Ex-chairman of China Everbright Group expelled from Communist Party
By Michelle Toh, CNN
Hong Kong (CNN) — Another former top business leader in China has been kicked out of the Chinese Communist Party, showing how a crackdown on the country’s financial sector is continuing into the new year.
Tang Shuangning, the ex-chairman and party chief of the China Everbright Group, has been expelled over “serious violations of disciplines and laws,” the country’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission jointly announced in a statement Saturday.
The CCDI, which serves as China’s top anti-corruption watchdog, said an investigation had found that Tang had “abandoned his duties,” failed to act in diffusing financial risks and took bribes.
He illegally accepted funds and gifts, such as valuable calligraphy and paintings, and took advantage of his position to “seek profits” from people he helped to get job promotions, according to the statement.
Tang even illegally accepted huge amounts of property and “butler-style services,” the agencies said.
He also brought books into China deemed to have “serious political issues,” the authorities said. China Everbright Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tang’s suspected crimes will be referred to prosecutors for further review and potential prosecution, while the income and property he illegally received will be confiscated or transferred, according to the statement.
Tang was one of China’s most influential business leaders in his role as chairman from 2007 to 2017 at China Everbright, one of the country’s oldest and largest state-owned financial conglomerates. He also previously served as vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).
He is one of the latest formerly high-flying executives to run afoul of authorities in China — and the second from China Everbright to be dismissed from the party in recent months.
Last April, Li Xiaopeng, another former chairman of China Everbright who had succeeded Tang, was put under investigation after being suspected of “serious violations of law and discipline,” the CCDI said.
In October, Li was expelled from the Communist Party and arrested for allegedly taking bribes, according to Xinhua.
On Monday, the China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group said a senior executive had been taken into custody.
In a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company, which is the electric vehicle unit of troubled property giant Evergrande, said its vice chairman, Liu Yongzhuo, had been detained “on suspicion of illegal crimes.” It did not provide any details, and its shares plunged 7% after it was suspended from trading.
Altogether last year, the commission investigated more than a dozen senior executives at the country’s most powerful financial institutions, according to a previous CNN analysis of statements posted on the CCDI’s website.
They included big names at the very top of China’s financial system, such as Liu Liange, former chairman of state-owned Bank of China, and Wang Bin, former head of state-owned China Life Insurance.
Other executives to come under scrutiny by the CCDI include Bao Fan, a star investment banker and tech dealmaker, who went missing last February and was later reported by Chinese state media to be in the custody of the anti-graft agency.
The investment firm he led, China Renaissance, has since named an interim replacement, appointing an acting chief executive in October.
Zhang Hongli, a former senior executive at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), was also the subject of a CCDI probe in November.
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— CNN’s Wayne Chang and Martha Zhou contributed to this report.
