Gao Yan (born 1942) is a Chinese former politician. He served as the

Governor of Jilin The politics of Jilin Province in the People's Republic of China is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China. The Governor of Jilin is the highest-ranking official in the People's Governme ...

and the

Communist Party Secretary A Party Committee Secretary () is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization in a province, city, village, or other administrative unit. In most cases, it is the ''de facto'' highest political office of its area of jurisdictio ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

and was a member of the

Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is currently composed of 205 fu ...

. He reportedly fled the country in 2002 amidst investigations into corruption as the leader of the State Power Corporation of China.

Early life

Gao was born in 1942, in Fuyu County,

Jilin Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Prim ...

. His family came from

Hebei Province Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

. He was admitted to the Changchun Power School, a polytechnic school, training as an engineer. Gao graduated early in 1962. He joined the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

(CPC) in June 1965, after serving as a technician, supervisor, and secretary in the

Communist Youth League The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the ...

Career

Gao worked at the Jilin Provincial Electricity Bureau from 1975 to 1988, after which he became vice-governor of the province for the CPC. He served as

from March 1992 to 1995 and was a member of the

14th 14 (fourteen) is a natural number following 13 (number), 13 and preceding 15 (number), 15. In relation to the word "four" (4), 14 is spelled "fourteen". In mathematics * 14 is a composite number. * 14 is a square pyramidal number. * 14 is a s ...

and

15th 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 (number), 14 and preceding 16 (number), 16. Mathematics 15 is: * A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and . * A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky ...

Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party. Gao was the

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

from June 1995 to August 1997 and was appointed general manager of the State Power Corporation in 1998. He oversaw a three-year credit deal with

China Construction Bank China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) is one of the " big four" banks in China. In 2015, CCB was the 2nd largest bank in the world by market capitalization and 6th largest company in the world. The bank has approximately 13,629 domestic bra ...

in August 2001. He reportedly resigned as the director of the State Power Corporation on 2 August 2002.

Fleeing and investigation

Gao left China in September 2002, weeks prior to the 16th National Congress in November. It was reported that he was not seen in public since 29 August. He was the highest-ranking official to flee the nation in ten years. In October of that year, Gao had been investigated by the

Central Commission for Discipline Inspection The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest internal control institution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), tasked with enforcing internal rules and regulations and combating corruption and malfeasance in the par ...

for corruption and the

embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

of funds; he was later branded a "traitor" by the

Government of China The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an Authoritarianism, authoritarian political system in the China, People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of Leg ...

. The investigation triggered a steep drop in the stock value of the State Power Corporation. There were also charges made against twenty other senior personnel of the Corporation. Some analysts believed that this was an indirect move against

Li Peng Li Peng (; 20 October 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Chi ...

, then second-in-command of the CPC and who had close links to the Corporation, ahead of his expected resignation at the 16th National Congress. Ding Xueliang, an expert on corruption at

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a public research university in Clear Water Bay Peninsula, New Territories, Hong Kong. Founded in 1991 by the British Hong Kong Government, it was the territory's third institution ...

, stated that "the leaders see how much anger has gathered in society against corrupt officials, and they know they need to punish a few to help pacify the situation". In 2014, Gao was suspected to be living in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

; as part of

Operation Fox Hunt Operation Fox Hunt ( zh, 猎狐专项行动, p=Liè hú zhuānxiàng xíngdòng, s=猎狐专项行动) is a Chinese covert global operation whose purported aim is anti-corruption under Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's adminis ...

, the Chinese and Australian governments collaborated to attempt to track a "priority list" of wanted people, including Gao.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gao, Yan 1942 births Governors of Jilin Members of the 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 15th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Living people