Committee, the rare skipping of Vice Political Commissar of the Rocket Force, Major General Ding Xingnong, indicated his trouble. Ding was also a delegate to the 20th Congress.
Former Minister of Justice Tang Yijun and former Director of the General Administration of Sport of China Gou Zhongwen, as well as former high-ranking officials of military industrial enterprises Liu Shiquan, Wu Yansheng, and Yuan Jie, all delegates to the 20th Congress, have been confirmed to be embroiled in scandals.
There were claims by the Chinese Communist Party that the selection process for the 20th Congress delegates adhered to “strict standards and thorough review”. On September 28, 2022, the Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi Jinping personally planned and deployed the selection of delegates for the 20th Congress, providing “specific guidance”. However, numerous delegates to the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party have fallen from grace since their election, sparking public attention.
Among those who have been investigated, former Minister of Defense Li Shangfu and Wei Feng, as well as former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian, were all members of the 20th Central Committee. Members of the current alternate Central Committee who have been investigated include Yuan Jie, former Chairman of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, Li Shisong, former member of the Yunnan Provincial Committee, and Ding Xingnong, Vice Political Commissar of the Rocket Force, among others. The official media have also referred to these members of the central committee as being monitored by Xi Jinping.
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The translation above provides a detailed and expanded version of the original news article, focusing on the events surrounding the tragic death of Liu Wenjie and the implications of various delegates from the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party being investigated or removed from their positions.