“The Century-old Truth: The 9898 Case that Made Zhu Rongji Furious”

Hello to all the viewers! Welcome to watch “Century Truth.”

In the 1990s, when Zhu Rongji served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the State Council, he once vehemently denounced: “The entire party and government institutions in Zhanjiang City, Guangzhou Province, were involved, from the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, to the Executive Deputy Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Director of the Anti-Smuggling Office, Political Commissar and Director of the Public Security Border Defense Bureau, and of course, the Customs Chief, who received bribes of over 10 million yuan. They have ruined our regime, they have tarnished the foundation of our Communist Party.”

Zhu Rongji was referring to the shocking

Zhanjiang Major Smuggling Case in Guangdong

at that time.

On this episode, we will review this case, which was the largest in terms of the amount involved and the number of party and government officials implicated since the founding of the Communist Party in the PRC until 1998, based on materials such as “The Investigation and Finalization of the Guangdong Zhanjiang Major Smuggling and Bribery Case.”

On May 2, 1999, intermediate courts in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Maoming, and Zhanjiang sentenced 31 defendants in the Zhanjiang major smuggling case. Six were sentenced to death, eight to suspended death sentences, and six to life imprisonment.

Among them, smuggling ringleaders Li Shen, Zhang Yi, Deng Chongan, and Lin Chunhua were sentenced to death and executed, and Chen Lisheng was sentenced to a suspended death sentence.

According to the investigation, from early 1996 to September 1998, the three major smuggling rings led by Li Shen, Lin Chunhua, and Chen Lisheng smuggled goods including cars, steel, and refined oil, totaling 11 billion yuan, evading 6.2 billion yuan in taxes.

These three smuggling rings in Zhanjiang each operated independently but colluded with each other and had their own characteristics.

Chen Lisheng’s smuggling ring had the strongest backing. Chen, relying on his father Chen Tongqing’s position as Secretary of the Zhanjiang Municipal Party Committee, stationed in Hong Kong, became a resident of Hong Kong, then returned to Zhanjiang to establish a fake joint venture company for smuggling.

In early 1996, Chen Lisheng and others planned to smuggle cars in Hong Kong. Deng Chongan was responsible for organizing the source of goods, sales, and collecting smuggling payments, Xu Congyong was responsible for disassembling entire cars into engines, car bodies, etc., with coded packaging, Chen Lisheng was responsible for customs declaration and export in Hong Kong, shipping arrangements, and receiving smuggled goods at the Zhanjiang port, while Li Shen and Zhang Yi were responsible for manipulating relationships with Zhanjiang customs and other regulatory departments for false customs clearance.

From May 1996 to April 1998, Deng Chongan was involved in smuggling over 2,900 car bodies, evading taxes of 230 million yuan; Chen Lisheng was involved in smuggling 1,905 car bodies and over 10,000 tons of diesel, evading taxes amounting to 170 million yuan.

The second smuggling ring led by Li Shen in Zhanjiang registered 13 companies and mainly smuggled cars, car parts, and steel. Later, Li Shen, using Zhang Yi’s connections, enticed Zhanjiang Customs Chief Cao Xiukang, to establish an unregistered “Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone Zhengzheng Trading Company” solely for smuggling “customs clearance” services for other smuggling groups.

Li Shen and his associates managed to secure key positions in Zhanjiang’s customs, border defense, public security, and inspection departments through money and female companions. Li Shen’s assistant Li Yong even partnered with Chikan District Bureau of Industry and Commerce and Border Defense Sub-Bureau of Public Security to start an auction house.

In this way, Li Shen’s ring formed a comprehensive operation chain of smuggling, customs clearance, and auctioning confiscated smuggled goods, almost monopolizing the customs clearance business of smugglers in Zhanjiang. They were involved in smuggling over 3,600 car sets, nearly 2,900 complete cars, 190,000 tons of steel, over 10,000 tons of raw sugar, and over 50,000 tons of soybeans, worth more than 1 billion yuan, evading taxes of over 420 million yuan.

The third smuggling ring led by Lin Chunhua, who only had a primary school education but took bold risks, invested heavily and registered eight companies in Zhanjiang, specializing in smuggling refined oil. He invested billions in taking over a wharf, purchasing four tankers with loading capacities ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 tons each for transportation, wharf management, storage, and selling of smuggled oil products.

From January 1997 to July 1998, Lin Chunhua and others smuggled over 750,000 tons of refined oil, accounting for about 10% of China’s imported refined oil in 1997 and 85% of smuggled oil in the Zhanjiang area, worth 990 million yuan, evading taxes of over 340 million yuan.

On August 19, 1998, Zhanjiang Customs’ smuggling boats intercepted a smuggling vessel in Jigang, Leizhou City. When customs personnel boarded for inspection, they were surrounded and violently attacked by over fifty thugs. All the smuggled goods were taken away.

At that time, just a month after the end of the national anti-smuggling conference, in early September 1998, then-Premier of the State Council Zhu Rongji, upon receiving reports, was extremely furious and immediately ordered an investigation.

Soon after, led by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and Guangdong Province jointly formed a on-site command leading group responsible for investigating the Zhanjiang major smuggling case. The leadership group consisted of 5 members, with Qi Peiwen, a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, as the leader, Bai Jingfu, Deputy Minister of Public Security, Zhao Dengju, Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Chen Shaoji, Deputy Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Public Security Department, and Wang Huayuan, Deputy Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.

As the five-person team held its first meeting in Beijing on September 8, 1998, the case was referred to as the “9898” case.

The 9898 major case occurred in the political environment of China at that time and was not isolated.

The then-leader of the CCP, Jiang Zemin, once mentioned at a Central Commission for Discipline Inspection meeting: “If those at the top are not upright, those beneath them will also be crooked.” This statement was particularly fitting when applied to Jiang himself.

In 1989, stepping on the fresh blood of the “June Fourth” students, Jiang Zemin took over the reigns of power in Zhongnanhai. In July of the same year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the “Decision on Several Issues Concerning Recent Work of Great Concern to the Masses.” Among them, it explicitly stated, “Vigorously put an end to the children of high-ranking officials engaging in business.”

However, in January 1993, Jiang Zemin’s eldest son, Jiang Mianheng, returned from studying in the United States and not only got promoted but also engaged in business, hitting both the career and wealth milestones.

On the career front, Jiang Mianheng served as the director of the Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of Shanghai University of Science and Technology, among others.

On the wealth front, in September 1994, Jiang Mianheng became the legal representative of the Shanghai United Investment Company. This company’s investment field covered telecommunications, finance, medicine, and other industries. People in Shanghai’s business circles say Jiang Mianheng held countless board positions, even on the board of directors of the Shanghai Cross-river Tunnel.

Jiang Zemin’s son Jiang Mianheng led the trend of children of national party and government officials engaging in business and establishing enterprises, marking a period of trading power for money, power for power, and power for sex that swept across the Chinese land.

When the leadership is not upright, those beneath them will also go astray, and this was no exception in Guangdong Province, where the father-son duo in Zhanjiang City’s Municipal Party Committee took the lead.

In 1992, Chen Tongqing became the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee in Zhanjiang. Despite knowing that Li Chunqiang was a well-known smuggler in Wushi Town, Leizhou, when he visited Wushi for inspection work, he became a “VIP” in Li’s family.

The Zhanjiang Huijiang Company and Hong Kong Huijiang Company established by Chen Tongqing’s son were private companies specializing in smuggling. Chen Tongqing instructed Deputy Mayors Yang Qiqing and two others to issue guarantees from the Zhanjiang Municipal Government for the two companies to secure a loan of 40 million Hong Kong dollars from overseas banks, used for smuggling activities such as cars, copiers, diesel, liquor, with a total smuggling amount reaching 144 million Hong Kong dollars.

Chen Tongqing also repeatedly urged Zhanjiang World Union Company to purchase copier parts smuggled by his son’s company.

When 47 smuggled cars of Chen Lisheng were once confiscated by Suixi County Public Security Bureau, the smuggled goods were eventually released under Chen Tongqing’s intervention.

With the guidance of Chen Tongqing and his son, various party and government officials in Zhanjiang City eagerly joined the smuggling ranks. For example:

Ye Zhencheng, the Executive Deputy Mayor in charge of combating smuggling, gave instructions to lend 10 million yuan from the Price Adjustment Fund and the Grain Risk Fund to his former secretary Li Ming, with 6 million yuan used for smuggling.

Yang Qiqing, Deputy Mayor of Zhanjiang City, bribed Zhanjiang Customs Chief Cao Xiukang with 2 million yuan, participated in smuggling 20,000 tons of rapeseed and wheat, evading taxes of over 54 million yuan, receiving a kickback of 400,000 yuan.

Zheng Binglin, the Director of the Anti-Smuggling Office in Zhanjiang City personally coordinated with the Maritime Police to facilitate smuggling, receiving bribes totaling 60,000 yuan.

Driven by interests, the Zhanjiang City government-operated foreign trade terminal actually allocated a special area to Lin Chunhua’s smuggling ring specifically for smuggling refined oil.

At the end of 1995, shortly after Cao Xiukang took office as Zhanjiang Customs Chief, he succumbed to the money and women from the smuggling ring. Including all personnel of the Container Handling Office, Cargo Transshipment Office, Water East Office, and other departments at the customs port, they all fell under the heavy bribes from smugglers. The number of Zhanjiang Customs personnel involved in the case reached 132, accounting for 19% of the total staff.

While the customs were in chaos, many officials from other law enforcement and regulatory departments at Zhanjiang Port, such as border patrol, public security, maritime police, inspection, port management, and shipping, were also involved in bribery, aiding or protecting smuggling, resulting in the entire Zhanjiang Port supervision being out of control and creating a black channel where smugglers and contraband could freely enter and leave.

This case involved a total of 259 officials, including 16 bureau-level officials, 45 division-level officials, 64 section-level officials, and all the “leaders” of the Zhanjiang Municipal Party Committee, Customs, Border Defense, Inspection, Port, and other departments were implicated.

Former Zhanjiang Municipal Party Secretary Chen Tongqing, Deputy Mayor Yang Qiqing, Zhanjiang Public Security Bureau Border Defense Division Director Deng Ye, and Political Commissar Chen En were sentenced to suspended death; former Zhanjiang Customs Chief Cao Xiukang and Zhanjiang Customs Investigation Section Chief Zhu Xiangcheng were sentenced to death and executed, and former Zhanjiang Executive Deputy Mayor Ye Zhencheng was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

At the same time as the Zhanjiang major smuggling case, the Xiamen Yuanhua major smuggling case was also underway.

Officials involved in the Xiamen Yuanhua major smuggling case included: Deputy Minister of Public Security and Deputy Leader of the National Anti-Smuggling Leading Group Li Jizhou, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Department of the Central Military Commission Ji Shengde, former Deputy Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Xiamen Municipal Party Committee Shi Zhaobin, and a group of officials.

On February 24, 2001, when Canadian writer Sheng Xue interviewed the main suspect in the Xiamen Yuanhua major smuggling case, Lai Changxing, at a men’s prison in Vancouver, she asked, “Are you familiar with the secretary of ‘him’ (referring to Jiang Zemin)? How many secretaries does he have?” Lai Changxing replied, “Five. I am familiar with three.” “I often visit Jiang Zemin’s home.” “Jia Ting’an is his main secretary; I often chat with him.”

Lai Changxing also revealed that he had a good relationship with the secretaries of 83 high-ranking CCP officials, including the secretary of Luo Gan, Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

In the 1999 Zhanjiang major smuggling case, Chen Tongqing, the former Zhanjiang Municipal Party Secretary who was sentenced to a suspended death sentence, had taken bribes totaling over 1.12 million yuan.

At the time, Zhu Rongji was furious about the Zhanjiang major smuggling case, but did his actions really make a difference?

By 2024, how much bribe money had CCP corrupt officials accumulated? On October 29, 2024, former Guizhou Provincial Party Committee Secretary Sun Zhigang was sentenced to death with a reprieve by the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin for amassing over 813 million yuan in bribes.

That’s all for today’s program, thank you for watching, see you in the next episode.