On October 18, the official report stated that Tang Yijun, former chairman of the Jiangxi Province Political Consultative Conference, had been transferred to the procuratorate and a decision to arrest him had been made. Tang had served as the Minister of Justice of the CCP and was not elected as a member of the Central Committee at the 20th National Congress of the CCP in 2022.
The official WeChat account of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the CCP announced that the investigation into Tang Yijun, former Party Secretary and Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference, on suspicion of bribery had concluded, and the case had been transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution. Recently, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued an arrest decision against Tang Yijun for alleged bribery.
On April 2 of this year, the CCP announced that Tang Yijun was being investigated.
According to reports from Caixin, Tang Yijun was taken away on the afternoon of March 28. Around 3 p.m. that day, Tang Yijun was in a meeting at the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference when he was informed that there was a phone call for him. After leaving the meeting venue, he was directly taken to Beijing by personnel from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
An insider close to the Ministry of Justice said that during Tang Yijun’s tenure as Minister of Justice, he coincided with the outbreak of the epidemic and had almost “no presence”, “did not understand the law, and did not do much”, contrasting sharply with Fu Zhenghua who was causing chaos.
Caixin’s report also exposed Tang Yijun’s involvement with Evergrande. However, this report was subsequently deleted.
The report stated that Tang Yijun’s problems mainly occurred during his tenure in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and Liaoning. Tang Yijun served in Ningbo for 12 years before being transferred to Liaoning Province for just over 2 years in 2017.
On June 15, 2019, the Shenyang city government and Evergrande Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shenyang. Tang Yijun, then Deputy Party Secretary of the province and governor, met with Xu Jiayin, Chairman of the Board of Evergrande Group, and jointly attended the signing ceremony.
During Tang Yijun’s time in Liaoning Province for two and a half years, Evergrande obtained controlling rights of Shengjing Bank, the ninth largest bank in the country and the largest in Northeast China, and made significant investments in real estate projects in Liaoning. After Evergrande’s default, many projects were left unfinished. It is believed that it was with Tang Yijun’s help that Xu Jiayin was able to obtain control of Shengjing Bank. Tang Yijun also neglected his supervision over Shengjing Bank and its controlling shareholders, allowing Evergrande to operate unchecked in the bank, resulting in massive bad debts.
On October 7, Tang Yijun was expelled from the Party, and his qualification as a representative of the 20th National Congress was terminated.
According to the report, Tang Yijun resisted investigation; sought benefits and received goods for others in cadre selection and appointment work; used his authority to help relatives secure financial business contracts; improperly interfered in market economic activities and judicial activities; treated public power as a tool to seek personal gain, engaged in power and money transactions, and used his position to profit from others in business operations, company listings, job promotions, and case handling, illegally accepting huge sums of money.
At the age of 63, Tang Yijun has always been considered one of the members of the “Zhejiang New Army”.
Tang Yijun worked in Zhejiang for 40 years, serving as a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Secretary-General, Deputy Party Secretary and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Ningbo City, but he did not have direct contact with Xi Jinping. In February 2011, Tang Yijun was appointed Chairman of the Ningbo Municipal Political Consultative Conference, and was promoted to the Deputy Ministerial level, moving to the second line.
In 2016, four years after Xi Jinping came to power, Tang Yijun began to be reused, serving as Acting Mayor of Ningbo, a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of the Ningbo Municipal Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, and a candidate member of the 19th Central Committee of the CCP.
After October 2017, Tang Yijun was transferred to Deputy Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee and Governor of Liaoning, and was promoted to the full ministerial level.
In April 2020, Tang Yijun was appointed Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the CCP’s Ministry of Justice, and a member of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.
However, at the 20th National Congress of the CCP in 2022, Tang Yijun was not elected as a member of the Central Committee. In January 2023, Tang Yijun was demoted to Party Secretary and Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference. At that time, public opinion believed that Tang Yijun’s transition from a cabinet member to a provincial political consultative conference chairman was quite rare.
Tang Yijun joins Wu Aiying and Fu Zhenghua as another former Minister of Justice of the CCP who fell from power.