Yunnan Province, known as a hotspot for corruption in the political arena, witnessed another high-ranking official fall from grace today, March 18th. The official announcement revealed that Li Wenrong, Vice Chairman of the Yunnan Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has been taken down.
According to a report on the website of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervision Commission on March 18th, Li Wenrong is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and laws”.
Public records show that Li Wenrong, born in October 1962 in Zhaotong, Yunnan Province, has held various positions within the Party. He served as a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Kunming Municipal Committee and Executive Deputy Mayor (at the department level), Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Yunnan Provincial Commission of Industry and Information Technology, Mayor of Kunming in 2012, Secretary of the Qujing Municipal Committee in 2015, member of the Yunnan Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Qujing Municipal Committee in 2016, and then Vice Chairman of the Yunnan Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee in 2021.
Li Shisong took over as Secretary of the Qujing Municipal Committee in 2021 and was investigated while serving as a member of the Yunnan Provincial Committee and Executive Deputy Governor in April 2024.
In a wave of anti-corruption campaigns, several other officials in Kunming have been placed under investigation recently, including Zhou Hongbin, member of the CCP Kunming Municipal Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department, and Liu Jiachen, Deputy Secretary of the Kunming Municipal Committee and Mayor.
On April 29, 2024, the CCP officially announced the investigation of Wang Xiliang, former Deputy Secretary of the Kunming Municipal Committee and Mayor, who was accused of colluding with former Yunnan Provincial Party Secretary Qin Guangrong.