A top official from one of China’s big three policy banks as well as a veteran of the Bank of China has been placed under investigation by the Chinese authorities.
On the afternoon of 9 September the official website of the Chinese Communist Party Central Commission for Discipline announced via its official website that it had launched an investigation into He Xingxiang (何兴祥), vice-president of the China Development Bank (CDB) and a member of its party committee.
According to official data He was born in 1963 and is a veteran of the Chinese banking system, having previously served for many years with Bank of China (BOC).
While at BOC He held positions including vice-president of the Jilin province branch, president of the Hainan province branch and president of the Shandong province branch.
In October 2014 He was appointed the vice-president and party member of the Agricultural Development Bank of China, before assuming his role with CDB in April 2020.
The investigation into He comes after a long line of senior officials from CDB were busted for corruption earlier in the year.
In January Yang Degao (杨德高), vice-president of the Hubei province branch of CDB, and Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰), party secretary of the Shanxi branch, were both expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for malfeasance – in Wang’s case for accepting 85.52 million yuan in bribes. Hu Huaibang (胡怀邦), chair of the Shanxi branch of CDB, also received a prison sentence.
On 19 April CDB chief operations supervisor Zhang Maolong (章茂龙) was placed under investigation, while on 28 July Lin Fang (林放), party secretary and president of the Hubei province branch was toppled from his position, followed by Zhong Daohua (钟道华), a senior executive from the headquarters, on 13 August.
Hu’s case was particularly noteworthy, with reports indicating that he had been found guilty of “using his position of authority to seek profits via regulatory breaches in the area of the recruitment of cadres,” “colluding with illegal businessmen,” as well as “indulging family members in the extravagant amassing of wealth.”
