The Shanghai pension scandal was a
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...
case in
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
.
Ultimately, former Shanghai party chief
Chen Liangyu was implicated in the scandal and removed from office. Other high-ranking officials were also implicated such as
Zhu Junyi
Zhu Junyi (; born February 1951 in Haining, Zhejiang) was a government official in Shanghai, China. Prior to his arrest during an investigation into political corruption, corruption in Shanghai in 2006, he had been in charge of the Shanghai Munici ...
,
Qin Yu,
Yu Zhifei, and
Chen Chaoxian. Politburo Standing Committee member and Vice-Premier
Huang Ju and his wife
Yu Huiwen were also believed to be involved, but were never officially exposed as being part of the scandal.
Allegations
Shanghai's social security fund manages 10 billion
yuan in assets. The allegations were that about a third of public funds was diverted into real estate and road investment projects.
[
]
Dismissals
Chen Liangyu, the Shanghai Party Chief and Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...
member was sacked from the party in 2006, becoming the most senior party member to be dismissed in a decade.[China's F1 track chief dismissed]
''BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
'', 2007-05-21 He was accused of illicitly investing billions of yuan of pension fund money in real estate, aiding illegal businesses, shielding corrupt colleagues, and abusing his position to benefit family members.[ On April 11, 2008, Chen, 61, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for accepting $340,000 in bribes and abusing power, specifically, for ]stock manipulation
In economics and finance, market manipulation occurs when someone intentionally alters the supply or demand of a security to influence its price. This can involve spreading misleading information, executing misleading trades, or manipulating ...
, financial fraud and his role in the city pension fund scandal, at the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, Tianjin
Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
. nytimes.com, Former Party Boss in China Gets 18 Years
/ref>
Also sacked and expelled from the Communist Party were:
* Yu Zhifei, the manager of Shanghai's Formula 1 racing track.
* Chen Chaoxian, a city district chief[Four officials on graft charges]
''News 24'', 2007-05-21
* Ling Baoheng, the director of the Shanghai Asset Supervision Board
* Yin Guoyuan, deputy director of the Shanghai housing, land and resources administration
All those sacked will face criminal charges.[
]
Political context
Chen was seen as a senior member of the Shanghai clique who worked with former CPC General secretary, President Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Mil ...
and were seen as rivals to then CPC General secretary, President Hu Jintao and then Premier Wen Jiabao. The dismissals were seen as strengthening the authority of Hu and Wen within the party and weakening the Jiang loyalists. Another significant result of Chen Liangyu's downfall was the rise of Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...
, who was transferred to Shanghai from Zhejiang to take over the position of Party Secretary in March 2007. Later in the same year, Xi entered the Politburo Standing Committee and became the successor of Hu Jintao.[Top Shanghai Leader Removed From Office]
''ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
'', 2006-09-25
Popular culture
A thinly veiled reference to this scandal is a major plot element of the Chinese TV drama '' Dwelling Narrowness''.
See also
* Corruption in the People's Republic of China
References
{{Reflist
Politics of the People's Republic of China
Corruption in China
Scandals in China
2006 in Shanghai
2006 crimes in China