BEIJING — Huang Qifan, the former mayor of Chongqing who earned the nickname "the roly-poly" for repeatedly surviving purges despite his closeness to Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing party chief and political rival of Chinese President Xi Jinping, has finally fallen. Three senior Chinese officials have received heavy prison sentences in the span of five days, signaling that the anti-corruption campaign is accelerating ahead of the fifth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party later this month.
China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced the previous day that Huang is under investigation on suspicion of serious violations of party discipline and the law, according to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao and other outlets on the 14th. It did not disclose specific allegations.
Huang, 74, is regarded as one of China's leading economic technocrats. He became vice mayor of Chongqing in 2001, overseeing state assets and financial affairs, and was promoted to mayor in 2010, serving until the end of 2016. During his tenure he attracted global companies including Hewlett-Packard and Foxconn, nurtured the electronics and information technology industry, and pushed to build an international freight rail network linking Europe and China. He is credited with playing a central role in Chongqing's double-digit economic growth over several years.
Huang worked alongside six party secretaries during his time in Chongqing. Two of them, Bo Xilai and Sun Zhengcai, were brought down in succession by power struggles and corruption cases, but Huang held on to his post, earning the nicknames "the roly-poly" and "the phoenix mayor." After stepping down as mayor in 2016, he served as deputy director of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress and remained active at economic forums until recently. On the 8th of last month, he delivered a keynote address at an international forum in Xiamen, Fujian province.
Huang's downfall has again put Chongqing's political circles on edge. In March, Hu Henghua, the sitting mayor, came under investigation on corruption allegations, and now a former mayor has become a target as well. Analysts are divided over the reason for the investigation, with some suggesting authorities are revisiting wrongdoing from his years in Chongqing and others pointing to possible involvement in a more recent corruption case.
Beijing's anti-corruption drive has become more pronounced in recent weeks. In the five days beginning on the 8th, after the National Day holiday ended, three senior officials managed directly by the central leadership were sentenced to 12 to 14 years in prison on bribery charges. Only six senior officials received first-instance verdicts during the whole of last month, underscoring how concentrated the rulings have been.
Hu Youtao, a former vice governor of Jiangxi province, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking 43.64 million yuan (about 9 billion won) in bribes over 28 years. Zhou Xianwang, the former mayor of Wuhan who was criticized for the city's inadequate initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak, was sentenced to 14 years, and Xu Chuanzhi, a former deputy minister-level inspector with the central inspection teams, received 12 years.
Analysts say authorities are seeking to highlight anti-corruption results ahead of the fifth plenum, where strict party governance is set to be a main agenda item. Hung Yao-nan, director of the Center for Cross-Strait Relations at Tamkang University in Taiwan, said of Huang's downfall that it stems "not from what he has said now, but from old problems of the past," adding that "past problems can be dug up again at any time and brought to account."