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Sun Zhengcai
孙政才
Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing
In office
November 2012 – July 2017
DeputyHuang QifanZhang Guoqing (mayor)
Zhang Guoqing→Tang Liangzhi (zhuanzhi)
Preceded byZhang Dejiang
Succeeded byChen Min'er
Communist Party Secretary of Jilin Province
In office
November 2009 – November 2012
Preceded byWang Min
Succeeded byWang Rulin
Minister of Agriculture of China
In office
December 2006 – December 2009
PremierWen Jiabao
Preceded byDu Qinglin
Succeeded byHan Changfu
Personal details
BornSeptember 1963 (age 61)
Rongcheng, Shandong
Political partyCommunist Party of China (expelled)
Alma materQingdao Agricultural University
China Agricultural University

Template:Chinese name

Sun Zhengcai
Simplified Chinese孙政才
Traditional Chinese孫政才
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSūn Zhèngcái

Sun Zhengcai (Chinese: 孙政才; born September 1963) is a former Chinese politician and senior regional official. From 2012 to 2017, Sun served as the Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing, an interior municipality. He has also been a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China since 2012. Prior to that, he served as the Party Secretary of Jilin province, and Minister of Agriculture of China.

Sun was abruptly removed from office in July 2017. Shortly after losing his post in Chongqing, Sun was put under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). The CCDI accused him of political and criminal wrongdoing, and he was expelled from the Communist Party of China. Sun was the youngest member of the 18th Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and the fourth sitting Politburo member to be subject to investigation since 1990. Prior to his fall from grace, Sun was once considered to be a leading candidate for a top leadership position in the "6th Generation of Chinese leadership".

Early career

Sun was born to an ordinary family of farmers in a village located near the city of Rongcheng, Shandong province in September 1963. In 1980, Sun was admitted to the Laiyang Agricultural College (now Qingdao Agricultural University). After obtaining a bachelor's degree, he pursued post-graduate work at the Beijing Agriculture and Forestry Institute and the China Agricultural University, where he obtained master's degrees in agronomy. After completing his academic work, he remained at the institute to conduct further research and eventually obtained positions as an administrator, rising to become executive vice president of the institute, in charge of its day-to-day work.

Sun joined the Communist Party of China in July 1988. In 1997, he was named governor and Deputy Communist Party Secretary of Shunyi County in rural Beijing. Shunyi was then converted from a county to an urban district; Sun continued to serve as district governor. In February 2002, he became the Party Secretary of the Shunyi District. Shortly thereafter, in May 2002, Sun unexpectedly defeated then municipal propaganda department head Jiang Xiaoyu in a municipal party committee election to earn a seat on the municipal Party Standing Committee, ascending to sub-provincial ranks at the mere age of 39. He was elevated to become secretary-general of the Beijing party organization from 2002 to 2006, in December 2006, he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture as nominated by Premier Wen Jiabao. At age 43, Sun was one of the youngest State Council ministers at the time.

Jilin and Chongqing

In November 2009, Sun was named party secretary of Jilin province, in northeast China. In November 2012, after the 18th CPC National Congress, he was appointed a member of the Politburo and replaced Zhang Dejiang as party chief of Chongqing. The post in Chongqing had emerged as one of the most important regional offices in China, and Sun's assuming the reins in the interior municipality signaled that he was likely destined for even higher office. It also demonstrated the trust that the central leadership placed in Sun, as Chongqing had only monthly earlier weathered a political storm with the attempted defection of police chief Wang Lijun and the ouster of party chief Bo Xilai. Since the 1990s, regional leadership tenures were seen as important stepping stones to eventual national leadership.

It is not clear if Sun had any strong backing from former political heavyweights prior to his ascendancy to the Politburo; more likely, he was a consensus candidate whose loyalties crossed factional lines. It has been suggested that Jia Qinglin or Wen Jiabao may have served as Sun's advocate for promotion; the former because Sun worked for Beijing for much of his early political career, where Jia Qinglin was party secretary, and the latter because Wen and Sun both share a modest upbringing and common concerns for China's rural population.

In February 2017, inspection teams under the auspices of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection released a report announcing that Chongqing had not done enough to excise its political scene from the influence of Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun. It was the first blot on Sun in an otherwise steady term in Chongqing. In June 2017, Chongqing police chief He Ting was removed from office. He Ting and Sun were from the same area of Shandong province.

On July 15, 2017, party authorities announced that Sun was to be replaced in his post as party secretary of Chongqing by Chen Min'er, who was propaganda chief in Zhejiang when Xi Jinping was provincial party secretary there. The meeting to announce the event had been called abruptly, and Sun himself was not present at the handover ceremony; there was no mention of his record in Chongqing, either, as was customary for major transition meetings. Curiously, footage of Sun also appeared to be deliberately cut from Xinwen Lianbo coverage of the National Finance Work Conference - a meeting attended by all Politburo members. These signs were taken as a political death knell for Sun.

Investigation

On July 24, 2017, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Sun was undergoing investigation for violating party discipline. The announcement marked the first time that a sitting Politburo member was investigated by the CCDI since Xi Jinping assumed power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China at the 18th Party Congress. Before Sun, the last incumbent Politburo member subject to investigation was Bo Xilai (also then serving as Chongqing party secretary) in April 2012. Sun was the fourth sitting Politburo member investigated after 1990 - following Chen Xitong, Chen Liangyu, and Bo Xilai; all of them were party chiefs of direct-controlled municipalities.

Prior to his downfall, political observers generally saw Sun as being groomed for a higher leadership position due to his relative youth and the diversity of his experiences; he had even been characterized as a potential successor to Xi Jinping. The announcement of the investigation into Sun in July 2017 essentially put an end to his political career. Prior to the announcement of the investigation, Sun (along with Hu Chunhua) were seen by political observers as having almost certainly secured further advancement at the upcoming 19th Party Congress. Sun's departure seems to have upset the carefully calibrated conventions from previous administrations and made the congress more open-ended than would have otherwise been.

Following the announcement of Sun's investigation, numerous party organizations around the country rallied to declare their fealty to the decision - both reflecting the political gravity of the announcement and hearkening back to the political declarations five years earlier when a similar announcement was made about Bo Xilai. The jurisdictions that Sun had once led - Chongqing, Jilin, and the Ministry of Agriculture, were among the first to declare their "unwavering support" for the decision. Tianjin (under Li Hongzhong) and Guizhou (under Sun Zhigang) also held expanded meetings of party cadres to declare their support for the decision.

Expulsion

On September 29, 2017, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, with uncharacteristic zeal, announced the results of the disciplinary case initiated against Sun, merely two months after he was formally placed under investigation. The commission accused Sun of "wavering in his ideals and beliefs, turned his back against the party's mission and values... violated political discipline and political rules, violated the Eight-point Regulation, bathed in pomp and circumstance and belief in his special privileges; violated organizational discipline, practiced favoritism, and leaked organizational secrets... violated ethical discipline by using his authority to seek illicit gain for others; accepted huge amounts of valuable goods himself or through specially appointed persons, sought huge gains for the business activities of his relatives, received extravagant gifts."

Additionally, the commission said Sun became "highly bureaucratic, lazy and ineffective, led a degenerate and corrupt lifestyle, engaged in money-for-sex transactions." The communication did not explicitly say that Sun had accepted bribes, only that he is "suspected of criminal wrongdoing due to accepting valuables and used his power to seek gain for others," and that "the investigation also found other clues of criminal activity." It concluded that Sun had "deviated from the party spirit, violated the party's political expectations for senior leading officials, and failed the trust of the party center and the hopes of the people, led to great damage to the mission of the party and state, and caused extremely bad impact on society."

Sun was summarily expelled from the Communist Party of China and also formally expelled from the public service. He was a member of the 17th and 18th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China.

References

  1. ^ Cheng, Li. "Sun Zhengcai 孙政才: One of China's Top Future Leaders to Watch". Brookings John L Thornton China Centre. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 9 April 2013 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. "中共差额选举史 两内定政治局委员意外落选". Duowei. September 22, 2017.
  3. Cheng, Li. "Xi Jinping's Inner Circle" Part 5: The Mishu Cluster II" (PDF). Brookings Institution. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. 快讯:孙政才任农业部部长 [News: Zhengcai as Minister of Agriculture] (in Chinese). Xinhua News Agency. 29 December 2006. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. {{cite news}}: Invalid |script-title=: missing prefix (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Sun Zhengcai appointed Party chief of Chongqing". China Internet Information Center. Xinhua News Agency. 20 November 2012. Archived from the original on 20 November 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "High-flier in Chinese politics under investigation ahead of power reshuffle, sources say". South China Morning Post. 16 July 2017. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 16 July 2017 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. Li Peng , ed. (24 May 2017). "孙政才当选中共重庆市委书记 孙政才 市委书记 中共_新浪新闻" [Sun Zhengcai was elected secretary of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee] (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 22 July 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. Wong, Chun Han; Wei, Lingling (15 July 2017). "China Launches Probe Into Possible Xi Jinping Competitor". The Wall Street Journal. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  9. "Former China Chongqing party chief under probe". The Business Times. Singapore. 16 July 2017. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. "Curse of Chongqing? Probe into Sun Zhengcai evokes memories of Bo Xilai's dramatic fall". South China Morning Post. 18 July 2017. Archived from the original on 18 July 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. "A potential successor to Xi Jinping is purged". The Economist. 20 July 2017.
  12. Gao, Charlotte (July 25, 2017). "Chinese Politician Sun Zhengcai Is Under Party Investigation". The Diplomat.
  13. 孙政才被查 天津连夜召开加急会议拥护中央决定 [Overnight, an urgent meeting was held in Tianjin supporting the central party decision to investigate Sun Zhengcai]. Sina. 24 July 2017. Archived from the original on 25 July 2017. {{cite news}}: Invalid |script-title=: missing prefix (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ "中共中央决定给予孙政才开除党籍、开除公职处分". Caixin. September 29, 2017.
Party political offices
Preceded byZhang Dejiang Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing
2012 – 2017
Succeeded byChen Min'er
Preceded byWang Min Communist Party Secretary of Jilin
2009 – 2012
Succeeded byWang Rulin
Political offices
Preceded byDu Qinglin Minister of Agriculture of China
2006 – 2009
Succeeded byHan Changfu
Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping (2012–2017)
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Former member of the Politburo; Also a military official; Member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection or affiliates
; Committed suicide
For details on the civil service ranks of officials, please see Civil Service of the People's Republic of China;
Army generals listed have attained at least the rank of Major General, which usually enjoys the same administrative privileges as a civilian official of sub-provincial rank.
18th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (2012–2017)
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  2. Li Keqiang
  3. Zhang Dejiang
  4. Yu Zhengsheng
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