Former Dongguan Municipal Party Secretary Xu Jianhua was investigated after serving for 8 years, following the life imprisonment sentence of his predecessor Liu Zhigeng.
According to the report by the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on November 20th, Xu Jianhua, the former Party secretary of Dongguan City and former Director of the Municipal People’s Congress, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law. He is currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
Xu Jianhua stepped down from his position as the Party secretary of Dongguan City 8 years ago. His public resume indicates that he was born in Le Ping, Jiangxi Province in September 1958. He started working in October 1975 and had a long career in Shaoguan City. In 1992, Xu Jianhua was promoted to Director of the Shaoguan City Planning Commission, became the Deputy Mayor in 1997, Mayor in 2001, and finally the Party secretary of Shaoguan City in 2006.
From November 2010 to December 2011, Xu Jianhua briefly served as the Party secretary and director of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission.
In December 2011, Xu Jianhua was transferred to Dongguan City and appointed as the Party secretary of the municipal committee, Party secretary of the Municipal People’s Congress, and the first secretary of the Dongguan Military Sub-district Committee.
During Xu Jianhua’s tenure, in February 2014, some hotels in Dongguan were reported to be involved in illicit activities, prompting a large-scale “anti-vice campaign” in response to the public outcry.
In April 2016, Xu Jianhua stepped down as the Party secretary of Dongguan City, and in January 2017, he also relinquished his position as the Director of the Municipal People’s Congress and Party secretary.
It was reported by “Jiemian News” that Xu Jianhua retired at the age of less than 59, which is uncommon among senior officials. Since Dongguan was upgraded to a prefecture-level city in 1988, only Xu Jianhua and one other person among the former Party secretaries did not continue to advance to the deputy ministerial level.
In recent years, several Dongguan municipal officials have been investigated or disciplined, including Xu Jianhua’s predecessor, Liu Zhigeng.
After Xu Jianhua took over as Dongguan Municipal Party Secretary from Liu Zhigeng, the latter was promoted to Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province but was subsequently investigated during his tenure in 2016. In May 2017, Liu Zhigeng was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes amounting to over 98.17 million yuan.
Li Yuquan, who served as Dongguan Mayor alongside Liu Zhigeng and later as the Chairman of the Dongguan Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) following Xu Jianhua’s appointment as Party secretary, was also investigated in August this year.
Xu Jianhua’s direct subordinate, Zhen Ruichao, the Minister of the Organization Department of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee, was investigated in January this year. Luo Junwen, former Director of the Dongguan Municipal Finance Bureau, was investigated in February this year. And Zhong Ganquan, former Minister of the United Front Work Department of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee, was investigated in September this year while serving as Vice Chairman of the CPPCC in the city.