Former Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou, Sun Zhigang, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting over 800 million yuan in bribes. Officials claimed he had made “significant contributions” and after the reprieve period was reduced to life imprisonment upon completion of the two years.
According to news from CCTV, on October 29, 2024, the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin announced the bribery case of Sun Zhigang, former Party Secretary of Guizhou Province, sentencing him to death with a two-year reprieve and confiscation of all personal assets for the bribery charge. After the two-year reprieve period for the death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, he is not eligible for commutation or parole.
Sun Zhigang stood trial on August 14, charged with accepting over 813 million yuan in bribes over 21 years.
He was accused of receiving illegal money directly or through others during his tenure as a member of the Hubei Provincial Committee, Secretary-General, Deputy Governor of Anhui Province, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Deputy Secretary and Governor of Guizhou Province, Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Committee, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial People’s Congress, and Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress, amounting to over 813 million yuan.
The Tianjin Second Intermediate People’s Court stated that Sun Zhigang should have been sentenced to death for his crimes, but due to unsuccessful attempts at crime and “significant contributions” after his arrest, he was given a lenient punishment.
In his early years as Deputy Director of the Economic Commission in Wuhan, Sun Zhigang worked under Wuhan’s Mayor Wu Guanzheng, who later rose to become a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee and Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. It is said that Sun Zhigang was initially favored by Wu Guanzheng. When in 2001, Yu Zhengsheng was “parachuted” in as the Secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, Wu Guanzheng recommended Sun Zhigang to Yu Zhengsheng. The following year, Sun, who was then the Secretary of the Yichang Municipal Committee, was promoted to the Provincial Committee and transferred to work as Secretary-General of the Provincial Committee under Yu Zhengsheng, serving as a “major steward” for 4 years, making Sun seen as an associate of Yu Zhengsheng.
After being transferred to Anhui in 2006 to serve as a member of the Provincial Committee and Executive Deputy Governor, Sun Zhigang reportedly had close ties with Li Keqiang, who was from Anhui and serving as the Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Committee at the time. When Li Keqiang was promoted to the Executive Vice Premier of the State Council, he oversaw healthcare reform from 2008 to 2013. Sun Zhigang was transferred to Beijing in 2010 to serve as the head of the State Council’s Office for Healthcare Reform, which was initially under the National Development and Reform Commission. After Li Keqiang became Premier, the Office for Healthcare Reform was relocated to the National Health and Family Planning Commission (predecessor of the National Health Commission), and Sun Zhigang continued to serve as the director of the healthcare reform office, being promoted from a deputy ministerial level to a full ministerial level.
Following a lack of progress in the healthcare reform under the Chinese Communist Party, Sun Zhigang was “parachuted” into Guizhou in 2015 to serve as the Governor. He worked alongside the then Party Secretary of Guizhou, Chen Miner. A year and a half later, Chen Miner was transferred to be the Party Secretary of Chongqing, and Sun Zhigang took over as the Party Secretary of Guizhou. By December 2020, Sun Zhigang was appointed Vice Chairman of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress, stepping down in March 2023.
It is worth noting that from 2015 to 2016, Zhao Leji was the Minister of the Organization Department of the Communist Party, but the actual handling of personnel matters was overseen by the Executive Deputy Minister and Xi Jinping’s university classmate, Chen Xi. After Zhao Leji was promoted to Political Bureau Standing Committee member in 2017, Chen Xi was appointed as the Minister of the Organization Department.