| Chén Liángyǔ 陈良宇 |
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|---|---|
| 14th CPC Shanghai Committee Secretary | |
| In office October 2002 – September 2006 |
|
| Preceded by | Huang Ju |
| Succeeded by | Han Zheng (acting) |
| 12th Mayor of Shanghai | |
| In office December 2001 – February 2003 |
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| Preceded by | Xu Kuangdi |
| Succeeded by | Han Zheng |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 1, 1946 Ningbo, Zhejiang, China |
| Political party | Communist Party of China (since expelled) |
| Spouse(s) | Huang Yiling |
| Chen Liangyu | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 陳良宇 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈良宇 | ||||||
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Chen Liangyu (born October 1946 in Ningbo, Zhejiang) was a politician of the People's Republic of China from the ruling Communist Party, and the disgraced CPC Shanghai Committee Secretary, or the city's first-in-charge.
He has worked in Shanghai for his entire public life, serving as its Mayor from 2001–2003. Known to be a prominent member of the Shanghai clique, and a close ally of former president Jiang Zemin and a formidable rival to 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. He was sentenced in Tianjin on April 11, 2008, to 18 years in prison on charges of financial fraud, abuse of power, and accepting bribery.
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He graduated from the People's Liberation Army Institute of Logistics Engineering, where he had majored in architecture. He had two years of experience working in the military between 1968–1970. He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in April 1980. He worked as one of the cadres at the Pengpu Machinery Factory for the early 1980s, earning his way up to become the CPC Secretary for Shanghai's Electronic Appliances Bureau. He was on sabbatical at the University of Birmingham on public administration while holding the position of District Governor for Huangpu District in Shanghai.
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.
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 certain 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.[1] 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.[2]
Chen's son, Chen Weili, was made an executive of the Shanghai Shenhua football club shortly after graduating from university.
Through Chen's statements at municipal meetings as well as his vision for Shanghai's development, Chen seems to be opposed to the Communist Party's long-held convention that "Marxism serves as the guiding scientific principle". Rather, Chen was more focused on relying upon "all forms of science". As a result, Chen was ideologically at odds with the Hu-Wen Administration in Beijing.
On September 25, 2006 he was fired as party secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC (he was replaced by Xi Jinping) and suspended from his posts of member of the Chinese Politburo and member of the CPC Central Committee for his alleged involvement in a social security fund scandal, where money was siphoned off from Shanghai's social security fund, which manages more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in assets. A hundred-strong team from Beijing has been sent to Shanghai to investigate the matter. Two days before he was announced to be fired, he and Mayor Han Zheng went to Beijing together to meet Hu Jintao. However, only Han Zheng came back to Shanghai. He returned at 3 am and rallied an official meeting to deliver the Central Government's decision that Chen was suspended because of the scandal and he was the acting party chief from then on. Other corruption charges were:
Following Chen's dismissal, Han Zheng, the current Mayor of Shanghai, has become acting secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC, according to a decision of the CPC Central Committee.[3]
Although Chen's corruption charges may indeed be legitimate, it is likely that the dismissal had political reasoning, as 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 faction. Chen clashed with Premier Wen Jiabao knowingly at a meeting of the Central Committee in Beijing. He was deemed a serious political rival to President Hu Jintao. Chen is the highest level 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 after serving eight years of his sentence. The two-month-old scandal "has already led to the removal and detention for questioning of the city's labor chief, a district governor and several prominent businessmen. The ranks of those detained in the Shanghai probe include executives in Shanghai's biggest industrial conglomerate as well as well-connected city officials."[4][5]
The BBC reports that "There has been a continuing power struggle between Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao ... Mr Chen's dismissal is being widely interpreted as Hu Jintao strengthening his position both within the party and the country as a whole."[6]
In July 2007 Chen was expelled from the Communist Party of China and handed over to judicial authorities. The speed by which the proceedings have taken place is much quicker compared to the judicial proceedings of Chen Xitong. Chen Liangyu was sent to house arrest in Qinhuangdao, Hebei, 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.[7] Since then Chen has been moved 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. Namely, embezzlement, misuse of official powers, and unceremonious behavior. At the end of the court session on March 25, 2008, Chen stated "I am sorry to the party, the people of Shanghai, and my family.[8] 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.[9]
Source : People.com.cn[10]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Xu Kuangdi |
Mayor of Shanghai 2002–2003 |
Succeeded by Han Zheng |
| Preceded by Huang Ju |
CPC Shanghai Committee Secretary 2002–2006 |
Succeeded by Han Zheng (Acting) |