What’s new: Shang Liguang, the deputy party chief of North China’s Shanxi province, is being investigated for corruption by the country’s top anti-graft watchdog, the latest in a string of senior local government officials probed in the country’s sweeping graft crackdown.
Shang, who is also a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law” — a common euphemism for corruption, according to a Tuesday statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Shang was last seen in public when he attended a party theory study session in the province’s capital Taiyuan on Saturday, according to an article from local government-run newspaper Shanxi Daily.
The background: Shang spent the majority of his career in his native Hebei, including working for over two decades in the province’s discipline inspection commission. The 59-year-old also served as mayor of coastal city Qinhuangdao and party secretary of Cangzhou, a prefecture-level city.
In 2017, Shang was transferred to neighboring Shanxi and was appointed deputy party secretary of the province in 2021.
At least five other delegates to the current National Party Congress have fallen under graft probes since October 2022, including the former head of Shanghai’s top legislative body Dong Yunhu and former director of the National Religious Affairs Administration Cui Maohu.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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