In the past five years, the number of high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials investigated in the financial sector has been increasing year by year, with 75 individuals already investigated so far this year. Analysts believe that the anti-corruption campaign in China’s financial sector has evolved from a struggle for power with the elites to dealing with political crisis.
According to a report by The Paper on October 5th, in the just-passed September, at least 4 individuals in the financial system were investigated, all of whom were officials at the central level of the Party and state institutions, state-owned enterprises, and financial units.
The officials under investigation include Zhang Songbai, former party committee member and deputy general manager of the Agricultural Bank of China’s Hunan Provincial Branch; Kong Fanbo, former general manager of the Capital Planning Department of the Agricultural Bank of China; Shao Min, deputy general manager (in charge of work) of the Audit Center of the Beijing Regional Branch of Guangfa Bank; and Luo Jinhui, former deputy general manager (level of general manager of a first-level department) of the Asset Management Business Center of China CITIC Bank.
Reportedly, at least 75 individuals have been investigated by the end of September this year. Looking at the breakdown by month, there were 12 individuals investigated in January, 4 in February, 7 in March, 7 in April, 11 in May, 8 in June, 12 in July, and 10 in August.
The Chinese Communist Party has been intensifying its efforts to combat financial corruption since 2020, emphasizing the crackdown on “savage growth” of capital and “defending financial security”. According to official reports, the number of officials in the financial sector investigated has been on the rise year by year, with 15 individuals in 2020, 39 in 2021, 56 in 2022, and 75 in 2023.
However, the shockingly high number of 75 financial officials investigated in the first 9 months of 2024 is notable.
In April of this year, the 15th central inspection team of the Chinese Communist Party visited 34 economic departments and financial units for routine inspections, including China Eximbank, ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, CCB, Bank of Communications, China Life, and China Pacific.
After being out of contact for nearly six months, former Chairman of Xinhua Insurance, Li Quan, was expelled from the Party and transferred to the judicial authorities on September 30.
Recent cases that have come to light include Liu Jin, Vice Chairman and CEO of Bank of China, the fourth largest bank in China. Liu Liange, former party secretary and chairman of Bank of China, was disgraced in March 2023.
On August 21st, Ding Wei, Vice President of China Merchants Bank, was investigated; in mid-August, Wang Chen, Assistant General Manager of Investment Banking at Guoyuan Securities, was taken away for investigation; on August 7th, Chen Mingli, former party secretary and general manager of the Shenzhen China Merchants Ping An Asset Management Company of China Merchants Group, was investigated.
On August 2nd, Dong Guoqun, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, fell from grace, while Chen Xiaopeng, former party secretary and director of the Shenzhen Regulatory Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission who retired four years ago, was investigated.
In late July, Jiang Chengjun, Vice General Manager of Haitong Securities, was taken away for investigation.
According to a Bloomberg report in September, the Chinese Communist Party is increasing its supervision of 8,700 investment bankers. Since August, at least three top investment bankers from different securities firms have been detained by authorities, with one banker who previously oversaw trading operations at Haitong Securities fleeing China, only to be arrested overseas and sent back to China.
Sources revealed that Haitong Securities and other state-owned brokerage firms recently required multiple investment bankers to surrender their passports and obtain approval for all official and personal travels.
The Chinese Communist Party’s financial system has always been dominated by princelings, with Xi Jinping’s first anti-corruption lieutenant and former Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Wang Qishan, having a deep-rooted background in the financial sector.
In Xi’s second term, after Wang Qishan stepped down to become the President, the authorities began a massive purge in this field, including Wang Qishan’s former associates, the former Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China, Fan Yifei, and the former General Manager of China Merchants Bank and former Secretary of the Party Committee, Tian Huiyu.
The current Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is Xi’s confidant Li Xi.
Independent commentator Cai Shenkun revealed last November 23rd on X platform that when Wang Qishan took over as Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in 2012, he was completely obedient to Xi Jinping, but eventually he would inevitably be ruthlessly abandoned.
On July 16, 2016, Wang Qishan confessed to more than twenty intimate former colleagues, “This is our last gathering, and we probably won’t have such a chance again. I am old and no longer capable of sheltering you from the storm. Everyone should focus on their own paths.”
Scholar Yuan Hongbing recently told Vision Times, “The ongoing large-scale purge and rectification of the CCP’s financial and banking system is not only a continuation and deepening of Xi Jinping’s policy of amassing the wealth of dissident officials to enrich his secret military and stability maintenance funds by virtue of power struggles but also a significant battle launched by him to retaliate against the CCP’s princelings.”
Yuan Hongbing previously said in an interview with Epoch Times that the Chinese economy is plummeting sharply, a wave of mass unemployment is rising, local government finances are drying up, and China is isolated internationally. Xi is tightening control over financial work to prepare for a possible economic sanctions scenario in the event of a Taiwan Strait conflict, enabling him to withstand international economic sanctions with highly concentrated energy.
Commentator Li Lin Yi told Epoch Times that Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign in the financial sector has evolved to tackle political crisis. Previously, he aimed to wrestle money bags from the elites and consolidate his power, which led to an increase in his power. But with his power peaking at the 20th Congress, the authority he controlled is in decline, and now the intensification of the anti-corruption campaign in the CCP and various methods of plundering social wealth are crucial in light of the economic downturn and political crisis facing the regime, with the authorities urgently seizing social wealth and preventing sudden changes in the political situation.