The Shanghai pension scandal was a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

case in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Ultimately, former Shanghai party chief

Chen Liangyu Chen Liangyu (; born October 24, 1946, in Shanghai) is a Chinese politician best known for his tenure as the Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai, the city's top office, and a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, from 2002 ...

was implicated in the scandal and removed from office. Other high-ranking officials were also implicated such as

Zhu Junyi Zhu Junyi (; born February 1951 in Haining, Zhejiang) was a government official in Shanghai, China. Prior to his arrest during an investigation into corruption in Shanghai in 2006, he had been in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labour ...

Qin Yu Qin Yu (born June 1964) was briefly the chief of Baoshan District in Shanghai, China. He was removed from office on 29 August 2006 as part of a widening probe into corruption involving the mishandling of funds from Shanghai's municipal pension s ...

, Yu Zhifei, and Chen Chaoxian. Politburo Standing Committee member and Vice-Premier

Huang Ju Huang Ju (28 September 1938 – 2 June 2007) was a Chinese politician and a high-ranking leader in the Chinese Communist Party. He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision making body, between 2002 until his death i ...

and his wife Yu Huiwen were also believed to be involved, but were never officially exposed as being part of the scandal.

Allegations

Shanghai's social security fund manages 10 billion yuan in assets. The allegations were that about a third of public funds was diverted into real estate and road investment projects.

Dismissals

Chen Liangyu, the Shanghai Party Chief and

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

member was sacked from the party in 2006, becoming the most senior party member to be dismissed in a decade.China's F1 track chief dismissed
''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

'', 2007-05-21 He was accused of illicitly investing billions of yuan of pension fund money in real estate, aiding illegal businesses, shielding corrupt colleagues, and abusing his position to benefit family members. 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 In economics and finance, market manipulation is a type of market abuse where there is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market; the most blatant of cases involve creating false or misleading appearances ...

, financial fraud and his role in the city pension fund scandal, at the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court,

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

. nytimes.com, Former Party Boss in China Gets 18 Years
/ref> Also sacked and expelled from the Communist Party were: * Yu Zhifei, the manager of Shanghai's Formula 1 racing track. * Chen Chaoxian, a city district chief Four officials on graft charges
''News 24'', 2007-05-21 * Ling Baoheng, the director of the Shanghai Asset Supervision Board * Yin Guoyuan, deputy director of the Shanghai housing, land and resources administration All those sacked will face criminal charges.

Political context

Chen was seen as a senior member of the

Shanghai clique The Shanghai clique (), also referred to as the Shanghai gang, Jiang clique, or Jiang faction, refers to an informal group of Chinese Communist Party (Chinese Communist Party, CCP) officials who rose to prominence under former General Secretary ...

who worked with former CPC General secretary, President

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...

and were seen as rivals to then CPC General secretary, President

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...

and then Premier

Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao (born 15 September 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the Premier of the State Council from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy ...

. The dismissals were seen as strengthening the authority of Hu and Wen within the party and weakening the Jiang loyalists.Top Shanghai Leader Removed From Office
''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

'', 2006-09-25

Popular culture

A thinly veiled reference to this scandal is a major plot element of the Chinese TV drama ''

Dwelling Narrowness ''Dwelling Narrowness'' (), also known literally as ''Snail House'', is a 2009 television series broadcast in Mainland China, based on a 2007 novel of the same name by Liu Liu. It depicts two sisters struggling with life in Jiangzhou, a fictional ...

''.

References

{{Reflist History of Shanghai Politics of China Corruption in China 2006 in China Scandals in China 2000s in Shanghai 2006 crimes in China

Allegations

Dismissals

Political context

Popular culture

See also

References