Recently, the Chinese Communist Party’s officialdom continues to face large-scale purges. On May 16th, Lan Tianli, the Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Government, was officially announced to be under investigation, becoming the second provincial-level government leader to be investigated in a month. Just a week prior, four bureau-level officials in Guangxi had fallen one after another. Experts analyze that the anti-corruption campaign in Guangxi this time presents a new model of “Xi-style anti-corruption”, where the local officialdom may face a “total annihilation” due to the arrest of one person.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission announced on May 16th that Lan Tianli, Deputy Secretary of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee and Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation. This is the second provincial-level government leader to be investigated by the Communist Party within a month after Jin Xiangjun, the Governor of Shanxi Province.
According to Caixin website, rumors of Lan Tianli’s investigation had been circulating in Guangxi as early as May 12th. His wife and younger brother were also rumored to be under related investigations. The Hong Kong “Sing Tao Daily” reported that Lan Tianli was taken away in Nanning on May 12th, missing an important meeting on that day, drawing public attention.
Public resumes show that Lan Tianli had long served in the local political arena of Guangxi, holding positions such as Director of the Autonomous Region Science and Technology Department, Mayor and Secretary of Hechi City, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Autonomous Region Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference since 2011, and Acting Chairman and Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government since 2020. He is a alternate member of the 18th and 19th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China and a member of the 20th Central Committee.
It is noteworthy that on the eve of the announcement of Lan Tianli’s investigation, several bureau-level officials in Guangxi had already been investigated intensively, highlighting the strong momentum of the anti-corruption storm in the region.
Within a short period of 6 days from May 9th to 14th, four bureau-level officials fell one after another: Qinzhou City Committee Member, Deputy Mayor, and Level 1 Inspector Zhong Hengqin; Li Wenbo, Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Commission of the Autonomous Region Party Committee; Wei Yan, Committee Member and Secretary General of the Wuzhou City Committee; Pan Liao Ting, Member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of the Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group.
This round of intensive purges indicates that the authorities in Guangxi are carrying out systematic cleansings in different sectors, causing a serious impact on the local political and business networks.
The downfall of Lan Tianli comes just one month after Governor Jin Xiangjun of Shanxi Province was investigated. Jin Xiangjun was announced to be under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission on April 12th, becoming the first provincial-level government leader to be investigated in 2024.
Both Jin Xiangjun and Lan Tianli have had long-term connections with Guangxi, and the successive investigations of the two provincial-level government leaders within a short period of time have sparked widespread speculations about their underlying networks of interests.
Another former provincial-level official who had served in Guangxi, Tang Renjian, was also investigated. His career intersected with Jin Xiangjun’s. In July 2024, Tang Renjian fell from grace as the Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the Communist Party of China.
Recently, China affairs expert Zhang Tianliang analyzed on the program “Daybreak” that Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign is demonstrating new characteristics: deepening investigations into local corruption cases and implicating officials’ family members to recover more corrupt funds. He pointed out that the investigation of Lan Tianli’s wife and brother indicates that the anti-corruption campaign has expanded from simply punishing individual officials to targeting their families, aiming to uncover more illicit gains to alleviate financial pressures.
Zhang Tianliang further noted that Lan Tianli, Jin Xiangjun, and Tang Renjian all served in Guangxi, reflecting a notable pattern of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption efforts: once a certain region is targeted, continuous deepening of investigations occurs, leading to a “total annihilation” effect. He cited the massive purge in the Rocket Force as an example, illustrating that local officials often form interconnected communities due to shared interests, and once one person falls, it may lead to the unraveling of the entire network, causing numerous corruption cases to emerge.