Guangdong Dongguan Taxation Bureau official Xu Peiquan was accused by authorities of “long-term browsing of overseas websites with political content”, leading to his expulsion from the Communist Party of China and criminal prosecution by the procuratorial organs. Sources revealed that Xu Peiquan was reported in March this year and investigated in May.
According to a report on the Southern Metropolis Daily website on December 10th, a notice released by the Dongguan Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision revealed that Xu Peiquan was formerly a senior staff member at the Hengli Taxation Sub-bureau of Dongguan Municipal Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation. The notice outlined the decisions made regarding him, including expulsion from the Party, cancellation of retirement benefits, confiscation of gains obtained from violations, and referral of suspected criminal issues to the procuratorial organs for legal review and prosecution. The notice did not disclose the specific names of the overseas websites Xu Peiquan had been browsing.
As per the contents of the notice, Xu Peiquan was accused of long-term browsing of overseas websites with political content, engaging in obstructive behavior during the organizational investigation, as well as being involved in irregular acceptance of gifts, using his position for profit in taxation-related business and daily tax management for others, and illicitly accepting goods.
Mr. Su, a retired individual familiar with the situation in Hengli, Dongguan, revealed in an interview on December 11th that Xu Peiquan was only investigated after being reported. He said: “I heard that Xu Peiquan was reported in March this year and investigated in May, later I heard he was expelled from the Party. During the search of his phone and computer, investigators found that he had browsed overseas ‘reactionary websites’ and social media.”
Regarding Communist Party officials browsing overseas websites within the system, Mr. Su believed that for many people, “climbing the wall” has become a common practice. He disclosed: “Many people are learning to ‘climb the wall’, unable to see outside information inside the wall, so they want to know what’s happening domestically.”
On the Southern Metropolis Daily website’s client-end video, footage of Xu Peiquan at a previous event was shown. In the footage, he was dressed in a blue uniform, holding a microphone. The subtitles on the video read “long-term browsing of overseas websites with politically inaccurate information” on top and disciplinary action details below.
Below the above-mentioned news, netizens in the comment section questioned what websites this official had been browsing. One comment mentioned that each notice like this never specifies the exact content, making it difficult for people to judge the boundaries. Another netizen expressed: “I want to know what websites he visited, very curious about the content he saw.”
Mr. Zhang, a netizen from Jiangxi interviewed, stated that officials climbing the wall is an essential factor leading to punishment. He said, “The authorities most abhor ordinary people climbing the wall to access political information, let alone an official, this indicates dissatisfaction within the system and a lack of trust in the higher-ups.”
Xu Peiquan held a middle-level position in the local taxation system. Public information shows that the Dongguan Municipal Taxation Bureau had previously reported multiple disciplinary cases involving violations of the Central Eight Provisions, official receptions, and data management issues. However, this time the case specifically included the phrase “long-term browsing of overseas websites” in the wording, drawing higher attention to the incident on platforms.
In recent years, numerous officials within the Communist Party’s governmental, taxation, radio and television, and political and legal systems who have been investigated have been named for involvement in “browsing overseas websites” or “climbing the wall to access foreign platforms.”
This includes a disciplinary case within a central enterprise disclosed in July 2024, where a party member of a directly affiliated company, Zhao, was accused of using wall climbing software to access overseas websites since 2020, viewing politically related content, downloading and sharing related videos; the Suzhou Radio and Television General Station’s original deputy director of the All-Media Editing Center, Zhu Chengzhuo, was officially reported in 2019; he was found to have long-term logged into overseas social platform Twitter and browsed content from overseas “illegal websites”, deemed to have violated political discipline, and was ultimately removed from office and demoted.
Additionally, in the Communist Party’s political and legal system, the former member of the Yunnan Honghe Prefecture Committee and Secretary of the Politics and Law Commission, Jian, was pointed out to have been “browsing overseas websites” for gathering network information in 2016. He was eventually expelled from the party and transferred to judicial organs due to involvement in multiple violations of discipline and law.