Chen Liangyu

Chen Liangyu (born October 1946) was a politician in the People's Republic of China from the ruling Communist Party, and CPC Shanghai Committee Secretary, the city's top office, from 2002 to his dismissal in 2006, and a member of the Politburo.

Chen worked in Shanghai for his entire public life, serving as Mayor from 2001–2003. Chen took on numerous mega-projects while he was mayor, contributed to the city's economic development, and was instrumental in Shanghai's bid to host the 2010 World Expo. Chen, a prominent member of the Shanghai clique, was also known for his political partisanship and opposition to the macro-economic control policies of the Hu Jintao administration.

Chen was dismissed in September 2006 for alleged corruption charges related to the misuse of money in Shanghai's social security fund. In April 2008, Chen was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of financial fraud, abuse of power, and accepting bribery.

Rise to power

Chen graduated from the People's Liberation Army Institute of Logistics Engineering, majoring in architecture. He had two years of experience working in the military between 1968–1970 as part of the PLA Army 6716 Squadron. From September 1970 to March 1983, Chen worked at the Shanghai Pengpu Machinery Factory as a worker and estimator. He was eventually promoted to capital construction branch vice-section chief. He also went on a year-long sabbatical to Tongji University. In March 1983 he was promoted to become deputy plant manager of the Shanghai Pengpu machine factory, as well as the party committee deputy secretary of the Shanghai Metallurgy Mining Machinery Company. He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in April 1980. By March 1984, Chen gained further promotion, becoming the CPC Secretary for Shanghai's Electronic Appliances Bureau. Between January 1985 and February 1987 he became bureau chief and assistant commissioner of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee – Old cadre bureau.^[1]

In February 1987, Chen gained a posting as the new magistrate for Huangpu District in Shanghai. During his tenure, he went on sabbatical at the University of Birmingham on public administration while holding the position.^[1]

Chen was promoted to be Deputy Mayor of Shanghai in 1996, concurrently holding the CPC Vice-Secretary position. As then President Jiang Zemin made his political manoeuvers before the 16th Party Congress in 2002 to strengthen the Shanghai power base with his loyalties, Chen became the beneficiary, replacing then Mayor Xu Kuangdi, becoming Mayor of Shanghai in late 2002, and Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee in February 2003. He was therefore granted membership in the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee. As an ally of former President Jiang Zemin, Chen was to keep Jiang's Shanghai base of power while Hu Jintao was given all official positions of power. Chen is believed to be linked to real estate magnate and banker Zhou Zhengyi in the Shanghai Real Estate scandals, where residents were forced to relocate for new housing developments where old style apartments were being demolished to build modern-style condominiums.

Mayor and party chief of Shanghai

Along with Mayor Han Zheng, Chen continued the CPC's path on reform, and during his leadership Shanghai was selected as the host city for Expo 2010. Chen is officially credited with dramatically increasing the size and efficiency of Shanghai's public transportation network. Shanghai's increasing real estate prices has plagued the city since 2002, and rose over 200% during Chen's term in office as the city's Party Chief, as ordinary Shanghai citizens found it increasingly difficult to find a place to live. The real estate network has a known history of being monopolized. The government has attempted to assert control, but because of the inevitable link between the government and private businesses, many underhand deals were cut, and Chen was implicated in many of these affairs. Chen also held major interests in the Shanghai Shenhua football squad, attending all of their home matches and even supervising some practices.

His image in the city during his tenure as Mayor was fairly divisive. He initiated a series of gigantic projects to be finished in time for Shanghai's hosting of the 2010 World Exposition, including shipping 128,000 tons of sand to create a beach in Shanghai's suburbs, building a $209 million world-class tennis complex and a $300 million Formula One circuit racetrack. His most controversial project was the proposed Shanghai-Hangzhou mag-lev train.^[2] Opponents of Chen have painted him as corrupt and with a short temper, being despotic during Municipal Committee meetings which he chaired. Supporters of Chen credit him with openness, and see him as a progressive leader crucial to Shanghai's development on the international scene. Neutral observers generally saw Chen as an effective local administrator in Shanghai but impeded nationwide equalization as well as macroeconomic controls (otherwise known as Hongguan Tiaokong).

During his term, Chen sold massive amounts of land to his brother for resale over ten times the original price. Shanghai's real estate magnate.^[3]

Chen's son, Chen Weili, was made an executive of the Shanghai Shenhua football club shortly after graduating from university.

Pension scandal, dismissal, and conviction

In August 2006, Qin Yu, one of Chen's top aides, was abruptly dismissed from his position of Baoshan District governor, and arrested. Qin was charged with the misappropriation of $400 million of the city's pension funds.^[4] The city's social security coffers managed more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in assets. Instead of investing the money in low-risk government bonds and bank deposits, it was channeled to fund expensive real estate and toll road projects around the city.^[5] It was suspected that the city's top leadership figures, including Chen, could be implicated in the scandal.^[5]

During Chen's term as party chief, he routinely pursued policies that drew friction with the party's central leadership and the philosophies of President Hu Jintao. Hu's government favoured balanced regional development and feared social divisions resulting from a widening wealth gap, and thus attempted to rein in regional leaders who wanted to pursue overtly regional interests.^[6] Chen has reportedly clashed with Premier Wen Jiabao openly at a Politburo meeting in Beijing over the issue of development. Chen's statements at municipal meetings also charted a seemingly autonomous course; Chen opposed to the Communist Party's long-held convention that "Marxism serves as the guiding scientific principle." Rather, Chen claimed to rely upon "all forms of science" in his governing philosophy – this signaled that he was at odds with the Communist Party's ruling orthodoxy.

On September 25, citing alleged involvement in the pension scandal, Chen was dismissed as Shanghai party chief and suspended from his membership in the party's Central Committee and its Politburo. A team composed of some one hundred investigators from central authorities in Beijing was sent to Shanghai to investigate.^[7] Two days before his dismissal, Chen and mayor Han Zheng went to Beijing to meet with Hu Jintao. There Chen was detained, and only Han returned to Shanghai. The authorities carefully managed the transfer of authority in Shanghai. On the day of Chen's dismissal, Han Zheng returned to Shanghai at 3 am and called an official meeting to deliver Beijing's decision that Chen was suspended because of the scandal and that Han himself was assuming the post of acting party chief.^[7] Chen was charged with "helping further the economic interests of illegal business people", "protecting staff who severely violated laws and discipline" and "furthering the interests of family members by taking advantage of his official posts."^[7]

There was also indication that Chen's sacking occurred for political reasons;^[8] Chen is not the only Chinese official who has a history of misusing public funds. Chen was a protégé of former President Jiang Zemin and a senior member of the Shanghai Clique. In carving out a local 'fiefdom' for himself and willing to boldly deviate from the party's official development path, Chen was seen as a serious rival to President Hu Jintao, and his dismissal was interpreted as a political victory for Hu.^[8][9] Chen is the highest-ranking Chinese official to be fired since former Beijing party secretary Chen Xitong (no relation) in 1995, and who was sentenced to 16 years in prison but released on medical parole in 2006. The Shanghai pension scandal also led to the dismissal of the chief of the Municipal Labour and Social Security Bureau Zhu Junyi, and the downfall of several prominent businessmen, the executives of Shanghai's biggest industrial conglomerate, and other city officials.^[10][11]

In July 2007, Chen was expelled from the Communist Party, and his case was transferred to judicial authorities. In comparison to the judicial action against Chen Xitong, Chen's case proceeded at a much faster pace. During the investigation, Chen was placed under house arrest in Qinhuangdao, where he lived in a mansion, and spent most of his time playing cards and reading. Servers gave him menus for him to order dishes every meal.^[12] Thereafter, Chen was transferred to Qincheng Penitentiary in Beijing.

Chen's trial began in late March 2008. He was represented by Beijing lawyers Gao Zicheng and Liu Limu. He faced three charges: embezzlement, misuse of official powers, and unceremonious behavior. Chen acknowledged that he was "partially responsible" for the pension fund scandal, but pleaded 'not guilty' to the charges. However, he was found guilty by the court. At the end of the court session on March 25, Chen stated "I am sorry to the party, the people of Shanghai, and my family".^[13] On April 11, 2008, Chen, 61, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for accepting $340,000 in bribes and abusing power, specifically, for stock manipulation, financial fraud and his role in the city pension fund scandal, at the No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, Tianjin.^[8]

See also

	Shanghai portal
	Biography portal
	Politics portal

• Zhang Rongkun
• Politics of the People's Republic of China

Notes

References

• News about Chen Liangyu on China Digital Times
• SINA: Chen Liangyu Sacked (Chinese)
• National News broadcast on dismissal