Former National Committee member of the Chinese Communist Party and former director of the State General Administration of Sports, Gou Zhongwen, has been prosecuted on charges of bribery and abuse of power. The official report accuses Gou Zhongwen of engaging in power-for-sex transactions, privately retaining classified documents, engaging in corrupt money deals, and abusing power, resulting in significant economic losses.
The Supreme Procuratorate of the Chinese Communist Party announced on May 7th that Gou Zhongwen, former member of the Fourteenth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former deputy director of the National Ethnic and Religious Commission, is suspected of bribery and abuse of power, with the case being reviewed for prosecution by the Yancheng City Procuratorate in Jiangsu Province. Recently, the Yancheng City Procuratorate has filed a lawsuit with the Yancheng Intermediate People’s Court.
Gou Zhongwen is accused of using his positions as Vice Mayor of Beijing, member of the Beijing Municipal Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the State General Administration of Sports to seek benefits for others, illegally accepting property from others in massive amounts. Gou Zhongwen’s abuse of power has led to major losses of public assets and national interests, with particularly severe circumstances, leading to the charges of bribery and abuse of power.
Born in June 1957 in Zhenyuan, Gansu, Gou Zhongwen was a member of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Gou Zhongwen previously served as Vice Mayor of Beijing, Member of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and Secretary of the Municipal Committee’s Education Working Committee.
In October 2016, Gou Zhongwen was appointed as the Director and Party Secretary of the State General Administration of Sports of the Chinese Communist Party, overseeing the highest authority in China’s sports system for nearly six years.
In 2017, Gou Zhongwen, then Director of the General Administration of Sports, became embroiled in the controversial dismissal of China’s national table tennis coach Liu Guoliang, leading to a boycott by national table tennis team players and coaches. Netizens criticized Gou Zhongwen as the “incompetent director” who did not understand sports and mismanaged the situation.
Rumors circulated that Gou Zhongwen, as the Director of the State General Administration of Sports, had a strained relationship with Deputy Director Cai Zhenhua, leading to the replacement of Liu Guoliang and restructuring of the national table tennis coaching staff, with blame directed at Cai Zhenhua, who was the Chairman of the Chinese Football Association and the only Central Committee alternate member of the General Administration of Sports. Cai Zhenhua had previously served as the head coach of the Chinese Men’s Table Tennis Team, with Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui as his right-hand men.
Analysts at Radio France Internationale Chinese Service speculated that during the Nineteenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, with only one Central Committee membership slot allocated to the State General Administration of Sports, Gou Zhongwen’s main competitor was Cai Zhenhua. Gou Zhongwen later became a Central Committee member at the Nineteenth National Congress held in October 2017.
In July 2022, Gou Zhongwen stepped down from his positions as Director and Party Secretary of the State General Administration of Sports of the Chinese Communist Party, subsequently becoming the Deputy Director of the National Ethnic and Religious Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
In May 2024, Gou Zhongwen was investigated and subsequently subjected to disciplinary action.
The report indicated that he seriously disrupted the political ecosystem of the sports system; approved large sums of money; engaged in power-for-sex transactions; failed to fulfill duties correctly in sports project construction or acquisitions, privately retained classified documents; engaged in corrupt money deals; made arbitrary decisions, abused power, causing significant economic losses.
In recent years, numerous corrupt practices in the Chinese Communist Party’s sports sector have been exposed. Since the investigation of Li Tie, the former head coach of the Chinese national men’s soccer team in 2022, many officials in the sports sector have fallen from grace. This includes Hu Guangyu, Deputy Director of the Political and Legal Affairs Department of the State General Administration of Sports, former Chairman of the Chinese Football Association Chen Xuyuan, President of the Chinese Athletics Association Yu Hongchen (former Vice Chairman of the Chinese Football Association), former General Manager of the Chinese Super League Company Dong Zheng, former Chairman of the Chinese Super League Company Ma Chengquan, former Vice Chairman of the Chinese Football Association Li Yuyi, former Deputy Director of the State General Administration of Sports Du Zhaocai, former Director of the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports Ni Huizhong, and former Chairmen of the Chinese Rowing Association and the Chinese Canoeing Association Liu Aijie, among others.