China’s Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as Guangdong Nuclear Group) former deputy general manager Tan Jiansheng was recently under investigation. Wu Bangguo, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), had long been in charge of the CPC’s nuclear industry and had close ties to Guangdong Nuclear. Wu’s son-in-law Feng Shaodong served as the chairman of the board of directors of the Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund Management Company. Political commentators believe that the internal power struggles at the top levels of the CPC have now affected the interests of Wu Bangguo’s family with connections to the Shanghai faction.
On May 13, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, as well as the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission of Guangdong Province, announced that Tan Jiansheng, former party committee member and former general manager of Guangdong Nuclear Group, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and laws and is currently under review and investigation.
Tan Jiansheng, born in 1959 in Lian County, Qingyuan, Guangdong, graduated from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in 1982 and has had a long career in the finance and energy industries. He has held various positions such as department head of the investment department of the Guangdong Branch of China Construction Bank, general manager of the international business department of the Guangdong Branch of China Construction Bank, director and general manager of HuaJian International Group Co., Ltd.
In September 2000, Tan Jiansheng joined the management team of Guangdong Nuclear and served as the deputy general manager of the group; he also concurrently served as the chairman of Fujian Ningde Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. from 2006 to 2009, and concurrently served as the chairman of Guangdong Nuclear Uranium Development Co., Ltd. During the period from 2007 to 2011, he also concurrently served as the chief legal advisor of Guangdong Nuclear Group; in 2009, he concurrently served as the chairman of Guangdong Nuclear Energy Development Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Nuclear Solar Development Co., Ltd.
Since May 2017, Tan Jiansheng has been a non-executive director of Guangdong Nuclear and was appointed as a member of the party committee and deputy general manager of Guangdong Nuclear in 2018. He also served as the deputy director of the China Energy Research Society’s Nuclear Energy Professional Committee and later became the deputy director, and he also served as the vice director of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute. In June 2020, Tan Jiansheng retired due to age and requested to resign from his position as a non-executive director of the company.
It is worth noting that in 2018, the CPC Audit Office named 14 audit issues related to Guangdong Nuclear, including financial management, accounting, and operational management losses of the energy development company managed by Tan Jiansheng.
Guangdong Nuclear Group is a state-owned enterprise managed directly by the central government, represented by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. Therefore, the leaders of Guangdong Nuclear, including the chairman, the secretary of the party committee, the secretary of the party group, the general manager, and the chairman of the supervisory board, are all directly managed by the central government.
Wu Bangguo, a former chairman of the National People’s Congress, was in charge of industry during his tenure as vice premier of the State Council, which includes the nuclear industry. From 1995 to 2003, Wu Bangguo served as vice premier of the State Council, responsible for the daily work of the State Council, the executive body of the state with real power. In June 1998, the CPC Central Committee decided to establish the “Central Committee for Large Enterprises (full name: Central Committee for Large Enterprises),” and Wu Bangguo was appointed as the secretary of this committee.
In 2003, Wu Bangguo left the State Council and became the chairman and party secretary of the NPC Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress. During his ten-year term, he still intervened in nuclear industry affairs, including direct involvement in matters related to Guangdong Nuclear Group.
After the first phase of the Ling’ao Nuclear Power Station, the Chinese authorities constructed the third large commercial nuclear power plant in Guangdong – the Ling’ao Nuclear Power Station Phase II.
In April 2006, the National Acceptance Inspection and Expansion Project of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant Phase II was held in Haiyan, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Wu Bangguo gave instructions in his capacity as Chairman of the NPC; in August 2007, the main body construction of Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power project in China, held a groundbreaking ceremony. Wu Bangguo made important instructions at the ceremony; in August 2011, at the conclusion meeting of construction experience of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Base and the commissioning ceremony of Unit 2 of the Ling’ao Nuclear Power Station Phase II, Wu Bangguo made important instructions in his capacity as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.
In August 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the hiring of children of senior Chinese officials by investment bank JPMorgan Hong Kong. The incident exposed some U.S. major companies, including Wall Street banks, hiring children of senior Chinese officials to expand their businesses in China, including Wu Bangguo’s son-in-law Feng Shaodong.
In 2006, Feng Shaodong, who was serving as the head of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch at the time, assisted Merrill Lynch in securing a $20 billion IPO for China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank, which was the world’s second-largest IPO.
After leaving Merrill Lynch in 2008, Feng Shaodong, like most children of senior Chinese officials, returned to China after making a fortune in international investment banking and took on the role of president of the Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund.
The Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund is a private equity fund managed by Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd., one of the five trial state-owned industry investment funds approved by the State Council with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group as the initiating investor and Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. as the fund manager.
Public records show that Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was established in October 2009 with Feng Shaodong as the legal representative and a registered capital of 50 million yuan, and the company is still operating.
Wu Bangguo is a key figure in the Shanghai faction and rose to prominence during Jiang Zemin’s tenure as leader of the CPC, becoming a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC, and serving as vice premier of the State Council. He was re-elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 16th and 17th CPC Central Committee, and served as chairman of the NPC for a period of 10 years, ranking second among the members of the Politburo Standing Committee at the time, making him the de facto number two in the CPC.
Political commentator Li Yanming analyzed that Wu Bangguo, a core figure in the Shanghai faction of Jiang Zemin’s group, has close ties to Guangdong Nuclear Group. Wu Bangguo made rare appearances multiple times to issue instructions on matters related to Guangdong Nuclear Group during his tenure as chairman of the NPC, highlighting his control over the CPC’s nuclear industry. Wu’s son-in-law Feng Shaodong served as the chairman of the board of directors of the Guangdong Nuclear Industry Investment Fund Management (Beijing) Co., directly entangling himself in the core interests of Guangdong Nuclear Group.
“Since last year, there has been a major purge in the CPC’s Rocket Force and military industrial complex, which is closely related to the nuclear industry system. Following the downfall of several top executives in China National Nuclear Corporation, Tan Jiansheng, former deputy general manager of Guangdong Nuclear, has come under investigation, indicating that the cleansing operation has now encroached on Wu Bangguo’s family’s interest territory,” he said.