Jiangxi, the hometown of the number two figure from the Jiang faction of the Chinese Communist Party, Zeng Qinghong, has been undergoing continuous purges of officials associated with the Jiangxi clique during the Beidaihe Conference of the Chinese Communist Party. Following the Beidaihe Conference, some officials in Jiangxi have started voluntarily coming forward to confess their wrongdoings.
According to the announcement on the website of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on September 12th, Yu Jian, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Jiangxi Bank Limited Company, has been expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office. Yu Jian was investigated after voluntarily admitting to problems on April 12th and was subsequently removed from office.
Yu Jian was accused of discounting and manipulating CCP decisions, engaging in double-dealing and two-faced behaviors, conducting profit-making activities in violation of regulations, using his position for personal gain in loan financing, illicitly accepting large sums of money, embezzling public funds, and irregularly granting loans, among other offenses.
On September 11th, two village officials in Jiangxi turned themselves in for investigation. They are Yuan Bing, the Party Secretary and Director of the Village Committee of Gucheng Village, Hushan Township, Xinfeng County, and Xiong Lingen, the Party Secretary and Director of the Village Committee of Fota Village, Qingshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Park in Jiangxi.
On September 9th, Tan Liming, former chairman of the labor union of State Grid Jiangxi Electric Power Co., Ltd., was placed under investigation.
Also on the same day, Gan Chengjiu, former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Deputy Chairman, and General Manager of Jiangxi Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd., was expelled from the Party. Gan Chengjiu voluntarily surrendered earlier this year and is now under investigation.
Gan Chengjiu was accused of bringing so-called “reactionary books” into the country and reading them, resisting organizational review, using his authority for personal gain in the acquisition of non-performing assets and project financing, illicitly accepting large sums of money, abusing public resources for personal use, and other misconduct.
On September 7th, Liu Wuai, a female government official in her 70s from Jiujiang, turned herself in. Since April last year, several former municipal-level officials in Jiujiang have been investigated, including Xie Laifa, former Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, Yang Wenbin, former Mayor, and Peng Min, former Deputy Mayor.
Liu Wuai has held various positions including Deputy Party Secretary and Town Mayor of Huanghua Town, Pengze County, Director of the United Front Work Department, Political and Legal Committee Secretary of the County Committee, and County Discipline Inspection Secretary in Duchang County. In 2016, Liu Wuai served as Deputy Secretary, Secretary, and Director of the Party Working Committee of the Bali Lake New Area in Jiujiang City, became Deputy Director of the Jiujiang Municipal People’s Congress in October 2021, and continued to serve as Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Bali Lake New Area until stepping down in February this year.
On August 16th, Xie Laifa, Party Secretary and Director of the Market Supervision Administration of Jiangxi Province, voluntarily confessed to problems and is currently under investigation.
Xie Laifa was transferred to Deputy Secretary and Mayor of the Jiujiang Municipal Committee from Mayor of Shangrao City at the end of 2019, appointed as Secretary of the Jiujiang Municipal Committee in March 2021, and became Party Secretary and Director of the Market Supervision Administration of Jiangxi Province in May 2022.
In addition, Peng Min, former member of the Jiujiang Municipal Government Party Committee and Deputy Mayor, turned himself in at the end of December 2023 and is being investigated.
Yang Wenbin, who previously served as Mayor of Jiujiang City, was investigated earlier. On April 21, 2023, Yang Wenbin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Jiangxi Academy of Sciences, voluntarily surrendered and was investigated. On December 15 of the same year, Yang Wenbin was expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office. Yang Wenbin had served as Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Jiujiang, working alongside Xie Laifa, Peng Min, Liu Wuai, and other officials for several years.
On August 28, Hu Lingao, former Vice Chairman of the Fuzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, turned himself in for investigation. Hu Lingao previously held positions such as Factory Director of the Animal Medicine Factory in Dongxiang County, Deputy County Governor, County Governor, Deputy Secretary of the County Party Committee, and Member of the County Standing Committee, as well as Party Secretary of the Hongxing Economic Development Zone, among others. He served as Secretary of the Nancheng County Party Committee in 2011, Secretary of the Linchuan District Party Committee in Fuzhou in 2016, and Vice Chairman of the Fuzhou Political Consultative Conference in 2018. He retired in May 2021 and recently surrendered voluntarily.
On August 22, Zhou Liang, former Party Secretary of the Honggutan District Committee in Nanchang, Jiangxi, turned himself in for investigation. Zhou Liang had worked in various units in Nanchang, including the Municipal Transportation Bureau, Anyi County, Xinjian County, Qingyunpu District, and Honggutan District, before retiring in August 2021.
Jiangxi, being the hometown of the Chinese Communist Party’s number two figure from the Jiang faction, Zeng Qinghong, has been the focus of Xi Jinping’s efforts to eliminate the “Jiangxi clique” in order to consolidate power. Political commentator Li Yanming noted that a prominent feature of the Jiangxi official circles recently is the voluntary surrenders of officials, including even village officials. This trend reflects the ongoing power struggles within the top leadership, as the influence of the Jiang faction continues to weaken, prompting many officials to take measures to protect themselves.