Former Vice President of China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO Group), Zhou Zheng, was arrested on charges of bribery, corruption, and abuse of power.
On May 29th, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the Communist Party of China announced that the Shanxi Provincial People’s Procuratorate had made the decision to arrest Zhou Zheng, former member of the COFCO Group’s party committee and vice president, on suspicion of bribery, corruption, and abuse of power by a state-owned company. The case is currently under investigation.
Zhou Zheng was officially brought down from office on November 8th of last year, and on May 9th of this year, he was expelled from the party.
Public records show that Zhou Zheng was born in March 1963 and had previously worked at the 609th Research Institute of the former Ministry of Aerospace. After 1993, Zhou Zheng held positions at COFCO South Packaging Co., Ltd., COFCO Hangzhou Meite Container Co., Ltd., Packaging Industry Department of COFCO Group, and COFCO Development Co., Ltd.
In June 2008, Zhou Zheng became the General Manager of COFCO Real Estate (Group) Co., Ltd., and starting in December 2010, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of COFCO Real Estate. In 2012, Zhou Zheng became the Vice President of COFCO Group, in December 2013 he became a member of the COFCO Group’s party committee, and starting from 2013, he concurrently served as the Chairman and Executive Director of Dayuecheng Real Estate Co., Ltd.
In 2019, COFCO Real Estate completed the acquisition of equity in Dayuecheng Real Estate, and the company officially changed its name to Dayuecheng Holdings Group Co., Ltd., with Zhou Zheng continuing as the Chairman.
In March 2021, Dayuecheng announced that due to work requirements, Zhou Zheng’s responsibilities within the COFCO Group had changed, and he applied to resign from the positions of company director, chairman of the board, and committee member of the board of directors, with no further roles in the company after resignation.
In March 2022, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission disclosed information on the appointment and removal of duties for five leaders of central enterprises, with Zhou Zheng no longer serving as the Vice President of China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation.
In recent years, several figures within the “COFCO System” have been implicated in corruption, including Chen Debing, former general manager of COFCO Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., and Cao Ronggen, general manager of Dayuecheng Holdings Group Co., Ltd., both under COFCO Group.
COFCO Group is a large state-owned enterprise directly under the central government, comprising 15 listed companies, including China Foods, COFCO Packaging, Mengniu Dairy, Dayuecheng Real Estate, COFCO Jiajia Health, Futian Industry, Modern Farming, China Shengmu, 8 Hong Kong-listed companies, as well as COFCO Sugar, Miao Kelando, COFCO Technology, Dayuecheng Holdings, Jiugui Liquor, COFCO Capital, COFCO Technology and Industry, and 7 mainland Chinese companies.
As of the end of 2023, COFCO Group’s total assets amounted to 730.7 billion RMB.