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On February 15, 2000, Hu Changqing, the former Deputy Governor of Jiangxi Province, was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of Nanchang for the crimes of bribery, receiving bribes, and having an unclear source of wealth worth over 5.44 million RMB and another property worth over 1.61 million RMB between May 1995 and August 1999 while serving as the Deputy Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs and Assistant Governor and Deputy Governor of Jiangxi Province.
On March 1, 2000, the Jiangxi Provincial High Court made a final ruling on Hu Changqing’s appeal: rejecting the appeal and upholding the original verdict.
Seven days later, at the Yingshang Execution Ground in the northern outskirts of Nanchang, Hu Changqing was executed. He is the highest-ranking official sentenced to death for economic crimes since the establishment of the Communist Party of China. He always claimed that his crimes did not deserve the death penalty.
Today, let’s take a look at how Hu Changqing fell from grace and whether he deserved the death penalty.
Hu Changqing’s downfall was not triggered by someone reporting him, nor was it a result of a covert investigation by the disciplinary committee, nor was he implicated in cases involving other officials. Instead, he brought it upon himself through his reckless behavior.
On August 6, 1999, during the Kunming “World Expo” Jiangxi Pavilion Day, Hu Changqing, dressed in a light-colored suit with a red tie, disappeared after presiding over the Pavilion’s opening ceremony and giving an interview to CCTV reporters.
The next morning, after participating in a signing ceremony for an economic and technical project, Hu Changqing suddenly vanished. Despite efforts to locate him by a staff member, they couldn’t find him anywhere in the guesthouse. Calls to his phone went unanswered, and inquiries with the organizing committee yielded no information. It wasn’t until noon that his secretary in Kunming received a call from Hu, saying he was heading to Shenzhen. When offered company for the trip, he refused.
Shortly after the call ended, the Central Organization Department contacted the Jiangxi delegation at the World Expo, looking to talk to Hu Changqing. Prior to his arrival in Kunming, the Central Organization Department had already planned to transfer him back to Beijing.
Jiangxi officials managed to reach Hu Changqing. Although he claimed to be in Shenzhen during the phone call, it was abruptly cut short. Subsequent calls to Shenzhen revealed that they were unaware of his whereabouts.
Frustrated, authorities began tracing Hu through telecommunications and aviation departments. Surprisingly, the trace led to Guangzhou, not Shenzhen. Even more shocking was that Hu’s name was not on the list of departures from Kunming Airport on August 7.
Eventually, with the assistance of Guangdong police, authorities located Hu using a fake ID under the name “Chen Fengqi” staying at the China Hotel in Guangzhou. It turned out that Hu had run off to Guangzhou to meet his mistress while on official duty.
Hu Changqing, as the Deputy Governor of Jiangxi Province, ostensibly on official business in Kunming, abruptly disappeared on his own. Claiming to go to Shenzhen but being in Guangzhou, using a fake ID to board a plane and stay at a hotel, all the while with a woman.
This string of abnormal behavior immediately caught the attention of senior Communist Party officials. The disciplinary committee and organization department decided to bring Hu Changqing back from Guangzhou to Beijing for investigation.
Upon their arrival in Guangzhou, officials not only found Hu Changqing’s fake ID but also a platinum tie clip on him. By tracing the source of the tie clip, the task force located a key briber, Zhou Xuehua, the CEO of Jiangxi Auto Leasing Company, who had stored over 1 million RMB for Hu Changqing in his villa’s safe.
After Hu Changqing was detained in Guangzhou, the task force immediately started monitoring his family in Beijing. Hu’s wife, upon hearing about his situation on August 9 from a mysterious woman, hastily began transferring their assets to evade confiscation.
That night, under the cover of darkness, with the help of others, Hu’s wife moved their assets, completing the task by the morning of August 10. As the day broke, she went to different banks with passbooks to withdraw cash.
After Hu Changqing’s arrest in Guangzhou, the task force began monitoring his family in Beijing. Hu’s wife’s actions in transferring their wealth were under close scrutiny by the central task force. Ironically, she unwittingly exposed the illicit assets.
In the early hours of August 11, as the moment seemed ripe, the task force raided the hiding place where Hu’s wife had stashed their assets, seizing over 2 million RMB in cash, luxury brand items, gold and silver jewelry worth around 1.47 million RMB, two Jaguar sedans, and properties totaling about 7.94 million RMB.
Subsequently, using these seized assets as a starting point, the task force delved into Hu Changqing’s corrupt practices.
Hu Changqing, born in a rural family in Huangtudian Town, Changde County, Hunan Province in 1948, joined the military in 1968, the Communist Party in 1969, and transitioned to local government work in 1979. He moved to Beijing in 1987, working successively at China People’s Insurance Company, National Taxation Bureau, and State Administration for Religious Affairs. In August 1995, he was transferred to Jiangxi, serving as Assistant Governor and Deputy Governor.
During the isolation and review by the disciplinary committee, Hu Changqing confessed: “Having come from a small town to a big city, interacting with wealthy people and business owners, I envied their luxurious lifestyles with fancy cars, high-end hotels, branded clothes, imported liquors, and indulging in the company of hostesses. But as a government official, I restrained my desires due to my position and lack of qualifications.”
Whenever an opportunity arose, Hu Changqing couldn’t resist.
In August 1995, at the age of 46, Hu Changqing was transferred from Beijing to Nanchang, taking up the position of Assistant Governor of Jiangxi Province.
Considering he hadn’t brought his family along, which might lead to difficulties, authorities arranged for him to stay at the Jiangxi Provincial Government Guesthouse called Ganjiang Hotel.
It was there that Hu Changqing met a young female service staff member with the same surname as him, roughly 20 years his junior. Their relationship evolved into a romantic affair, involving power, beauty, money, and desire.
After establishing a special bond, the young woman expressed her desire to buy a house to Hu, who readily agreed. He then bought a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Nanchang through a company, initially paying 50,000 RMB and leaving the rest unpaid.
Later, when the company was negotiating for land acquisition in the outskirts, negotiations weren’t favorable. They sought Hu’s help, and with pressure and incentives, Hu managed to save the company 3.2 million RMB. Following the successful deal, the company’s deputy general manager returned the initial 50,000 RMB to Hu. Essentially, the company gifted Hu the apartment, and he promptly passed it on to his young companion.
When the young woman expressed her wish to no longer work as a service staff member, Hu promptly reassigned her to a unit within the provincial government. Before returning to Beijing, Hu fulfilled her request to relocate to Guangzhou and secure a house there.
Hu Changqing swiftly utilized his connections to facilitate her move and obtained 650,000 HKD from Zhou Xuehua to purchase a house in Guangzhou.
His mysterious disappearance in Kunming and subsequent presence in Guangzhou under the alias “Chen Fengqi” were primarily to assist the young woman with her job transfer.
Not only did Hu Changqing have a mistress, but he also engaged in extramarital affairs and visited adult entertainment venues with various women. According to Zhou Xuehua, Hu frequently took him to gamble and visit brothels in Guangzhou and Macau. He even arranged for a prostitute from Macau to fly from Zhuhai to Nanchang for rendezvous with Hu on Saturdays, then return on Sundays.
During a span of over two years, Hu Changqing, Zhou Xuehua, and others secretly engaged in such activities in Guangzhou, Macau, and elsewhere 25 times.
After his downfall, unlike some corrupt officials who resist investigations, Hu Changqing cooperated, not only truthfully disclosing the corruption issues known to the task force but also voluntarily revealing unknown criminal facts. He even wrote a self-criticism letter as requested by the task force.
During the investigations by the disciplinary committee and the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Hu tearfully pleaded with the investigators, begging for a chance at redemption.
In court, Hu was very humble. Before or after each statement, he would say, “Thank you, Your Honor,” “Thank you, Prosecutor,” “Thank you, Lawyer.”
On March 5, 2000, when CCTV reporter Wang Zhi interviewed Hu Changqing in the Jiangxi Provincial Detention Center, in addition to admitting and repenting for his crimes, Hu delved into the root causes that led him astray and earnestly requested the visitors to convey his plea to the central leadership: “Save me, this heinous criminal, give me a suspended death sentence, give me a chance for reform. I will always remember the Party’s kindness and gratitude for the Party’s policies.”
Hu Changqing believed that by doing so, he could at least escape a sentence of death. However, in the end, he was sentenced to death.
When asked by reporters if he had anticipated this outcome upon receiving the verdict, Hu Changqing replied, “No. The first-instance collegiate bench did not consider the circumstances of me voluntarily confessing my crimes and actively returning the embezzled money and goods, so I will appeal.”
In the diary of Du Daozheng, a former subordinate of Zhao Ziyang, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, it was revealed that on January 2, 2000, Du, Xiao Hongda, and Yao Xihua visited Zhao Ziyang at No. 6 Fuchang Hutong in Beijing. During the conversation, Zhao Ziyang confided in them about why Hu Changqing was targeted by Jiang Zemin:
Zhao Ziyang said, “Whoever is corrupt, who will be held accountable? That Deputy Governor of Jiangxi Province merely accepted gifts, a sum this year, another sum the next year, accumulatively, it became a considerable amount. This counts as corruption. Provincial governors and deputy governors in office cannot escape scrutiny! Therefore, in today’s environment of corruption, those held accountable may not necessarily have grave issues, and those not held accountable may not be without problems. It can be said that ‘when one desires to charge someone with a crime, there are plenty of pretexts.’ This Deputy Governor from Jiangxi, surname Hu, uttered quite a few criticisms against Jiang Zemin.”
Objectively speaking, Hu Changqing was guilty of serious crimes, but they were not deserving of the death penalty.
On this day in 2025, through Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, it became widely known that during Jiang Zemin’s tenure as the paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party or during his “retired emperor” period, he was the ultimate mastermind behind the most severe corruption within the party, government, and military.
Jiang Zemin’s handling of Hu Changqing was not a genuine anti-corruption effort but merely a strategic move in power struggles, aiming to consolidate his own power by executing Hu Changqing as a warning to others.
That concludes today’s program. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.