【Epoch Times News, December 10, 2024】After being investigated for almost half a year while in office, former Deputy Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, Zhang Jianchun, has been expelled from the party and removed from public office, and handed over to the judiciary.
According to the announcement on December 10th by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission of the CCP on their website, an investigation has been launched into serious violations of discipline and law by Zhang Jianchun, former Deputy Minister of the Central Propaganda Department.
The report stated that Zhang Jianchun resisted organizational review, accepted entertainment, accommodation, and travel arrangements that might affect the fair execution of public duties, borrowed housing from persons under his management and service without charge, failed to report personal matters as required, accepted gifts and money in violation of regulations, used his authority to seek benefits for others, had relatives receiving goods, misused public resources, conducted power-for-money transactions, used his position to benefit others in enterprise operations, business contracts, and job promotions, and unlawfully accepted huge amounts of money.
Zhang Jianchun has been expelled from the party, removed from public office, stripped of his qualifications as a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the CCP and sent to the judiciary.
On the evening of June 21st this year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission announced that Zhang Jianchun was under investigation, but did not specify the reason for his fall from grace.
Publicly available records show that Zhang Jianchun was born in May 1965 in Yuncheng County, Shandong Province. He started working in 1984 and had a long career in the CCP Organization Department, including roles such as assistant researcher in the cadre and comprehensive department of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee Organization Department, deputy director, deputy party branch secretary, and researcher in the cadre division one office, and researcher, deputy director, and director in the cadre division one office of the Central Organization Department. He also held positions such as deputy inspector in the Public Servants Management Office of the cadre division one of the Central Organization Department, deputy director (deputy director-general), inspector, and other positions.
In January 2014, Zhang Jianchun was appointed Deputy Minister (bureau-level) of the CCP Beijing Municipal Party Committee Organization Department and in 2015 became Executive Deputy Minister of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Organization Department.
In March 2016, he was promoted to director (director-general) of the Public Servants Management Office of the cadre division one of the Central Organization Department and one year later, became a member of the Central Organization Department and director (director-general) of the Public Servants Management Office of the cadre division one. During his tenure, the Central Organization Department of the CCP was successively headed by Zhao Leji and Chen Xi.
In November 2018, Zhang Jianchun was appointed Deputy Minister of the CCP Organization Department, and in 2020 he became Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department until his investigation while in office in June of this year. Currently, Li Shulei is the Minister of the CCP Propaganda Department.