Former Vice Chairman of Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Chen Yan, who fell from grace over six months ago, has been officially arrested on bribery and abuse of power charges.
According to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the Communist Party of China on October 21, Chen Yan, former member of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) committee and Vice Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial CPPCC, has been investigated by the National Supervisory Commission on suspicion of bribery and abuse of power. The case has concluded and been transferred to the judicial authorities for examination and prosecution. Recently, the Procuratorate issued an arrest warrant for Chen Yan on charges of bribery and abuse of power.
Chen Yan was officially taken down from his position on March 25 this year. He became the seventh high-ranking official to be investigated after the CCP’s two sessions, and was also the third mayor of Guiyang City to fall from grace.
On October 11, Chen Yan was officially expelled from the Party and his qualifications as a delegate to the 13th Party Congress of Guizhou Province were revoked, and he was handed over to the judiciary for further action.
Public records show that Chen Yan, born in August 1963 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, started working in July 1986 and has worked in Guizhou for many years.
Chen Yan previously worked in the Guizhou Provincial Planning Committee and then in the Guizhou Development and Reform Commission for 25 years. In January 2012, he served as Vice Mayor of Tongren City; in September 2017, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee, Acting Mayor, and Party Secretary, and later as Deputy Secretary of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee, Mayor, and Party Secretary; in January 2021, he became Vice Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial CPPCC, while retaining the positions of Deputy Secretary of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee and Mayor.
Since October 2021, Chen Yan’s only remaining position was Vice Chairman of the CPPCC.
It is worth noting that three consecutive mayors of Guiyang City have fallen from grace.
On March 27, 2023, former Vice Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial CPPCC, Li Zaiyong, was investigated. Li Zaiyong had served as Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Guiyang City in Guizhou Province since March 2011. Two years later, he was transferred to Liupanshui, Guizhou Province, and at that time, Liu Wenxin, Member of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee and Deputy Mayor, took over from Li Zaiyong as the Mayor of Guiyang.
In 2017, Liu Wenxin was transferred to the position of Secretary of the Qianxinan Prefecture Committee in Guizhou Province, and it was during this period that he handed over the position to Chen Yan. Liu Wenxin was investigated in October 2022.