The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on April 30 that Liu Zhiqiang, a former member of the Party group and deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice, is under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law.
Liu Zhiqiang was taken away for investigation by the personnel of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection a year after his retirement.
During his seven-year tenure as deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice (2016-2023), Liu Zhiqiang worked under five ministers: Wu Aiying, Zhang Jun, Fu Zhenghua, Tang Yijun, and He Rong. Zhang Jun only served for 1 year and 23 days, as this position was just a transition between his role as deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and his appointment as the Supreme People’s Procurator. He Rong, the current Minister of Justice, has only been in office for a year and two months. Apart from these two relatively short-serving ministers, the other three all fell from power due to corruption issues.
Just a month before Liu Zhiqiang was investigated, on March 28, Tang Yijun was attending an internal meeting when he was suddenly asked to take a phone call. As soon as he left the meeting room, personnel from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection took him away. Five days later, on April 2, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Tang Yijun was under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law.
On April 4, Caixin published a report titled “Cases Involving Evergrande, Liaoning, Ningbo – Why Tang Yijun Was Investigated,” revealing some insights into the situation:
From October 2017 to April 2020, Tang Yijun served as Deputy Governor and Governor of Liaoning Province for two and a half years. During his tenure, with Tang Yijun’s assistance, Xu Jiayin, the head of the Evergrande Group, successfully acquired controlling rights of Shenjing Bank, the ninth-largest nationwide and the largest in the Northeastern region. The bank later accumulated bad debts exceeding billions of Chinese yuan.
With Tang Yijun’s support, Xu Jiayin also secured many real estate projects in Liaoning. Following Evergrande’s massive debt default, many unfinished buildings were left in Liaoning.
On September 28, 2023, Xu Jiayin was detained for suspected illegal activities. After his detention, he implicated several high-ranking officials of the Communist Party of China, with Tang Yijun being one of them.
Since March last year, a group of high-ranking party, government, and military officials, including Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu, and Commander of the Rocket Force Li Yuchao, have been “disappeared” due to serious corruption investigations. However, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has not yet announced their suspected serious violations of discipline and law. The key reason is that they are important members of the “Xi Jinping faction” personally promoted and trusted by Xi Jinping.
Tang Yijun was announced to be under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection just five days after his arrest. Why? Because the true high-ranking figure behind his promotion and appointment is not Xi Jinping but Zhao Leji. Zhao Leji currently serves as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the National People’s Congress. Tang Yijun was promoted during Zhao Leji’s tenure as head of the Organization Department and secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
In the past, anyone labeled by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection as “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law” is undoubtedly a severe corrupt individual. Therefore, what awaits Tang Yijun will be expulsion from the party, dismissal from public office, legal prosecution, and ultimately imprisonment in Qin Cheng.
Before Tang Yijun, Fu Zhenghua was the Minister of Justice. He took office on March 19, 2018, and was relieved of his ministerial duties to retire on April 29, 2020, after two years and 41 days in office.
Prior to his tenure as Minister of Justice, Fu Zhenghua served as Director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Security, Executive Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Security, and Director of the Central 610 Office.
Fu Zhenghua was known as the “number one tough guy” of the Communist Party of China, notorious for his ruthless behavior. Many inside and outside the CCP criticized, hated, and cursed him. It was only a matter of time before Fu Zhenghua fell from grace.
On October 2, 2021, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Fu Zhenghua was under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law.
After Fu Zhenghua’s downfall, many police officers in the public security system, as well as human rights lawyers, journalists, scholars, applauded.
On March 31, 2022, Fu Zhenghua was expelled from the party and removed from public office.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s report stated that Fu Zhenghua’s “political ambitions were extremely inflated, his political conduct was extremely despicable, he engaged in opportunism and scheming, blinded by personal gain, resorted to any means to achieve his personal political goals; he joined Sun Lijun’s political faction, formed cliques, engaged in party and private enterprises; falsified information on significant issues, deceived the central leadership, jeopardized the party’s centralization and unity”; “long-term irregular use and carrying of firearms, posing a serious security threat; showing no respect for regulations and laws, committed unlawful acts, acted in collusion for personal gain, made arbitrary decisions, acted recklessly, resulting in serious and adverse political consequences”; “sought personal gain for others in the selection and appointment of officials, severely damaging the political ecology of the government and legal teams; corrupt and decadent, engaged in large-scale power and money transactions, illegally accepted huge sums of money.”
On September 22 of the same year, Fu Zhenghua was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court. After the death penalty with a reprieve was commuted to life imprisonment, he would not be eligible for commutation or parole.
Fu Zhenghua’s corruption issues were a common problem in the ranks of the CCP officials. The surface reason for his severe death sentence was bribery of 117 million yuan, coupled with abuse of power. The deeper reason was his involvement in the anti-Xi “Sun Lijun Political Faction.”
Initially, Fu Zhenghua aligned himself with the then Politburo Standing Committee member and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Zhou Yongkang. After Zhou retired and lost power, Fu immediately switched sides, aligning himself with Xi Jinping, the top leader of the CCP, and launching an attack against Zhou. He was temporarily promoted by Xi Jinping.
Later, he realized that Xi’s position was not stable, and there were many people domestically and internationally who disparaged, opposed, and wanted to overthrow Xi. He once again switched sides, aligning himself with Sun Lijun, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Security. Sun Lijun’s backer was Meng Jianzhu, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Meng’s backing came from the former CCP dictator Jiang Zemin and the former Politburo Standing Committee member and Vice President of the country, Zeng Qinghong. Fu believed that by aligning with Jiang, Zeng, and Meng, once Xi was overthrown, he could secure the position of Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission for himself without any problems.
However, his opportunism failed this time, and he was captured by Xi and imprisoned in Qin Cheng. Based on the court’s judgment, he would be incarcerated for a very long time.
Wu Aiying, the Minister of Justice before Fu Zhenghua, took office on July 1, 2005, and was arrested on February 24, 2017, serving as the Minister of Justice for 11 years and 238 days.
Wu Aiying had a long career in Shandong Province. After being promoted to Vice Governor of Shandong Province in 1993, she was in charge of the Public Security Department, the Justice Department, and others. In 1995, she launched a so-called “Image Police” project, catching the attention of the then CCP leader Jiang Zemin, who later promoted her as Deputy Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Shandong Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and Minister of Justice.
According to a report by the Apple Daily in Hong Kong, during Wu Aiying’s tenure, she cooperated with Zhou Yongkang, a representative of the Jiang faction, in suppressing lawyers under the so-called “stability maintenance policy.”
In October 2016, over a hundred lawyers and ordinary citizens on the mainland signed a joint petition calling for the “dismissal of Wu Aiying from the position of Minister of Justice.”
The joint petition stated that since 2014, more than 200 lawyers and citizens had submitted dozens of requests for government information disclosure, supervision suggestions, administrative reconsideration, State Council administrative rulings, administrative litigations to the Ministry of Justice, the State Council, and related courts regarding the Ministry of Justice’s illegal annual inspections of lawyers and law firms. Wu Aiying and others turned a deaf ear to these requests, even refusing to implement the State Council’s directive to stop non-State Council-regulated inspections and assessments by the end of June 2013.
The joint petition claimed that the leadership of the Ministry of Justice had been in prolonged confrontation with the Constitution and laws, calling on the National People’s Congress, the State Council, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, etc., to immediately remove Wu Aiying from the position of Minister of Justice in accordance with the law.
Before Wu Aiying was arrested, in December 2016, Lu Guang (deputy ministerial level), head of the Political Department of the Ministry of Justice, was investigated for serious violations of discipline and law. Lu Guang was the first high-ranking official to fall from grace in the Ministry of Justice after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Lu Guang rose in rank through forgery, bribery, and flattery.
According to the CCP media, Lu Guang was a government official who committed full-scale falsification with “Five Fakes” – falsely claimed age, education, party membership materials, work experience, and family situation.
Lu Guang had only finished high school, but as he continued to advance in his career, he kept “improving” his education. His bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees were obtained through buying, gifting, or falsely claiming qualifications. Lu Guang also falsified his age by changing it from 1958 to 1965, making himself seven years younger, which gave him an age advantage in various leadership selections. His family situation was also significantly falsified – he had seven children but only reported two, with the other five children being registered through false procedures in the care of relatives. Even Lu Guang’s name was not his real name but a self-modified one – “Guang” means “grateful to parents, glory to ancestors.”
Lu Guang’s bribery history spanned 24 years (1992-2016), with bribe amounts exceeding 20.74 million yuan.
On October 30, 2018, Lu Guang was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribery. Lu Guang became the first high-ranking official in the Ministry of Justice imprisoned in Qin Cheng after the 18th National Congress of the CCP.
According to the personnel handling the case at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Lu Guang’s transfer to the Ministry of Justice and promotion to the deputy ministerial level indicated that the relevant leaders of the Ministry of Justice held “significant responsibility.”
Who is this leader at the Ministry of Justice? It is Lu Guang’s fellow townsman from Shandong, then Minister of Justice, Wu Aiying. Lu Guang’s investigation also brought out Wu Aiying’s issues.
At the closing of the 7th Plenary Session of the 18th Central Discipline Inspection Commission on October 14, 2017, the review report on Wu Aiying’s serious disciplinary violations was reviewed and approved, confirming the disciplinary action previously taken by the Politburo of the CCP to expel Wu Aiying from the party.
Before serving in Qinghai Province, Liu Zhiqiang worked at the Ministry of Public Security. During Zhou Yongkang’s term as Minister of Public Security, Liu Zhiqiang was Director of the Ministry of Public Security’s International Affairs Department; when Meng Jianzhu served as Minister of Public Security, Liu Zhiqiang was Director of the Ministry of Public Security’s International Cooperation Department.
In June 2015, Zhou Yongkang was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery, abuse of power, and deliberate disclosure of state secrets.
Several of Zhou Yongkang’s old subordinates in the Ministry of Public Security, such as Assistant Minister Zheng Shaodong, Deputy Minister Li Dongsheng, Meng Hongwei, and Yang Huanning, all fell due to corruption.
Meng Jianzhu’s most important confidante, Sun Lijun, started as an officer in the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office. In 2008, Sun Lijun was transferred by Meng Jianzhu to the position of Deputy Director of the Office of the Ministry of Public Security. At the time, Liu Zhiqiang was Director of the Ministry of Public Security’s International Cooperation Department. Sun Lijun was known for his ability to build relationships and formed a “Sun Lijun Political Faction.”
On September 23, 2022, Sun Lijun was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes of 646 million yuan.
Liu Zhiqiang and Sun Lijun both came from international affairs backgrounds, were born in the 1960s, and were adept at networking. Is Liu Zhiqiang a member of the relationship web woven by Sun Lijun? It is highly probable.
Previous members of the “Sun Lijun Political Faction” who were investigated were all promoted thanks to Sun Lijun’s “maneuvers,” specifically by hitching a ride on Meng Jianzhu’s “antenna” and being promoted.
Liu Zhiqiang was transferred to Qinghai Province as Deputy Governor and Director of the Public Security Department during Meng Jianzhu’s tenure as Minister of Public Security. Is Liu Zhiqiang’s promotion the result of Sun Lijun’s “manipulations”? Very likely.
Liu Zhiqiang was also labeled by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection as “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law.” This indicates that Liu Zhiqiang is undoubtedly a severely corrupt individual.
What awaits Liu Zhiqiang will undoubtedly be expulsion from the party, the cancellation of his deputy ministerial-level retirement benefits, followed by a reunion with Tang Yijun and Fu Zhenghua in Qin Cheng Prison.