The Shanghai Social Security Fund scandal 1 has led to the dismissal of the former Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu and currently several high ranking Shanghai officials are also under investigation.
The special police force is now guarding Shanghai’s transportation port in order to prevent involved officials fleeing from Shanghai.
A Mainland scholar Sun Wenguang believes the removal of Chen Liangyu is a good thing and it is the beginning of an account clearing with Jiang Zemin’s faction. But Shanghai renowned human rights attorney Zheng Enchong is not optimistic about the results of the corruption problem related to Chen.
According to the regime’s mouthpiece Xinhua News Net, officials above the district and bureau level must hand in their passport and Hong Kong and Macau travel permit for centralized management, officials of deputy mayor level and above need permit from the party’s Central Discipline Committee and Central Organization Department before they could leave the country.
It is said, recently, three overseas observation delegation of the Shanghai government have been cancelled. Some reports also said that, at present, many CCP Central Committee investigation groups have arrived in Shanghai, including groups from Central Discipline Committee, to launch various investigation works. The investigation groups include the Central Discipline Commission, CCP Central Committee Office, State Council Office, Ministry of Supervision and National Audit Office.
Gan Yisheng, the Standing Member of the CCP Central Discipline Committee said that the scandal could still involve some other people but the authority would carry out investigations to the end and further notice would be released.
Renowned Shanghai human rights attorney Zheng Enchong said that Chen Liangyu deserves the punishment but if the CCP’s system does not change, the problem of corruption could not be really solved. Zheng has been devoted to exposing the corruption of the Shanghai faction, including current Standing Member of the Central Politburo Huang Ju, Chen Liangyu and current Shanghai mayor Han Zheng etc. Zheng commented, “If this is merely a battle amongst various factions within the party and a preparation for the 17th Party Congress next year, this kind of result could hardly be beneficial to the people.”
Zheng also pointed out that, the present exposed issue only involved the Social Security Fund, but the biggest corruption problem in Shanghai was the forced house demolishing and relocation. Regarding this, both Chen Liangyu and his replacement Han Zheng (current Shanghai Mayor) could not shake the responsibility.
Zheng also said, the dismissal of Chen Liangyu is not Hu and Wen’s credit, it owes credit to the unyielding appeals of dismantled and relocated household over the last ten years: “It is the result of Shanghai residents’ courage and their brave appeal over the last ten years, they are not afraid of death, not afraid of being killed, not afraid to sacrifice with bloodshed. Many have sacrificed with bloodshed, many have been sent to labor camps, outsiders do not know about these things. Therefore, we want to gradually make public the names of the deaths and wounded in this course.”
Regarding the news of Chen Liangyu’s dismissal, Shandong University Professor Sun Wenguang said that, many Mainland scholars were very happy, indicating that some people in the CCP wanted to strike down the power of Jiang’s faction and also to set the foundation for clearing accounts with Jiang Zemin in the future.
Sun thought that, the down fall of Jiang’s faction–the darkest force inside the CCP was a phase victory for China’s civil human rights protection activities.
(1) The Shanghai Social Security Fund Scandal refers to the illegal loan of 3.2 billion Yuan (about US$400 million) from Shanghai’s social security fund. The scandal led to the dismissal of former Shanghai Social Security Bureau Director Zhu Junyi and high ranking officials such as Shanghai Electric Group Executive Director Wang Chengming and Director Han Guozhang etc.
