On September 10th, former Vice Mayor of Beijing, Gao Peng, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was a former subordinate of the current member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Bureau, Cai Qi. Analysts believe that Gao Peng’s downfall may be related to the “car ramming into the Zhongnanhai” incident that occurred during his tenure.
According to the Intermediate People’s Court of Lvliang City, Shanxi Province, Gao Peng was sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery and 3 years for dereliction of duty, totaling 12 years in prison. He was also fined 3 million yuan.
Gao Peng was accused of accepting bribes totaling over 43.86 million yuan from 2007 to 2024 while holding positions such as Chairman and General Manager of Beijing Metro Line 10 Investment, Deputy District Mayor of Fengtai District, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Deputy Secretary, District Mayor, and District Party Secretary of Shunyi District in Beijing, in exchange for providing benefits in job promotions, business operations, and project contracting.
During his tenure as the District Mayor of Shunyi from May 2016 to June 2017, Gao Peng, as the leader of the Shunyi City Living Exhibition Center construction team, caused significant losses to state-owned assets during the site selection and subsequent acquisition process of the exhibition center.
Chinese media outlet “Shangguan News” noted that Gao Peng is a rare case in recent years of a senior official in charge being sentenced for dereliction of duty.
Cai Qi, the current member of the Political Bureau, served as the Beijing Municipal Party Secretary from May 2017 to November 2022. In 2018, Gao Peng was promoted to the Shunyi District Party Secretary during Cai Qi’s tenure.
In January 2023, Gao Peng became the Deputy Mayor of Beijing, overseeing the Beijing Municipal Urban Management Commission, Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission, Beijing Tiananmen District Management Committee, and Beijing Key Station Zone Management Committee.
Gao Peng was placed under investigation on April 21, 2024, and expelled from the Party on October 22, 2024. At that time, the official announcement from the CCP stated that Gao Peng was accused of “shrinking back in the face of major risks, evading responsibilities, causing adverse political effects, receiving gifts in violation of rules, engaging in illegal stock trading, borrowing large sums of money from subordinate entities for personal use, involvement in money-for-sex transactions, etc.”
Gao Peng was also accused of arranging for subordinate entities to provide “nanny-like” services for his family, seeking personal gain for others in cadre selection and appointment work by falsifying information, deceiving about academic qualifications, engaging in money-for-sex transactions, pursuing personal pleasure, conducting power-money transactions, illegally benefiting others in job promotions, business operations, project contracting, and receiving significant sums of illegal money. The charge of “falsifying academic qualifications” is rare among fallen officials in handling official notifications.
Before Gao Peng fell from grace, Beijing witnessed the rare occurrence of a car crashing into Zhongnanhai.
During the CCP’s two sessions in 2024, in the early hours of March 10th, a man drove a car to accelerate towards the front gate of Zhongnanhai (Xinhua Gate) in Beijing. The man was arrested while shouting, “Communist Party murderers!”
Chinese political analyst Chen Pokong, who currently resides in the United States, stated in a self-media program that the car ramming incident at Zhongnanhai was a significant political event. He believed that due to Gao Peng’s involvement in the management of the Tiananmen District Committee, he might have become a scapegoat in the subsequent accountability process.
Chen Pokong also suggested that Gao Peng could have been involved in the car crashing incident at Zhongnanhai. After Gao Peng’s arrest on April 21st, the Beijing Municipal Party Secretary, Yin Li, chaired a meeting of the Beijing Municipal Standing Committee the next day and reported the instructions from the CCP Central Committee on Gao Peng’s case. He remarked that Yin Li’s speech was profound, strongly implying that the Gao Peng case was a political one rather than a corruption case.