High-Ranking CPPCC Official Han Yong, Who Befriended Political Swindlers, Given Suspended Death Sentence – Who Did He Expose?

Illustration: CCP Police Vehicle (China Photos/Getty Images)

[Peoplw News] According to the Supreme People's Court of China, on May 19, 2025, the Nanning Intermediate People’s Court in Guangxi Province delivered a first-instance verdict in the bribery case of Han Yong — former Deputy Director of the Population, Resources, and Environment Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and former Party Secretary and Chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial CPPCC. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) retroactively investigated his activities over the past 30 years, accusing him of accepting bribes amounting to 261 million yuan (RMB), sentencing him to death with a two-year reprieve and confiscating all his personal assets.

This verdict surprised many: Why such a harsh sentence for Han Yong? After all, in the CCP’s anti-corruption campaign, there are numerous officials who embezzled much more, even over 1 billion yuan, but received only a few years to a decade in prison.

For example, Yang Xiuzhu, former Deputy Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Construction, took 253.2 million yuan in bribes but was sentenced to just 8 years. Liu Linxiang, former Budget Director of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, misappropriated nearly 400 million yuan and received 10 10-year. Gao Shan, former Director of the Harbin Hesong Street Branch of the Bank of China, embezzled 1 billion yuan but got only 15 years. Some major cases have not even been sentenced yet: Fan Jixiang, former Deputy Party Secretary and Chairman of Power Construction Corporation of China, is rumoured to be involved in a 970 billion yuan case but remains uncharged more than a year later. Wang Yilin, former Chairman of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, is allegedly involved in a 900 billion yuan corruption case but so far has only been expelled from the Party. Compared to those, Han Yong, a ministerial-level official who allegedly accepted just over 200 million yuan, receiving a suspended death sentence seems excessive. Understandably, he may be lamenting in prison: “The Party is not treating its children fairly.”

However, the CCP insists that Han Yong was treated leniently because he provided clues to other major cases and voluntarily confessed crimes previously unknown to the authorities. According to the Nanning court ruling, Han Yong began illegally receiving bribes as early as 1993, when he served as the Party Secretary and Chief Prosecutor of the Songyuan City People's Procuratorate in Jilin Province. The investigation extended all the way to his time as Party Secretary and Chairman of the Shaanxi CPPCC. The court stated that his bribery amounted to an especially large sum and warranted the death penalty. However, since he confessed, provided significant case leads that were verified, and cooperated with the investigation, his sentence was mitigated.

There is a subtle implication in this wording — that Han Yong “provided leads to other major cases” and “voluntarily confessed facts previously unknown to the supervisory authorities.” Political analysts suggest that for a national-level CPPCC official to be retroactively investigated all the way back to his local-level tenure, the punishment likely stemmed from political disloyalty or choosing the wrong faction. This implies that Han Yong exposed CCP targets — perhaps disloyal senior officials or political enemies the leadership seeks to remove.

So who might these individuals be? Public records show that Han Yong, now 69, spent his early career in the Jilin Province’s procuratorial and disciplinary systems, serving as Chief Prosecutor of Songyuan, Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Anti-Corruption Bureau Director of the Jilin Provincial Procuratorate, Standing Committee Member and Deputy Secretary of the Jilin Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, and Director of the Provincial Supervision Department. In 2004, he was transferred to Xinjiang as a member of the CCP Autonomous Region Committee and head of the Organisation Department. In December 2010, he became Deputy Party Secretary of Xinjiang and continued as head of the Organisation Department.

In April 2015, he was appointed Deputy Party Secretary of Xinjiang, Party Secretary and Political Commissar of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chairman of the China Xinjiang Group Corporation. In January 2016, he was transferred to Shaanxi as Party Secretary and Chairman of the Provincial CPPCC, a position he held until January 2022. From March 2022 to March 2023, he served as Deputy Director of the Population, Resources, and Environment Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. He was investigated in October 2023.

What’s noteworthy is that on April 22 this year, Li Pengxin — former Deputy Party Secretary of Xinjiang — was sentenced to death with reprieve by the Baoji Intermediate Court in Shaanxi for accepting over 800 million yuan in bribes over 24 years. Li Pengxin is known to be a close associate of Zhao Leji, who previously led Shaanxi Province. In recent years, there has been a continuous purge in both Xinjiang and Shaanxi officialdom. Since the 20th Party Congress, departments Zhao Leji once led — such as the Organisation Department and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection — have also become targets of purges. Zhao Leji appears to be caught in the vortex of high-level CCP infighting.

At last year’s Two Sessions, Zhao was reportedly scolded by Xi Jinping, and during the closing meeting of this year’s National People’s Congress, he was mysteriously said to be absent due to a “respiratory infection.” Yet the very next day, he appeared in good health at a press conference — a very strange episode.

Another notable detail is the CCP’s accusations against Han Yong when removing him from office and expelling him from the Party. These include: “befriending political swindlers,” “failing to take responsibility for political struggle,” and “engaging in political opportunism.” These vague charges raise many questions. What kind of “political swindlers” could someone of Han Yong’s rank have associated with? Who was the CCP expecting him to struggle against, and why did he fail to do so? The CCP has not explained — and perhaps never will, as these may involve state secrets.

Han Yong also once supervised the case of notorious Yunnan gangster Sun Xiaoguo. In April 2019, Han Yong, as head of the 20th Central Supervision Group for the “Sweep Black and Eliminate Evil” campaign, was stationed in Yunnan to oversee the handling of the Sun Xiaoguo case. Sun was executed in February 2020. During the case, Sun’s parents and several corrupt officials who shielded him were also investigated.