After falling from grace, Tang Dezhi, a senior official of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Deputy Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial Political Consultative Conference, was recently officially dismissed and had his member status of the Political Consultative Conference revoked.
According to the Guizhou Daily, due to allegations of serious violations of discipline and law, the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th Guizhou Provincial Committee of the CCP Political Consultative Conference decided to remove Tang Dezhi from his position as the Deputy Chairman of the 13th Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Political Consultative Conference, revoke his member status of the 13th Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Political Consultative Conference, and retrospectively approve the decision at the 4th meeting of the 13th Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Political Consultative Conference.
On August 29th, it was officially announced that Tang Dezhi, a member of the CCP group and the Deputy Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial Political Consultative Conference, is under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law.
Public records show that Tang Dezhi is 60 years old and originally from Mianyang, Sichuan. In 1996, he transferred to the Provincial Government Office, where he held positions such as Deputy Division Chief, Division Chief, Deputy Secretary-General, and later served as the Secretary-General of the Provincial Government and Director of the Office, as well as the Party Secretary. In January 2023, he was promoted to Deputy Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial Political Consultative Conference (also concurrently serving as the Party Secretary of Qiannan Prefecture until October 2024), reaching the rank of Deputy Minister. This investigation marks his downfall from this position.
He became a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the CCP in 2022.
Tang Dezhi’s investigation this time indicates that since the 20th National Congress of the CCP, seven senior officials in Guizhou have been investigated.
During his seven-year tenure in Qiannan Prefecture where corruption was prevalent, five governors (Li Yuecheng, Xiang Hongqiong, Wu Shenghua, Zhong Yang, Xiang Chengqiang) have been investigated since November 2006. Among them, Wu Shenghua, Zhong Yang, and Xiang Chengqiang have worked closely with Tang Dezhi.
It is also noteworthy that during his time working in the Provincial Government Office, Tang Dezhi worked alongside seven different provincial governors, including Zhao Kezhi, who served as governor from 2010 to 2012, Chen Min’er who served from 2012 to 2015, and Sun Zhigang who served from 2016 to 2017.