Eleven Communist Party officials in Shanghai have been put under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law,” according to the Shanghai Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party’s anticorruption watchdog.
Zhu Jinhua, Zhang Wenjun and Lu Mingxing, all former officials from the land management bureau in Nanhui District, Shanghai City, as well as Tang Guiming, former Party Secretary from Xuanqiao County, Nanhui District, were included in the action.
Wu Zhongquan, former director of the construction and transportation committee in Minhang District, Shanghai, was also placed under investigation.
In January 2007, a large housing demolition operation took place in Maqiao Township, in Minhang District, clearing a total land area of 2,141 acres, and the nearby scenic park Zizhuyuan was developed by Jiang Mianheng, one of the sons of Jiang Zemin and the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the assistance of the Minhang District local government, according to the lawyer Zheng Enchong, in an interview with Radio Free Asia.
Tao Jinjian, former party secretary of Dongtian Village, Qingpu District, Shanghai, was another of the officials put under investigation.
According to a report by Henan Online, the official mouthpiece of the Henan government, in May 2013, the Shanghai Land Transaction Market, the official platform for real estate exchange, reportedly raised the selling prices of three land divisions in Qingpu District from 1.3 billion yuan ($211 million) to 4.4 billion yuan ($717 million) in the span of less than a year.
Wu Xiang, former president of the Shanghai Health Vocational and Technical College, and four officials from the School of Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as a number of other officials from Shanghai Jiao Tong—including former director of the continued education office Zhang Hong, former director of the asset management office Zhao Jun, former director of the international education department Wang Xin, and former director of finance Xu Zenzheng—were also among those put under investigation
