Chinese officials recently arrested the former chairman of the Bank of China, Liu Liange, over corruption charges, including allegations of bribery and illegal loan issuance. The charges were filed by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), China’s highest prosecution and investigatory agency, as reported by the official State news agency Xinhua. Liu led the state-owned bank from 2019 until March of this year.
According to a statement viewed on ChinaDaily.com, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission, the country’s top anti-corruption authorities, expelled Liu from the Chinese Communist Party on October 7 due to these allegations. The charges arose from accusations that Liu exploited his position to seek benefits for others in finance and project collaboration, accepting large quantities of money and gifts in return, as well as interfering in credit initiatives to issue illegal loans.
In addition to Liu, officials dismissed former deputy head of the General Administration of Sport of China, Du Zhaocai, and former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress, Yin Meigen, on similar allegations. As reported by ChinaDaily.com, the CCDI and National Supervisory Commission stated that Du resisted investigations and participated in bribery schemes, while Yin accepted bribes and meddled in market activities as well as law enforcement. Their cases have also been passed onto the SPP.
There is ongoing criticism that President Xi Jinping is using anti-corruption bodies, such as the CCDI and National Supervisory Commission, to purge perceived dissenters from positions of power. From its foundation in 2012 to 2018, a report by the Foreign Policy Research Institute found that corruption-related allegations were levelled against 1.5 million government officials.