On December 30, 2025, former member of the Shandong CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) and former deputy director of the Cultural Relics and Learning Committee, Zhou Yong, was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes exceeding 1.07 billion yuan.
According to a report from the official WeChat account of “Shandong High Court,” on December 30, 2025, the Intermediate People’s Court of Linyi City, Shandong Province, publicly announced the verdict of Zhou Yong’s bribery case, issuing the aforementioned sentence.
It was reported that from September 2002 to February 2024, Zhou Yong took advantage of his position to assist relevant units and individuals in matters such as project contracts, financing, and equity sales, illegally accepting over 1.07 billion yuan in bribes, of which more than 53 million yuan were not actually obtained.
At the age of 63, Zhou Yong started his career at Shandong Provincial Transportation Engineering Company, holding positions such as head of the engineering department and deputy general manager, eventually rising to the positions of general manager and party secretary. In 2013, Zhou Yong became the Vice Mayor of Laiwu City, Shandong Province. In April 2018, he returned to the state-owned enterprise system, serving as the deputy secretary of the Party Committee and general manager of Shandong Expressway Group Limited Company.
In April 2019, Zhou Yong was promoted to the Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qilu Transportation Development Group Co., Ltd. In January 2021, he was transferred to serve as the Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shandong Expressway Group Limited Company. In January 2023, he became a member of the Shandong Provincial CPPCC and the deputy director of the Cultural Relics and Learning Committee of the provincial CPPCC. In March 2024, Zhou Yong was investigated, and in September 2024, he was expelled from the Party.
Zhou Yong is another top official within Shandong Expressway Group to be investigated in recent years. According to the mainland news outlet Caixin, since 2022, a total of six former executives from the Shandong Expressway Group system have been investigated.