The new year marks another wave of crackdowns on corrupt officials as a part of Xi Jinping’s “tiger hunt,” with two high-ranking officials said to be under investigation yesterday.
Yang Weize, member of the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Province and Secretary of Nanjing Municipal Committee, was dismissed on suspicion of “serious disciplinary violations,” according to China’s Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Rumors that Yang might be “in trouble” have been flying around since early 2014. According to Caixin, when he served as Secretary of the Wuxi Municipal Committee from 2004 to 2011, Yang was seen constantly visiting Zhou Yongkang’s family home in Wuxi, presumably in order to get to the former security chief and Wuxi native.
Over the years, Yang had remained unscathed despite some of the mayors, deputy mayors and even deputy provincial department heads he worked with in Wuxi, Suzhou and Nanjing being punished for corruption.
According to the latest report, Yang’s fall is likely due to the several corruption reports against him filed by Gao Dezheng, the former Executive Vice Governor of Jiangsu Province.
Gao is the father in law of Ji Jianye, the acolyte of former president Jiang Zemin and former mayor of Nanjing who was dismissed on corruption charges while Yang was serving as party secretary there. While the ongoing dispute between Yang and Ji has never been a secret, Gao’s action is more likely to be a retaliation for Ji’s defenestration than performing a righteous duty.
Meanwhile, Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng has also been sacked and is currently under investigation for suspected corruption, which marks the first time a person of such rank has been subjected to the president’s sweeping anti-graft campaign. Although the foreign ministry provided no more details than a brief statement, it has been speculated that Zhang, originally from Shanxi, may have “picked the wrong side” and joined former president Hu Jintao’s top aide Ling Jihua’s "Shanxi Faction."
The “Shanxi Faction,” together with the “Secretary Faction” and “Petroleum Faction,” was singled out last month at a Politburo meeting as successful examples of cracking down factions within the Party in Xi’s “tiger hunt,” according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
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