{"id":233229,"date":"2021-08-23T17:05:35","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T00:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=233229"},"modified":"2022-09-09T18:11:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T01:11:53","slug":"hangzhou-party-boss-investigated-for-corruption-officials-warned-about-business-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2021\/08\/hangzhou-party-boss-investigated-for-corruption-officials-warned-about-business-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Hangzhou Party Boss Investigated For Corruption, Officials Warned About Business Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

An investigation into Hangzhou\u2019s Party chief by the CCP’s powerful internal anti-corruption watchdog may be tied to Alibaba\u2019s ongoing political woes. Over the weekend, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced it was looking into Zhou Jiangyong for \u201cserious violations of discipline,\u201d often a euphemism for corruption. Soon after, the CCDI said that 25,000 current and former Party officials in Zhejiang\u2019s provincial capital are performing \u201cself-examinations\u201d to straighten out \u201cconflicts of interest\u201d they might have with local businesses. None of the statements has been confirmed to directly implicate the Hangzhou-headquartered Alibaba, but speculation is rife due to Zhou\u2019s tight-knit relationship with the company. Xi\u2019s anti-corruption drive, now in its ninth year, is still in full swing\u2014netting cadres present, past, and passed<\/a>. At Bloomberg News, Shiyin Chen and Coco Liu reported on the rumors swirling about Zhou\u2019s stake<\/strong><\/a> in Jack Ma-controlled Ant Financial\u2019s abruptly cancelled IPO<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Social media accounts wrote over the weekend that Zhou\u2019s family bought up shares in a fintech company ahead of its initial public offering in November, before the listing plans were scrapped, according to an article from Chnfund that was published in the Paper, part of the state-backed Shanghai United Media Group. The postings, which didn\u2019t name the company, have since been deleted, according to the article.<\/p>\n

Ant Group on Sunday denied that certain individuals purchased shares of the company ahead of its planned IPO last year, as \u201crecent online rumors\u201d had suggested. The firm didn\u2019t elaborate on who it was referring to, adding that it had strictly adhered to all relevant laws and regulations through the listing process. Regulators called an abrupt halt to Ant\u2019s record $35 billion IPO days before its debut last year, after its founder publicly criticized financial regulators.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] That outsized influence in Hangzhou has fostered a strong relationship with the local government. In 2019, Ma was presented with a \u201cMeritorious Hangzhou citizen\u201d award by none other than Zhou, the local party boss, who feted the billionaire tycoon for his contributions to the city\u2019s economic and social development, according to government statements at the time. Local media have also published photos of Zhou attending Alibaba\u2019s annual Singles\u2019 Day shopping festival in 2019. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jack Ma has fallen out of favor with Chinese authorities, as have others among China\u2019s fast-rising tech billionaires<\/a>. A recent Wall Street Journal profile of Ma<\/a> reported that Xi Jinping\u2019s displeasure with the Alibaba founder was evident by 2015, when the latter spoke for much longer than the three minutes allotted to him during a Seattle meeting with the Chinese president, who was in the United States for a state visit. In 2020, Xi Jinping personally stopped Ant Group\u2019s IPO<\/a>. Alibaba has also become a focus of China\u2019s #MeToo movement<\/a> after a senior manager sexually assaulted his subordinate after binge drinking during a client dinner. In a statement issued in relation to the case<\/a>, the CCDI said \u201cunder-the-table rules\u201d like forced drinking should be replaced with \u201ccorrect values.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems that all Hangzhou officials are under scrutiny for their ties to local businesses such as Alibaba. At The Financial Times, Tom Mitchell and Sun Yu noted a report, republished by the CCDI, that 25,000 local officials are examining their relationships with unnamed local businesses<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The watchdog said 25,000 local officials and their family members were the focus of \u201cself-examination and self-correction\u201d reviews focused on their relationships with local businesses, including \u201cillegal borrowing\u201d. This will include probing those who have retired within the past three years.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] The CCDI added that Hangzhou officials would be held accountable for the business activities of their relatives, even if they were not personally involved.<\/p>\n

Under a recent revamp of party and government rules, senior officials are not allowed to regulate industries in which companies managed by their spouses or children also operate. But they can do so if their immediate family members serve in lower level positions or act as corporate \u201cadvisers\u201d. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At The South China Morning Post, Cissy Zhou reported that another Zhejiang official, once deputy Party secretary of Hangzhou, has \u201csurrendered\u201d for likely corruption<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The investigation into Zhou came two days after another official in the province came under a cloud.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Ma Xiaohui, former party secretary of Huzhou \u201cvoluntarily surrendered\u201d for suspected \u201cserious violations of discipline and law\u201d, according to state media.<\/p>\n

Between 2015 to 2018, Ma was the vice mayor and the deputy party secretary of Hangzhou. Before that, he was the deputy party secretary of Wenzhou. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

University of Michigan scholar Yuen Yuen Ang has argued that endemic corruption is a by-product of China\u2019s \u201cGilded Age,\u201d borrowing a term from America\u2019s late 19th century history, in an essay for Foreign Affairs<\/a>. Ang argued that Xi, like the American Progressives of yesteryear, hopes to end crony capitalism in China but, unlike said reformers, has destroyed grassroots efforts at taming graft in favor of ever more centralization of personal power. She concluded her assessment with a quote from an anonymous Chinese official, \u201cIt\u2019s like riding a bike. The tighter you grip the handles, the harder it is to balance.\u201d An analyst at Germany\u2019s Mercator Institute for China Studies told The Washington Post<\/a> that Xi\u2019s new push for wealth redistribution<\/a> in the name of \u201ccommon prosperity,\u201d which is being piloted in Hangzhou, may also be a factor in the campaign. Xi has used the term 65 times this year to date<\/a>, already doubling his total use of the phrase in 2020, a rhetorical indication of the importance Xi places on the reforms he hopes to push through. One such reform just passed by the Standing Committee of the National People\u2019s Congress is the introduction of new guidelines for inspectors at the National Supervisory Commission<\/strong><\/a>, an anti-corruption super-agency designed to work in parallel with the CCDI. From Jack Lau at The South China Morning Post:<\/p>\n

[\u2026] The law that inspectors must have a clean record and their spouses must not be based outside mainland China \u2013 a provision that has previously been applied to state prosecutors, judges, police and senior civil servants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already knew that there would be tighter scrutiny and demands for officials to report on family members overseas,\u201d said Zhu Jiangnan, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong\u2019s politics and public administration department .<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Inspectors attached to government ministries used to be sent by the party\u2019s central discipline and inspection committee, [Zhu] said, but now the preference is for officials with experience of the ministry\u2019s portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a way that the government hopes to enhance the professional supervision [of] those different policy domains. They probably realise that only those who understand the professional domains can supervise corruption and disciplinary violations in the relevant field,\u201d [Zhu] said. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Second, while there are parallels, there are also obvious differences between 21st century China's Gilded Age and 19th century US Gilded Age <\/p>\n

America in the 19th century fought graft and inequality by expanding democracy & empowering civil society <\/p>\n

Xi's is through commands pic.twitter.com\/3Dy3GqWKEz<\/a><\/p>\n

— Yuen Yuen Ang (@yuenyuenang) August 21, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n