Former Guizhou Secretary Sun Zhigang Will “Sit Through His Prison Sentence”—Who Exposed Him?

On August 14, 2024, the Tianjin Second Intermediate People's Court held a public first-instance trial for the bribery case of former Guizhou Provincial Party Secretary Sun Zhigang. (CCTV screenshot)

[People News] On October 29, with the hammer of law falling in Tianjin’s Second Intermediate Court under Chen Min’er’s leadership, Sun Zhigang, who once took over as Guizhou’s top leader after Chen Min’er, former Guizhou Party Secretary and former Deputy Director of the 13th NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, was sentenced to a suspended death sentence with life imprisonment. He was accused of taking bribes of over 813 million yuan (hereinafter “the people’s currency”). He has now broken the record for the highest bribe amount among officials of his rank since the CCP’s 20th National Congress, becoming the fourth "big tiger" in October sentenced to a suspended death sentence.

Interestingly, the CCP’s court said that he should have been sentenced to death, but due to his major contributions, where he proactively confessed to some crimes that the authorities had not uncovered, he was given a suspended sentence. To put it plainly, Sun Zhigang exposed larger “enemies” that the CCP suspected, leaving him alive as leverage to coerce other implicated officials of various ranks into compliance. The reason is that when he fell, the CCP accused him of corruption across four regions: Hubei, Anhui, Beijing, and Guizhou, involving the “Seven Violations” (in which offenses include “defying the central government,” “forming cliques,” and “setting up separate power bases”—in essence, political insubordination and organizing local power factions. This suggests that the true head may be someone ranked even higher than Sun Zhigang).

Pitifully, Secretary Sun paid the price of sitting through his prison term. The previous three “brothers in hardship” waiting in prison to “enjoy” the same “treatment” as him are former Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, Fan Yifei; former Tibet Autonomous Region Committee Vice Chairman Jiang Jie; and former Liaoning Deputy Governor and Public Security Bureau Director Wang Dawei (all four “tigers” took bribes exceeding one hundred million yuan. Among them, Sun Zhigang, Fan Yifei, and Wang Dawei have been reduced to life imprisonment with no parole or commutation per CCP policy). However, we cannot rule out the possibility that once deemed valueless, they may be sent directly to hell to “meet Marx” from within prison.

Before Sun Zhigang’s investigation, several of his colleagues had already been jailed, most notably former Guizhou Provincial CPPCC Chairman Wang Fuyu, and two CPPCC Vice Chairmen, Li Zaiyong and Zhou Jiankun, both of whom were promoted to deputy provincial level during Sun Zhigang’s time as Guizhou’s leader. Unlike Sun, CCP sources claimed that Secretary Sun always emphasized in public the need for Communist Party loyalty and proletarian discipline, but “since his promotion to deputy ministerial rank at age 48, he engaged in 21 years of corruption,” “accepted bribes the very month he fell,” and had a “whole family of corruption.”

Since Secretary Sun, upon facing the electric police baton sparking against his chest, immediately betrayed his fellow turncoat comrades, the question people are interested in is—who betrayed Sun in the smoke from the police baton?

On the day of Sun Zhigang’s trial in Tianjin, “Sina Finance” published an article titled, “After Ten Years in Power, He was Expelled from the Party at 70, Corrupting His Subordinates, Many of Whom Have Been Investigated.” It mentioned that during his tenure in Guizhou, two deputy provincial officials promoted by him had already been brought down. These two deputy provincial officials indeed were Li Zaiyong and Zhou Jiankun. However, domestic media implicitly suggested that Li Zaiyong was the one who primarily implicated Sun.

Domestic media particularly noted that on August 13 this year, when the Chongqing Fifth Intermediate Court sentenced Li Zaiyong to death, a similarly dramatic statement was made: “According to the crime, he should be sentenced to death... However, given Li Zaiyong’s proactive confession to the majority of his bribery offenses, his reports on others’ crimes, which have been verified as substantial, and his significant contributions, he may avoid immediate execution.” Additionally, it was reported that during Zhou Jiankun’s trial, the court also noted his “significant contributions in reporting others’ crimes, which merited lenient treatment.”

On the very day of Sun Zhigang’s trial, if it weren’t for upper-level orders, it would be unlikely for the media to emphasize to readers that “Sun Zhigang worked with Li Zaiyong for several years, and one day before Sun’s trial, Li was sentenced to a suspended death sentence for taking bribes of over 432 million yuan.” This implied that Li Zaiyong’s “significant contributions in reporting others’ crimes” very likely involved implicating his former boss, Sun Zhigang, during his tenure in the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee.

Chronologically, Sun Zhigang’s investigation began five months after Li Zaiyong’s investigation. During Li’s term as Deputy Governor, Sun, along with his wife, child, and brother-in-law, offered bribes to Li, who, in return, provided them with major benefits. The earliest arrest of Sun Zhigang’s brother-in-law occurred exactly one month after Li Zaiyong was detained in the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s “retention center.” The timeline matches. According to the indictment from Chongqing’s Fifth Procuratorate, from 1998 to 2023, defendant Li Zaiyong used his position as a member of the Guizhou Provincial Standing Committee and Deputy Governor to benefit related individuals in project contracting, land acquisition, project planning, and approvals.

Yet among CCP officials, relationships based on benefits create bonds stronger than family ties—until something goes wrong, when “a wall falls and everyone pushes it,” and all blame is heaped onto the “fallen dog” Sun Zhigang, freeing current Tianjin leader Chen Min’er of any responsibility. It wouldn’t be surprising if not only Li Zaiyong but also Zhou Jiankun revealed parts of Sun’s misdeeds to CCP prosecutors.

Whether it’s Sun, Li, or Zhou, none could withstand the CCP police’s sparking baton, quickly abandoning their “proletarian revolutionary spirit” and embodying the informant and double agent that the CCP both despises and cherishes. To the CCP, they are rare and valuable! This also reveals the CCP’s deeply ugly and frightening face. One thing must be clarified: these former Party officials who became “worse than ghosts” in prison were all brought to this point by the corruption, unrestrained power, and lack of true belief fostered by the CCP.