What’s new: Chen Jixing, once the finance chief of China’s richest province of Guangdong, is being investigated by the country’s top graft buster amid an ongoing crackdown to root out corruption in the $60 trillion financial system.
The 68-year-old retired official is suspected of “serious violations of (Communist Party) discipline and law, a common euphemism for corruption, according to a statement published Sunday by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Chen stepped down from his position as deputy head of the Guangdong provincial legislature in 2018.
The background: A native of Guangzhou, capital of the southern province, Chen spent over half of his 40-plus-year career at the Department of Finance of Guangdong Province, where he worked his way up from a member of the budget office in 1977 to director and party secretary in 1998.
Chen’s fall from grace comes as China stepped up its anti-graft campaign over the past few years, with numerous officials, including central bankers and other financial regulators, getting swept up in the effort.
In addition to Chen, the campaign has ensnared five others who worked in the finance department of Guangdong, the country’s richest province in terms of GDP. Zeng Zhiquan, Chen’s former subordinate who served as the province’s finance chief from 2010 to 2017, was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for taking bribes. Two of Guangdong’s ex-deputy finance directors who crossed paths with Zeng, Wei Jinfeng and Lin Chuxin, have also been expelled from the party and removed from public office for alleged corruption.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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