Former Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou Province, Sun Zhigang, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve last month for bribery. Analysis of Sun Zhigang’s case points out that Xi Jinping’s confidant, Xu Lin, exposed the debt problems in Guizhou to take down a group of high-ranking officials including Sun Zhigang. However, one crime of Sun Zhigang was deliberately concealed, as it involved too broad and high-level implications, causing authorities to be cautious.
In recent years, many corrupt officials in Guizhou have been taken down, including three concurrent vice chairmen of the Political Consultative Conference, Li Zaiyong, Zhou Jiankun, and Chen Yan. There was also Wang Fuyu, the former chairman of the Guizhou Provincial Political Consultative Conference. During the three consecutive tenures of Sun Zhigang, Chen Min’er, and Shen Yiqin as the Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, nearly a hundred Guizhou officials at the provincial and deputy director level have been promoted, with many of them also falling out of grace. However, Sun Zhigang held the highest rank among them.
Sun Zhigang, who was convicted of bribery on October 29 this year, served as the governor of Guizhou Province in October 2015 and stepped down as the Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee in November 2021. Shen Yiqin, who succeeded him as the Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, handed over the position to Xu Lin in December 2022.
Xu Lin previously served as the Minister of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department and was a former subordinate of Xi Jinping during his brief tenure in Shanghai. After Xi Jinping came to power, Xu successively held positions such as the Deputy Minister of the Central Propaganda Department, Director of the Central Network Security and Informationization Leadership Group Office, Director of the State Internet Information Office, and Deputy Director of the State Council Information Office.
A recent commentary article on Radio Free Asia’s website stated that Xu Lin, who hoped to accumulate achievements during his five-year tenure as the Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee to pave the way for promotion at the 21st National Congress, was busy dealing with “preventing a complete return to poverty” and “resolving the serious debt crisis across the province,” cleaning up the mess left by his predecessors.
According to reports, based on Xu Lin’s instructions to “clearly explain the difficulties,” local media voluntarily disclosed that the provincial debt in Guizhou had exceeded over 1.5 trillion yuan (RMB), and this figure did not include hidden debts. The province’s annual general budget income is only around 200 billion yuan.
Furthermore, the Guizhou Provincial Government Development Research Center released a “Provincial Debt Issue Research Report” in April last year, publicly claiming poverty to the State Council, indicating that Guizhou was deeply mired in a debt crisis, already unable to save itself, and hoping to receive support from higher-level departments to come up with solutions.
The article pointed out that Xu Lin understood the art of “propaganda,” and with the backing of Xi Jinping, he dared to do things that other provincial leaders dared not, voluntarily exposing the debt crisis in his area to the public. This posed a threat to Sun Zhigang.
The article stated that after taking over in Guizhou, Xu Lin conducted an “assessment” of the “problematic” officials left by a group of previous officials including the likes of Li Zaiyong, Chen Min’er, Sun Zhigang, and Shen Yiqin who served in various positions. It was upon learning that Li Zaiyong, during his term as a local official in Guizhou, went on a crazy debt-raising spree creating “achievements” all the way, while being commended and promoted by Sun Zhigang, that Xu Lin ordered the news of the severe local debt crisis in Guizhou, which was already impossible to resolve on its own, to be made public. Xu Lin cried poverty to the State Council, aiming to declare that he would not be blamed for the failures of his predecessors and to compel the central authorities to hold accountable those responsible for the severe local debt crisis in Guizhou before his tenure.
The article indicated that neither the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection nor the Procuratorate’s indictment report delved into Sun Zhigang’s crime of “abuse of power.” Whether it be Li Zaiyong, who was imprisoned before him, or Qin Rupei, who was imprisoned after him, both were held accountable and punished for “abuse of power” due to “irregular debt-raising.” The reason why Xi Jinping’s regime did not openly investigate Sun Zhigang’s “abuse of power” was partly due to the fear of causing a public outcry associated with the current vice-ministerial officials Chen Min’er and Shen Yiqin.
Chinese economist Mei Xinyu previously pointed out that from 2015 to 2020 was a period when local debts in Guizhou expanded rapidly, during which Sun Zhigang was in charge of Guizhou, holding undeniable responsibility for these issues. The commentary mentioned that during these five years, Chen Min’er served as the Secretary, Sun Zhigang was the Governor, and then Sun Zhigang became the Secretary, with Shen Yiqin as the Governor. If accountability is to be pursued fairly, all three should apologize to the people of Guizhou for the local debt crisis.
Furthermore, the commentary also suggested that investigating a Provincial Party Secretary for the large-scale “vanity projects” that led to reckless debt-raising as an “abuse of power” crime, may inevitably draw parallels to Xi Jinping’s unfinished Xiongan New Area project.