Today (23rd), the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party announced the punishment of four “tigers”, including former member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee and former secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission Lu Kehua, former vice governor of Gansu province Zhao Jinyun, deputy director of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Economic Committee Zhang Xiaolian, and former vice president of China Construction Bank Zhang Gengsheng. Some of them were rare cases of being accused of involvement in “high-level corruption” and “low-level bribery”.
On April 23rd, the official announcement from the Chinese Communist Party stated that former member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee Lu Kehua was expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office, former Vice Governor of Gansu Province Zhao Jinyun was dismissed from public office, deputy director of the CPPCC Economic Committee of the Thirteenth National Committee Zhang Xiaolian, and former member of the party committee and vice president of China Construction Bank Zhang Gengsheng were expelled from the Party. All four were investigated in the second half of last year.
Lu Kehua was reported to be involved in “low-level bribery” and “high-level corruption”, associating with political swindlers, engaging in power and money transactions, having a long-term addiction to gambling, and expanding greed by illegally accepting large amounts of money and other misconduct.
Zhao Jinyun, known as a member of the so-called “democratic parties”, was accused of engaging in profit-making activities and widespread family corruption. On October 25, 2024, Zhao Jinyun was investigated during her term. A week later, Bao Donghong, former party committee secretary and director of the Shaanxi Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Taxation Administration, was also investigated. Bao Donghong is the spouse of Zhao Jinyun.
Zhang Xiaolian was reported to be infatuated with power, losing his rational judgment, and associating with “political swindlers”.
Zhang Gengsheng was accused of issuing loans recklessly, violating regulations in loan disbursement, resulting in significant losses.
Lu Kehua’s involvement in “high-level corruption” and “low-level bribery” has attracted rare attention due to the serious nature of the accusations.
Taiwan Inspiration Association (TIA) CEO Lai Rongwei once stated to Epoch Times that “low-level bribery” means carrying out so-called “political correctness” in a very low-level and vulgar manner, which ends up causing more resentment towards Xi Jinping’s ideology due to its vulgarity. “High-level corruption”, on the other hand, involves using Xi Jinping’s name to criticize him, mocking him with his own words, such as highlighting the current regime’s failure to serve the people, by using sayings like “Xi Jinping talks about serving the people as the foundation”.
He mentioned, “As people are not brave enough to openly criticize Xi Jinping, they resort to using his name to do so.”
Historian Li Yuanhua in Australia stated that the emergence of “low-level bribery” and “high-level corruption” itself is a way to mock the incompetence and idiocy of the Chinese Communist Party leaders, reflecting the internal struggles within the party.
Both Zhang Xiaolian and Lu Kehua were accused of “associating with political swindlers”, a charge that many fallen officials of the Chinese Communist Party have faced in recent years. China expert Wang He previously told Epoch Times that the prevalence of these “political swindlers” within the CCP indicates a severe deterioration in the political ecology of China, with highly distorted personnel mechanisms, and internal conflicts within the “Xi clique”.