Former National Committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and former Director of the General Administration of Sport of China, Gou Zhongwen, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in the first-instance trial today (December 8th). He was accused of embezzling over 200 million Chinese yuan, sparking discussions on the internet.
According to reports from CCTV, on December 8th, the Intermediate People’s Court of Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, announced the verdict of the first-instance trial of Gou Zhongwen, former member of the 14th CPPCC National Committee and former Deputy Director of the Ethnic and Religious Committee, for bribery and abuse of power. Gou Zhongwen was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, with all his personal assets confiscated. After the two-year reprieve period expires, the death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment, with no possibility of sentence reduction, parole, or probation.
Official accusations stated that from 2009 to 2024, Gou Zhongwen illegally accepted a total of more than 236 million yuan in bribes while using his positions as Vice Mayor of Beijing, member of the Beijing Municipal Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, Party Secretary and Director of the General Administration of Sport to facilitate his crimes. During his tenure as Vice Mayor of Beijing from 2012 to 2013, Gou Zhongwen abused his power in the acquisition process of related projects, causing “significant losses”.
The announcement also stated that although Gou Zhongwen deserved the death penalty for his crimes, his case involved attempted crimes. After surrendering voluntarily and actively returning the bribes, all the bribe money and properties had been recovered, leading to the aforementioned verdict.
Public records show that Gou Zhongwen, born in June 1957 in Guyuan, Gansu Province, has a background in the electronic industry and software field. He held various positions such as engineer and Deputy Director at the National Mechanical and Electronic Industry Ministry, Director and Deputy Party Secretary at the Computer and Microelectronics Development Research Center of the Ministry of Electronics Industry and the Ministry of Information Industry, and Director of the China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute of the Ministry of Information Industry, among others. In April 2008, before the Beijing Olympics, Gou Zhongwen was appointed as Vice Mayor of Beijing. He subsequently held positions such as Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee for Education Workers, Party Secretary of the Zhongguancun Management Committee, and Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee before becoming Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee in April 2016. He served as Director of the General Administration of Sport of China in October 2016 and became Deputy Director of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the CPPCC National Committee in August 2022.
Gou Zhongwen was investigated in May 2024 and expelled from the Party in December of the same year. Official reports previously stated that Gou Zhongwen engaged in power-for-sex transactions, retained classified information privately, misused public resources, engaged in corrupt practices, and caused significant economic losses through arbitrary decision-making and abuse of power.
The latest official announcement of the verdict and related explanations for Gou Zhongwen’s case have stirred discussions among overseas netizens on Platform X:
“Liu Qi (former Beijing Municipal Party Secretary)’s brother, originally belonged to the second-tier of the Jiang faction in Beijing. With the Peng Shuai incident, Zhang Gaoli from the Jiang faction was taken down. As the head of the sports sector lost his ground, ending up offending both sides and being abandoned by everyone. It’s tragic.”
“All confiscated amounts sum up to 2.36 billion, how much did he actually embezzle?”
“Absolute power leads to absolute corruption, corruption is rampant in authoritarian countries.”
“For cases of this scale, the outside world may never see the full picture.”
“Who did General Gou offend?”
“At the ministerial level, he is eligible for retirement in Qin Cheng, much better treatment than the common people outside.”
“Why hasn’t Cai Zhenhua been implicated yet?”
Cai Zhenhua previously held positions such as Vice Director of the General Administration of Sport of China, Chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, and Chairman of the Chinese Badminton Association.
There were rumors that Gou Zhongwen, then Director of the General Administration of Sport of China, and Vice Director Cai Zhenhua were not on good terms. Changes in the sports administration, the reform of the national ping pong coaching team led by Liu Guoliang, were directed towards Cai Zhenhua, who was also the Chairman of the Chinese Football Association and the only Central Alternate Member nominated by the sports administration, due to Cai Zhenhua’s previous role as the head coach of the Chinese male ping pong team, with Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui serving as his right-hand men.
Previously, analysts on Radio France Internationale Chinese Service speculated that the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China only allocated one central committee seat to the General Administration of Sport, making Cai Zhenhua a primary contender against Gou Zhongwen. Gou Zhongwen later became a Central Committee member at the 19th National Congress held in October 2017.