What signal did it send? Playing "tiger" on weekends! More than ten members of the "Everbright Group" have been arrested for supervision | Party Secretary | Everbright
Playing the tiger non-stop on weekends. On the 15th, the Chinese government announced that Tang Shuangning, former Party Secretary and Chairman of China Everbright Group Corporation, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission. Some comments suggest that the official crackdown on financial corruption indicates a determination to continue to crack down heavily on it.
Since 2021, many members of the "Everbright Group" have fallen from grace
Tang Shuangning's "Everbright" career lasted for 10 years, including his tenure as Chairman and Party Secretary of China Everbright Corporation in June 2007 and his retirement in December 2017. Li Xiaopeng, who succeeded him as the Party Secretary and Chairman of China Everbright Group Corporation at the end of 2017, was also investigated after retirement.
According to incomplete statistics, including these two "tigers", more than ten executives from the "Everbright Group" have been dismissed since 2021. Among them, Chen Shuang, former Party Secretary and CEO of China Everbright Holdings Limited, and Zhang Huayu, former Deputy Party Secretary and Vice President of China Everbright Bank, were all investigated after resigning a few years ago.
Zhou Jiangtao, former Party Secretary and President of China Everbright Bank Nanning Branch, who has been expelled from the Party and held public office, fell from his position. He was accused of "illegally approving large loans and causing significant losses", "taking advantage of his position to embezzle public funds, suspected of corruption and crime", and so on.
It is worth noting that, with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the first round of inspections by the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted a "look back" inspection of the Party Committee of China Everbright Group Co., Ltd. According to the arrangement, the central inspection team will work at Everbright Group for about two and a half months, and the inspection team's acceptance of petitions will end on June 20th of this year.
On June 8th, Everbright Group held a warning education conference for all employees and the kickoff meeting for the 2023 Age and Law Education Month. At the meeting, several serious illegal and disciplinary cases investigated and dealt with by the group in recent times were reported, and it was pointed out that the anti-corruption situation in the group system is still severe and complex, and the task of "clearing the stock and curbing the increase" of corruption cases is heavy.
Several officials who have been working in the financial field for a long time have been investigated
Since the beginning of this year, several central management cadres who have been working in the financial field for a long time have been investigated one after another. Among them, Liu Liange, former Party Secretary and Chairman of Bank of China, became the first former "leader" of a centrally managed financial enterprise to fall from power after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He worked at the People's Bank of China for nearly 20 years and at the Export Import Bank of China for over 11 years before being transferred to Bank of China in June 2018.
In May, it was officially announced that Zhou Qingyu, former member of the Party Committee and Vice President of the China Development Bank, was investigated. He worked at Agricultural Bank of China for nearly 10 years and was transferred to China Development Bank in 2011. Zhu Congjiu, a member of the Party Group and Vice Chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who was also investigated in May, has been working in the securities regulatory system for nearly 20 years.
Since the beginning of this year, there have also been many Party and state organs, state-owned enterprises, and financial unit cadres under investigation within the financial system. Just this month, the official reported that Zhang Jianjun, former Party Secretary and President of the Shenzhen Central Branch of the People's Bank of China, was investigated.
Qu Jishan, the leader of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at the People's Bank of China, previously wrote that we should "work together to promote the 'three non corruption' policies, and work together, in the same direction, and comprehensively, to fight a tough and long-lasting battle against corruption in the financial sector.". He stated that maintaining an overwhelming force against financial corruption always requires first and foremost investigating cases and punishing corruption.
Observers have stated that according to the party discipline and government disciplinary notices issued to several fallen bank executives, there is a high incidence of corruption in the credit approval process. This is due to both personal subjective factors, as well as factors such as ineffective implementation of subject responsibility and supervisory responsibility, as well as institutional and environmental factors.
Regarding the institutional loopholes, integrity risks, and weak links in supervision exposed by corruption cases, Fan Dazhi, the head of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at the China Securities Regulatory Commission, wrote that it is necessary to "strengthen supervision and management of key positions and personnel, increase supervision and inspection of high-risk public power operations such as approval, supervision, and information system procurement, continuously enhance transparency, and eradicate the soil conditions for corruption from the source.".
Coordinated promotion of financial anti-corruption and risk prevention and control
The issue of corruption in the financial sector touches upon financial risks and can have a ripple effect. The Chinese Journal of Discipline Inspection and Supervision recently published an article titled "Eliminating Hidden Dangers, Coordinating the Promotion of Financial Anti Corruption and Risk Prevention and Control", introducing the experience and practices of Jiangxi.
It is known that during the investigation and handling of a series of corruption cases by Chen Xiaoming, former Party Secretary and Chairman of Jiangxi Bank, the Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision urged the Party Committee of Jiangxi Bank to take on the main responsibility of promoting reform through cases and stopping losses to recover losses. Therefore, the bank focuses on solving the problems of large loans and concentrated loans, recovering funds or increasing collateral to mitigate risks, stopping losses and recovering losses, and maintaining the bottom line of avoiding systemic risks and maintaining financial stability.
Professor Peng Xinlin from the School of Law at Beijing Normal University stated that disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies should focus on their functional responsibilities, and do a good job in coordinating financial anti-corruption and preventing financial risks. At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively summarize the anti-corruption experience in the financial field and elevate these experiences to the institutional level.
In Qu Jishan's view, it is necessary to coordinate financial risk prevention and financial anti-corruption, closely monitor the corruption issues behind risks, resolutely cut off the link between power and capital, and resolutely break down the "interest chain" and "relationship network" of power and money transactions.
Scholars such as Zhuang Deshui, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Clean Governance at Peking University, also remind that finance belongs to a typical field of power concentration, capital intensity, and resource enrichment, which can easily breed corruption problems through the "revolving door" of politics and commerce. For this type of implicit corruption, it is necessary to crack down on it immediately and prevent incremental corruption. At the same time, it is necessary to improve institutional construction and promote the "three non corruption" as a whole.