Ai Baojun (; born February 1960) is a former Chinese politician. He was the Vice Mayor of

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 ...

and the head administrator of the

Shanghai Free-Trade Zone Shanghai Free-Trade Zone (Shanghai FTZ or SFTZ), officially China (Shanghai) Pilot Free-Trade Zone, is a free-trade zone in Shanghai, China. On 22 August 2013, the State Council approved the establishment of the zone. Officially launched on 29 ...

. On November 10, 2015, Ai was placed under investigation by the Communist Party's anti-corruption agency. He was the first provincial-ministerial level official from Shanghai being investigated after the 18th Party Congress in 2012. He is said to be close with Jiang Mianheng, son of former

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

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

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 ...

Career

Ai Baojun was born in

Liaoyang Liaoyang () is a prefecture-level city of east-central Liaoning province, China, situated on the Taizi River. It is approximately one hour south of Shenyang, the provincial capital, by car. Liaoyang is home to Liaoning University's College of Fo ...

, Liaoning province. He attended Northeastern Polytechnic College (later merged into

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

), where he studied automated controls. He then studied statistics and accounting in the Ma'anshan Steel College (later

Anhui University of Technology The Anhui University of Technology () is a university based in Ma'anshan, Anhui, China. It offers instruction in engineering, economics, management, literature, science and law. It is more accurate to consider it an industrial university, c ...

). He also completed a term as a visiting scholar to

Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...

in the United States. In September 1994, he secured a job as a financial manager at the

Baosteel Group China Baowu Steel Group Corp., Ltd., commonly known as Baowu, is a state-owned iron and steel company headquartered in the Baosteel Tower in Pudong, Shanghai, China. The company was formed by Baosteel Group absorbing its smaller state-owned pe ...

in Shanghai. In 1998, he was named vice president and chief accountant of Baosteel Group. In 2000, he was named chief executive of the company. In April 2008, he was named head administrator of the Xingdao Development Zone of Shanghai. On May 22, 2012, he was named a member of the municipal

Party Standing Committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...

of Shanghai, ascending to sub-provincial level. By 2013, he was in charge of a number of experimental "zones" around the city, including the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the Shanghai International Tourism Centre, and the Shanghai Tariff-Free Zone. On November 10, 2015, Ai was placed under investigation 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 ...

of the Chinese Communist Party for "serious violations of regulations," the first official of his rank to come under scrutiny from Shanghai. His wife had died from illness only a week earlier. He was expelled from the Communist Party on January 19, 2016. The party's internal investigation concluded that Ai "violated political discipline", conspired against the investigation, did not honestly report his activities to the nvestigatingorganization, accepted gifts and cash, violated the

Eight-point Regulation The Eight-point Regulation of the Centre () is a set of regulations stipulated by Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. They were first announced on 4 December 2012, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communis ...

, frequented private clubs and "played golf", abused his power to aid in the business activities of others, facilitated transactions exchanging power for sex, and "illegally possessed public assets". On April 28, 2017, Ai was sentenced to 17 years in prison, for taking some 43.21 million yuan (~$7.20 million) in bribes and plundering the public treasury worth 7.51 million yuan (~$1.09 million).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ai, Baojun 1960 births Living people Political office-holders in Shanghai Chinese Communist Party politicians from Liaoning People's Republic of China politicians from Liaoning Politicians from Liaoyang Northeastern University (China) alumni Expelled members of the Chinese Communist Party Chinese politicians convicted of corruption