The corruption scandal in Guangdong’s legal system has spread to Shenzhen, with two senior Communist Party officials in charge of anti-graft issues being detained, sources said yesterday.
Shenzhen media and government sources revealed that anti-graft officers from Beijing had taken into custody two officials from the city’s Discipline Inspection Commission last weekend. The officials have not been named.
Their detention occurred almost at the same time as officials from the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection detained Guangdong’s top political adviser Chen Shaoji in Guangzhou, and former head of the Guangdong anti-graft operation Wang Huayuan, who is now in Zhejiang.
The commission confirmed yesterday that Mr. Chen and Mr. Wang were under investigation for severely violating party discipline, Xinhua reported.
One of the Shenzhen sources said it was believed the two detained Shenzhen officials were related to Mr. Wang’s case because they had been his subordinates when he was in Guangdong,
The source said it remained unclear how many Guangdong officials had been involved in the cases of Mr. Chen and Mr. Wang, which many local officials and scholars considered the most significant in Guangdong in at least 30 years.
He said Mr. Chen was the first detained provincial-level leader in Guangdong, and Mr. Wang was the first head of a provincial anti-corruption operation being put under shuanggui, a form of party discipline before they are turned over to prosecutors.
Some official sources and Guangdong scholars had estimated the anti-corruption storm would continue in the province and might involve more local officials in the legal system or other government departments.
But other sources close to provincial-level officials said it was too early to make such a statement.
“If Chen and Wang are the targets of the storm, I think this round of anti-corruption investigation is going to the end,” one police source said. “If Beijing wants some other targets more important than Chen and Wang, I believe they will have enough evidence to get a confession.”
Guangdong official sources said they believed the detention of these top officials had to be part of a well-prepared plan, as both had been in charge of the province’s legal system for a long time.
Before being transferred to Zhejiang in late 2006, Mr. Wang, now 59, had been the top corruption fighter in the province for about eight years.
Mr. Chen, a 63-year-old Guangdong native, has built his career in the city’s Public Security Department, beginning in 1970.
In 1991, Mr. Chen became the province’s chief police officer. He was the top official of the commission of politics and law in the Guangdong committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference between 1998 and 2004.
But Liang Guoju, a long-time subordinate of Mr. Chen in the Guangdong bureau, had been repeatedly mentioned as his successor in provincial legal circles, which the sources said was the way Mr. Chen could protect himself after leaving the position. Liang Weifa, the former director of Guangdong’s trade department and the party boss of Heyuan, was chosen to replace Liang Guoju in mid-2007.
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Shenzhen anti-graft officials detained
Corruption scandal in Guangdong widens
17 April 2009
The corruption scandal in Guangdong’s legal system has spread to Shenzhen, with two senior Communist Party officials in charge of anti-graft issues being detained, sources said yesterday.
Shenzhen media and government sources revealed that anti-graft officers from Beijing had taken into custody two officials from the city’s Discipline Inspection Commission last weekend. The officials have not been named.
Their detention occurred almost at the same time as officials from the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection detained Guangdong’s top political adviser Chen Shaoji in Guangzhou, and former head of the Guangdong anti-graft operation Wang Huayuan, who is now in Zhejiang.
The commission confirmed yesterday that Mr. Chen and Mr. Wang were under investigation for severely violating party discipline, Xinhua reported.
One of the Shenzhen sources said it was believed the two detained Shenzhen officials were related to Mr. Wang’s case because they had been his subordinates when he was in Guangdong,
The source said it remained unclear how many Guangdong officials had been involved in the cases of Mr. Chen and Mr. Wang, which many local officials and scholars considered the most significant in Guangdong in at least 30 years.
He said Mr. Chen was the first detained provincial-level leader in Guangdong, and Mr. Wang was the first head of a provincial anti-corruption operation being put under shuanggui, a form of party discipline before they are turned over to prosecutors.
Some official sources and Guangdong scholars had estimated the anti-corruption storm would continue in the province and might involve more local officials in the legal system or other government departments.
But other sources close to provincial-level officials said it was too early to make such a statement.
“If Chen and Wang are the targets of the storm, I think this round of anti-corruption investigation is going to the end,” one police source said. “If Beijing wants some other targets more important than Chen and Wang, I believe they will have enough evidence to get a confession.”
Guangdong official sources said they believed the detention of these top officials had to be part of a well-prepared plan, as both had been in charge of the province’s legal system for a long time.
Before being transferred to Zhejiang in late 2006, Mr. Wang, now 59, had been the top corruption fighter in the province for about eight years.
Mr. Chen, a 63-year-old Guangdong native, has built his career in the city’s Public Security Department, beginning in 1970.
In 1991, Mr. Chen became the province’s chief police officer. He was the top official of the commission of politics and law in the Guangdong committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference between 1998 and 2004.
But Liang Guoju, a long-time subordinate of Mr. Chen in the Guangdong bureau, had been repeatedly mentioned as his successor in provincial legal circles, which the sources said was the way Mr. Chen could protect himself after leaving the position. Liang Weifa, the former director of Guangdong’s trade department and the party boss of Heyuan, was chosen to replace Liang Guoju in mid-2007.
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