Head of China’s Tax Agency Removed Amid Ongoing Purges

The then Chinese tax commissioner Wang Jun on March 28, 2014. Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Wang Jun, the head of China’s top tax agency, has been removed amid widespread dismissals of top officials in both state-level and provincial tax systems.

Political observers suggest such replacements indicate factional turmoil within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the regime’s finances.

CCP mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency reported on Dec. 9 that the State Council removed Mr. Wang as director general of the State Administration of Taxation and replaced him with Hu Jinglin, former director general of National Health Security Bureau.

Mr. Wang was born in November 1958 in Shangqiu, Henan Province. After joining the CCP in 1977, he would go on to serve as the office director of the Ministry of Finance, assistant to the minister, and vice minister, among other positions.

Mr. Wang has been the head of China’s highest tax authority since his promotion in March 2013. His tenure overlapped Li Keqiang’s premiership from 2013 to 2023. Mr. Wang was also an alumnus of Li Keqiang, as they both graduated from Peking University.

Li Keqiang died on Oct.27 due to “a sudden heart attack,” as announced in the official obituary. His demise, however, has created skepticism within the CCP hierarchy over a suspicious political assassination.

Since Li Keqiang handed over the premiership to Li Qiang, a hand-picked confidant of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in March this year, a number of senior tax bureau officials have been investigated and punished.

Tax officers reportedly under investigation between Aug. 28 and Dec. 4 include Hu Jinmu, former party secretary and deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Taxation Bureau; Li Guanghui, deputy director general of the International Taxation Department of the State Administration of Taxation, who fell from grace after only four and a half months of tenure; Bo Peng, former first-ranking inspector of the Jiangsu Provincial Tax Bureau; Rao Yong, former deputy inspector of the Sichuan Provincial Taxation Bureau; Zhao Guoji, former inspector of the Department of Levy and Technology Development of the State Administration of Taxation.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang attend the closing meeting of the Fifth Session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 15, 2017. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Li Yanming, a Chinese current affairs commentator, said this wave of purges in the financial and tax system could be linked to Li Keqiang as Mr. Xi needs to consolidate economic power that he fears had partially been in the hands of officials close to the former premier.

There were some disparities in economic policy between the two, with Mr. Xi endorsing a planned economy as per the Mao era, while Li Keqiang advocated a relatively more relaxed strategy.

“It remains to be seen whether Wang Jun will have a safe landing after being discharged from his post,” said Li Yanming, pointing to the CCP’s practice that dismissed senior officials usually face further disciplinary punishment from the party.

Shanghai Gang

Another possible target in this purge on the tax system, according to Li Yanming, is the Shanghai gang, which emerged during former leader Jiang Zemin’s rule in the 1990s.

Li Yanming said Jiang ascended to the CCP leader on June 24, 1989, as former leader Deng Xiaoping recognized him for his support of the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre. After taking power, Jiang promoted many of his cronies in Shanghai to central political power at the 16th and 17th CCP congresses, forming what became known as the Shanghai gang.

“[From then on,] the Shanghai gang influenced the CCP’s decision-making body and long dominated the financial and banking system,” Li Yanming said.

Since taking power in November 2012, Mr. Xi has conducted purges, targeting Jiang’s fraction and other political rivals to centralize his power.

Given that the tax system is the organizational core of the CCP’s financial system, “internal struggles among the party’s top echelons to grab the country’s ‘pocketbook’ is escalating,” Li Yanming said.