Political Mobility of County Leaders in China : The Case of Jiangsu

Studies of China’s political elites have made substantial gains since the 1990s. Not only have we learned much more about national political elites and their interactions, including their demographic and social characteristic as well as their institutional and factional affiliations and their political dynamics (Unger, 2002; Bo, 2007), but we have also managed to crack open the black box of local leadership and uncover the inner workings of local governance and the correlation between performance and political mobility (Huang, 1996; Bo, 2002).


Introduction
Studies of China's political elites have made substantial gains since the 1990s.Not only have we learned much more about national political elites and their interactions, including their demographic and social characteristic as well as their institutional and factional affiliations and their political dynamics (Unger, 2002;Bo, 2007), but we have also managed to crack open the black box of local leadership and uncover the inner workings of local governance and the correlation between performance and political mobility (Huang, 1996;Bo, 2002).
However, most of the existing literature on local Chinese leadership has concentrated on provincial leaders, and few have attempted to analyze local leaders at lower levels.There are even fewer studies on China's county leaders (an exception is Guo, 2007), a group of cadres that manage about 3,000 countylevel units in China.This paper attempts to serve as a prolegomenon to the study of China's county leaders as a group. 1 It begins with a survey of cadres in a top-down approach and see how far up a county leader can go in the Chinese political system.It then focuses on a case study of county leaders in one coastal province, Jiangsu, in both a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach.It draws some tentative conclusions from this case study and highlights some issues for further investigation.

Politburo members with county-level experience
Recent studies have revealed the significance of local governance experience in the selection of national political elites in China.Cadres with local experience became prominent in the 16 th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in general and in the 16 th Politburo in particular (Bo, 2007, 106-107).
Upon further examination, however, it seems that county management experience is regressively critical.Among nine standing members of the 16 th Politburo, eight had previous local governance experience but only two of the eight had any experience below the provincial level and none of them had any experience managing a county (Table 1).Among the rest thirteen Politburo members, excluding the military members Guo Boxiong and Cao Gangchuan, twelve had previous local governance experience.But only seven had experience below the provincial level, and four had county management experience.In sum, of the 24 full members of the Politburo elected in November 2002, four (one sixth) had previous county management experience.They were Wang Lequan, Hui Liangyu, Zhang Dejiang, and Chen Liangyu.Wang and Hui climbed to the county-level leadership from positions of lower levels, and Zhang and Chen were transferred to county-level leadership positions from posts of similar ranks in other bureaucratic functions.

Provincial Party secretaries with county-level experience
It seems that there are more provincial Party secretaries with county management experience.Of the 31 provincial party secretaries as of March 2007, 12 (38.7 percent) had served as a county leader previously (Table 2).

Provincial governors with county-level experience
In comparison with provincial Party secretaries, more provincial governors have experience as county leaders.Out of the 31 provincial governors in March 2007, 17 (55 percent) had worked as a county leader previously (Table 3).Surprisingly, Dai Xianglong, former mayor of Tianjin, also had experience as a county leader.He served as deputy head of Fengxian in Jiangsu between February 1982 and August 1983.It was an experience sandwiched in his long career as a banker.
In contrast, Guo Gengmao, former governor of Hebei and currently governor of Henan, is a typical local leader who has moved up in the Party-state apparatus one step at a time.He began his political career in his hometown in 1975 and worked as a Party official in two people's communes.After his two-year study in the Department of International Politics at Peking University, he was appointed deputy secretary and county head of Zaoqiang County in Hebei in September 1984.He was appointed Party secretary of the county in September 1988 and was further promoted to be deputy secretary of Xingtai Prefecture in December 1991.He worked as a county leader for five years.
Yu Youjun, former governor of Shanxi, had a slightly different experience.Formerly a school teacher and deputy director of a research institute in Guangzhou, Yu entered politics as a propaganda cadre.After only three months as deputy head of the Propaganda Department of Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, he was appointed Party secretary of Dongshan District in November 1986.He was transferred to Tianhe District as Party secretary in March 1990 and stayed in that position until November 1992.He had six years' experience as a county leader.

Provincial leaders
Provincial leaders in Jiangsu seem to confirm the hypothesis of regressive correlation between the county-level experience and the rank of the official in relative terms.This province has altogether 20 provincial leaders in both the standing committee of the provincial Party committee and the provincial government (Table 4): 13 standing members and nine government leaders (the governor and vice governors) with two overlapping roles.Among the thirteen standing members, four ever worked as a county leader previously.In sum, since provincial party leaders in general have a relatively higher rank than provincial government leaders, the fact that the former in Jiangsu has a lower percentage (33 percent) than the latter (44 percent) in terms of county-level management experience seems to confirm the pattern of regressive correlation in China.Moreover, the percentage of provincial party and government leaders of Jiangsu (excluding the military standing member) with county-level management experience is also lower than that of provincial leaders in general.Seven individuals in the Jiangsu provincial leadership have had county-level management experience, representing 37 percent of the total number of provincial party and government leaders in Jiangsu.That is lower than the percentage (38.7 percent) of provincial party secretaries and the percentage (55 percent) of provincial governors in China.

Prefectural leaders
Jiangsu currently has 13 prefecture-level municipalities.They include Nanjing (the capital), Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Huai'an, Suqian, Yancheng, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi, and Suzhou.Since we do not have complete information on all prefectural leaders in Jiangsu, the information included in Table 5 may be an underestimate.It seems that party leaders (the Party secretary, deputy secretaries, and standing members) are more likely to have county management experience than government leaders (the mayor and vice mayors).About 50 percent of party leaders at the prefectural level have had county management experience, while only 41 percent of government leaders at that level have been county leaders previously.This contrasts with the pattern of provincial leaders in general.
Nantong has the highest percentage of party leaders with experience in county management.Nine out of 12 leaders have been county leaders previously, representing 75 percent.It is followed by Yancheng (63.6 percent), Xuzhou (58.3 percent), and Wuxi (58.3 percent).Other cities that have more than 50 percent of party leaders with county management experience include Changzhou (54.5 percent), Nanjing (53.8 percent), and Suqian (50 percent).It is not clear which city has the lowest percentage due to missing information.
In contrast, Xuzhou has the highest percentage of government leaders with county management experience.Seven out of eight government leaders have had experience as county leaders, representing 87.5 percent.It is followed by Yancheng (71.4 percent), Wuxi (60 percent), Nanjing (55.6 percent), Suzhou (50 percent), and Changzhou (50 percent).Again, it is not clear which city has the lowest percentage of government leaders with county management experience because of lack of complete information.
First, the spikes of turnovers do not coincide with the political cycles (Figure 1).County-level elections were held in 1993, 1998, and 2003, but the turnovers of county heads were not particularly high in these years.In 1993, for instance, only 24 county heads were replaced, one of the lowest in the four-year period of 1990-1993.The highest turnover of the period came in 1991, when 42 county heads left their positions.Year 1998 witnessed the lowest turnover in the five-year period of 1994-1998.Only 19 county heads (17.6 percent) were replaced by the end of the year.The highest turnovers came in 1995 and 1996, with the changes of 44 and 37 county heads, respectively.Year 2003 also saw the lowest turnover in the five-year period of 1999-2003.Only 21 county heads were reshuffled by the end of the year.The highest turnovers took place in 2000 and 2001, with the changes of 40 and 52 county heads, respectively.
Second, the majority of county heads who left their positions were promoted to county party secretaries.Out of 488 cases, 299 were promoted, amounting to 61.3 percent of the total.Among them, 211 cases (70.6 percent) were promoted to party secretaries of the same county-level unit; 47 cases were promoted to party secretaries of another county-level unit within the province; 39 were promoted to higher positions within the same municipality; and two were promoted to higher positions of a different municipality.Evidently, most promotions occurred either in the same county-level unit or within the same municipality.Among those who were promoted to party secretaries of a different county-level unit, only two cases were promoted to a different municipality.Lu Chongyou, former county head of Jiangpu County in Nanjing, was promoted to be Party secretary of Ganyu in Lianyungang.He was later appointed vice mayor of Lianyungang and soon thereafter was imprisoned for 14 years for receiving briberies.Qu Dali, former county head of Wuxi County, was promoted in 1991 to be vice mayor of Haikou, the capital of Hainan Province.He was the only one to have been promoted to a higher position in a different province.Third, another 129 cases were transferred, representing 26.4 percent of the total.Among them, 23 people were transferred to a different county in the same municipality; 103 were transferred to positions of a similar rank in the same municipality; two people were transferred to a different municipality; and one person was transferred out of the government apparatus.Jiang Xuanmin, former head of Hongze County in Huaiyin, was transferred in 1995 to Changzhou as an investigator in the municipal development and planning commission.Chen Weiguo, former head of Guannan in Lianyungang, was transferred to Yancheng in 1998.Tang Zhongfei, former deputy secretary and mayor of Haimen, became a businessman after sixteen years (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006) as a leader in Haimen.
Fourth, 38 people, or 7.8 percent, left their posts in the party and government or retired.Among them, 14 were transferred to the people's congress of the same county; three to the people's congress of the same municipality; seven to the people's political consultative conference of the same county; and two to the people's political consultative conference of the same municipality.One case in particular is related to the predominant pattern of political mobility at the county level.As mentioned above, the majority of county heads were promoted to county party secretaries.This type of promotion has been seen as an entitlement by some county heads.Hu Jianpeng is such an example.Hu was mayor of Zhangjiagang (a county-level city) from 1995 to 1997.He expected to be promoted to Party secretary of Zhangjiagang in the reshuffle at the end of 1997.However, Jiang Hongkun (currently mayor of Nanjing), then deputy secretary and vice mayor of Zhangjiagang, was appointed Party secretary of Zhangjiagang instead.Hu was appointed director of the Bonded Zone Management Committee with a deputy prefectural rank (fu ting ji).From then on, he decided to use his position to make money for his family.

Political mobility of county party secretaries
Compared with county heads in Jiangsu, county party secretaries have experienced fewer turnovers.
During the period of 1990-2006, 454 county party secretaries left their positions with the following patterns (Table 7).
of Nantong Municipal People's Congress), and Wang Zhengyu (a standing member of Nantong Municipal Party Committee and secretary of Nantong Disciplinary Inspection Commission).1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004  Finally, nine party secretaries, including six corrupt officials, were demoted.The most interesting case is Xing Dangying (born 1956).In a day of flood in 1956, a railway worker, Lao Xing (old Xing), discovered a wood bail floating downstream with a dying baby in it.He took the baby home and named him 'Dangying' (the baby of the Party).Dangying was a good student at school and a good worker at work.He was appointed deputy county head at the age of 32, county head (mayor) of Pizhou at 39 in 1992, and Party secretary of Pizhou at 41 in 1994.He was dismissed in July 1997 and was sentenced for life in March 1998 for taking briberies in the amount of 312,000 yuan.After all, even the Party baby could not resist the temptation.

Conclusion
There seems to be a negative correlation between the Chinese political elite's experience in county management and their current rank: 16.7 percent of Politburo members, 38.7 percent of provincial party secretaries, and 55 percent of provincial governors have county management experience.Provincial leaders in Jiangsu seem to confirm this national pattern: 33 percent of provincial party leaders (excluding the military standing member) and 44 percent of the provincial government leaders have county management experience.Yet prefectural leaders in Jiangsu seem to deviate from the pattern: 50 percent of prefectural party leaders and 41 percent of prefectural government leaders in Jiangsu have worked as county leaders previously.
Second, the majority of county leaders in Jiangsu were promoted.Out of 488 county heads who left their positions, 61.3 percent (299 individuals) were promoted; out of 454 county party secretaries that left their positions, 42.3 percent (192 individuals) were promoted.The predominant pattern of promotion among county heads was promotion to county party secretaries.Out of 299 cases, 258 were promoted to county party secretaries, representing 86.3 percent of the total.In contrast, the predominant pattern of

Table 1 The 16th Politburo (2002)
Politburo member and Party secretary of Xinjiang, began his political career in his hometown.According to his official biographical information, Wang was born in Shouguang County, Shandong Province.And his birthplace is probably Sanyuanzhu Village in Shouguang County because one of his brothers, Wang Leyi (born 1941), 2 has been Party secretary of that village since 1978.Sanyuanzhu is now a part of Sunjiaji Neighborhood, which was a township between January 1984 and September 2003. 3Since Sunjiaji did not exist before 1984, it is likely that Sanyuanzhu used to be a part of Houzhen under Shouguang before 1984.At the age of 21, Wang Lequan became deputy head of the Houzhen People's Commune in August 1966. 4He was later promoted to be deputy secretary of the Chengguan People's Commune Party Committee.In April 1975, he became vice chairman of the Shouguang County Revolutionary Committee and deputy secretary of the Shouguang County Party Committee.He was promoted to be chairman of the Shouguang County Revolutionary Committee and secretary of the Shouguang County Party Committee in October 1978.He served as a county leader for seven years.
Similarly, Hui Liangyu, Politburo member and vice premier, also started his political career at grassroots levels in his hometown.He began as a staff member of the Political Department of the Yushu County Revolutionary Committee in January 1969.Three years later, he became deputy head of the Organization Department of the Yushu County Party Committee and concurrently Party secretary of the Yujia People's Commune.He was promoted to be deputy secretary of the Yushu County in December 1974 and was transferred to the Agricultural Bureau of Jilin Province in April 1977.He was a county leader for two and a half years.In contrast, Zhang Dejiang did not start his political career at grassroots organizations.He was vice president of Yanbian University before he entered the local leadership.He became deputy secretary of Yanji, a county-level city sinceMay 1953, in March 1983and stayed in that position until April 1985.His county level experience lasted for two years.5Finally,ChenLiangyu, former Politburo member and former Party secretary of Shanghai, served as deputy secretary and head of the Huangpu District in Shanghai for about five years fromFebruary 1987 to October 1992. 6

Table 2 China's Provincial Party Secretaries (as of March 2007)
Party secretary of Ningxia, had relatively less experience as a county leader.He was Party secretary of Zhifu District as well as standing member of Yantai Municipal Party Committee between October 1983 and December 1984 before he was promoted to vice mayor of Yantai.Finally, Zhang Qingli, Party secretary of Tibet, served as a county leader for about one year and a half; and Qiang Wei, Party secretary of Qinghai, had similar experience for more than two years.Like Wang Lequan and Qian Yunlu, Zhang Qingli also began his political career in his hometown.He became deputy secretary of Dongping County in Shandong in November 1976 and was transferred to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) in June 1978.Twelve years later, Qiang Wei became Party secretary of Shijingshan District in Beijing in November 1990 and served in that capacity until March 1993.

Table 3 China's Governors (as of March 2007) Provinces a Governor b
county-level unit in Inner Mongolia) in November 1985.He was promoted to Party secretary of the same banner in December 1988 and stayed in that office until July 1991.Han Zheng, former acting Party secretary and currently mayor of Shanghai, served as a county-level leader in Shanghai in the 1990s.After having worked as deputy secretary and secretary of CCYL Shanghai Committee for about two and a half years(June 1990-November 1992), he was appointed deputy secretary and acting head of Luwan District in Shanghai in November 1992.Half a year later, he was made the head of the district in May 1993.In July 1995, he was transferred to the Shanghai Municipal Government as deputy secretary general under the leadership of Mayor Xu Kuangdi.His experience as the district leader was about two and a half years long.Wang Jinshan, former governor and now Party secretary of Anhui, has the most complete resume among the provincial governors.Starting off as a middle school teacher in November 1968, he had climbed almost every step of the Chinese bureaucracy before he became governor of Anhui in January 2003.He served briefly as deputy secretary of Lishu County in Jilin between March 1982 and April 1983.He became the vice governor of Jilin at the age of 37.Huang Xiaojing, governor of Fujian, also served as a district leader for about a year.He was made deputy secretary of Gulou District in Fuzhou in December 1983 and stayed in that position until December 1984.In the meantime, he was also concurrently head of Gulou District of Fuzhou.After having served for three years as chairman of the Dujie Commune Revolutionary Committee and Party secretary of the Dujie Commune Party Committee, he was promoted to deputy secretary of Long'an County in December 1980 and further promoted to Party secretary of the county inMay 1984 (until  April 1985).He worked as a leader of Long'an for more than four years.Luo Baoming, governor of Hainan, served as a district leader for five years in Tianjin.After more than 11 years of work in the CCYL Tianjin Committee, he was appointed deputy secretary and acting head of Dagang District in Tianjin in April 1992.One year later, he was made head of the district and became concurrent Party secretary of the district in October 1994 until July 1995.He had three years' experience as a district leader.Wang Hongju, mayor of Chongqing, has had extensive local experience.He became a standing member of Pengshui County Party Committee in February 1983 and was promoted to be its Party secretary in September 1983.He was appointed deputy secretary of Peiling Prefecture in February 1985 and became concurrent Party secretary of Peiling City in April 1988 (Peiling became a county-level city in 1983 and held the position till February 1990.Altogether his county-level management experience in two counties was more than six years.Jiang Jufeng, governor of Sichuan, worked in his hometown of Zhuji in Zhejiang for about two decades.He held various low-level positions for three years in his hometown before he was admitted to Fudan University in October 1978.Starting from a staff member of the Propaganda Department of Zhuji County in September 1983 after his graduation, he rose successfully in the following six years within the county government and party committee.He became deputy head of the county in January 1985 and its Party secretary in February 1987.He was transferred to the General Office of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee in June 1989.His total service as a county leader was four years and a half.The county-level leadership experience of Lin Shusen, governor of Guizhou, is quite unique.He was vice chairman of Heping County People's Congress for almost three years from September 1980 to July 1983 but only three months as vice mayor of Huizhou (a county-level city) from July 1983 to October 1983.Qin Guangrong, governor of Yunnan, was concurrently Party secretary of Lengshuitan (a county-level city) while he was deputy secretary of Lingling Prefecture in Hunan.He served in that dual role for less than two years from August 1988 to March 1990 before he was promoted to Party secretary of Lingling Prefecture in Hunan.Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, also spent three years as a county leader in Tibet.He was Party secretary of Bomi County from October 1980 to October 1983, though during that time he studied in Beijing studying at the Central Party School in Beijing for about a year (from September 1981 to July 1982).Finally, Xu Shousheng, governor of Gansu, had extensive local experience in his hometown in Jiangsu.He was the head of a production team, deputy Party secretary of a brigade, deputy Party secretary of one commune and one district, and Party secretary of a third commune in his hometown of Rudong County in Jiangsu between 1970 and 1981.He became a standing member of the Rudong County Party Committee in December 1981, deputy secretary in April 1984, acting head in October 1985, and Party secretary in February 1990.He was a county leader for ten years.In sum, county governance experience is necessary but not critical for top political elites in China and county-level experience is regressively correlated to the current rank of political elites.None of the standing members of the Politburo have any previous county-level management experience.One-sixth of the Politburo members of November 2002 ever served as county leaders.More than one-third of the provincial party secretaries of March 2007 worked as county leaders.And more than half of the provincial governors of March 2007 had county governance experience.It will be interesting to see whether the same regressive pattern holds for political elites at lower levels.
a This refers to provinces, centrally administered cities, and autonomous regions.Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are exluded because their leaders are non-CCP.bTheyinclude governors, mayors of centrally administred cities, and chairmen of autonomous regions.Home=native province (jiguan) Sources: http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2002-02/20/content_476046.htmYangJing,former chairman of Inner Mongolia and currently minister of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, also had about six years' experience as a county leader.Yang began his political career as a Chinese Communist Youth League cadre.After serving as a secretary in the general office of the Yeke Juu League (now the city of Ordos) for a year, Yang was appointed secretary of the CCYL's Yeke Juu League Committee in October 1983.Two years later, he became deputy secretary and head of the Dalad Banner (a Wu Xinxiong, governor of Jiangxi, had much more extensive experience as a county leader.Wu was made deputy head of Jiangyin County of Jiangsu Province in December 1983, was promoted to deputy secretary of Jiangyin in August 1984, further promoted to executive deputy head of Jiangyin in March 1986, and finally appointed deputy secretary and mayor of Jiangyin (a county-level city) 14 in April 1989.By April 1992, when he was made vice mayor of Wuxi (a prefecture-level city), Wu had already accumulated more than eight years of experience as a county leader.Li Chengyu, former governor of Henan, is also a typical local cadre.He was a standing member of the Haiyuan County Party Committee in Ningxia between July 1973 and June 1978 and vice chairman of the Huanyuan Revolutionary Committee between October 1976 and June 1978.Lu Bing, former chairman of Guangxi Autonomous Region, was a county leader in the 1980s.
If the standing member from Jiangsu Provincial Military District is excluded in the calculation, then one third (33 percent) of provincial party leaders have previous county-level management experience.Neither Party secretary Li Yuanchao nor Deputy Secretary/ Governor Liang Baohua had any experience as a county leader.Li Yuanchao started his political career in CCYL affairs and was one of Hu Jintao's associates in the CCYL Central Committee in the early 1980s, and he was transferred from Beijing to Jiangsu as deputy secretary in September 2000.He was concurrent Party secretary of Nanjing between October 2001 and April 2003.Liang Baohua, on the other hand, is a typical cadre of mishu background.He started off as a staff member (mishu) of the secretary section of the General Office of the Party Committee of Jiangsu Province in November 1981 and moved up to become secretary-general and standing member of the provincial party committee in December 1994.He was concurrent Party secretary of Suzhou between June 1998 and December 2000.While he was director of the Organization Department of Liaocheng Prefectural Party Committee, he became concurrent Party secretary of Gaotang County on February 20, 1993 when Party secretary Gu Qingxue of Gaotang was transferred away.Although he was promoted to deputy secretary of Liaocheng Prefecture in August 1994, he continued as Party secretary of Gaotang.He was replaced by Lu Guangye in March 1995.His tenure as a county leader lasted for two years.Zhao Kezhi, standing member of Jiangsu provincial party committee and executive vice governor of Jiangsu, also gained his experience as a county leader in Shandong.He was deputy secretary and head of Laixi County between April 1984 and March 1987 and was deputy secretary and mayor and then Party secretary of Jimuo (a county-level city) between March 1987 and August 1991.He worked as a county leader for more than seven years.Interestingly, Li Quanlin (born 1949) was Zhang Weiguo's predecessor as Party secretary of Kunshan.Li was deputy secretary of Kunshan for only four months (from October 1990 to February 1991) before his appointment as Party secretary of Kunshan in February 1991.He worked in that capacity for almost five and a half years until September 1996, when he was promoted to deputy director of the Jiangsu Planning and Economic Commission.Qiu He (born 1957), a controversial figure in Jiangsu, also served as a county leader.Between June 1988 and August 1990, he worked as deputy head of Fengxian in Xuzhou to gain local experience.After working in various offices in the provincial government for six years, he in founding a new prefectural-level city of Suqian and became its vice mayor in September 1996.He was concurrent Party secretary of Muyang County between December 1996 and December 2000.He was then promoted to deputy secretary and acting mayor of Suqian in December 2000.During his years as acting mayor, mayor, and especially Party secretary of Suqian, Qiu He introduced a series of controversial reform measures.He was promoted to vice governor of Jiangsu in January 2006.
Zhang Lianzhen (f), the only deputy secretary of Jiangsu without any other roles in either the provincial government or provincial people's congress, had some experience as a county leader.She was deputy secretary and deputy head of Binghai County under Yancheng City in Jiangsu between April 1981 and September 1983.Wang Guosheng, standing member of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and director of the Organization Department, started his political career in his home province of Shandong.He was Party secretary of Gaotang County under Liaocheng Prefecture in the early 1990s.

Table 5 Jiangsu's Prefectural Leaders with County Experience (as of March 2007)
Source: Author's database.

Table 6 Political Mobility of Jiangsu's County Heads (1990-2006)
Ten people retired completely, and another two retired partially.Fifth, only two county heads were demoted.Xu Hongyi, former head of Beitang District in Wuxi, was appointed deputy head of the Construction Bureau of Wuxi.Li Mingcai, former head of Pukou District in Nanjing, was made a deputy head of the city's Water Resources Bureau.Finally, only one county head was dismissed from office for corruption.Fu Cheng, former head of Xuanwu District of Nanjing, was disciplined in early 2006.Born in 1963, Fu Cheng was once a personal secretary (mishu) of Wang Wulong, former Party secretary of Nanjing.Fu Cheng was dismissed possibly because of his involvement in corruption as Wang Wulong's personal secretary.Wang reportedly helped his brother, Wang Wenlong, in the latter's business dealings and was subsequently dismissed from his post as vice chairman of the Jiangsu People's Congress and expelled from the Party.However, the fact that no other county leaders in Jiansu had been accused of corruption in office did not mean that county heads in Jiangsu were basically clean.Corrupt officials were mostly not caught in office.Some of them were caught later, and some became corrupt later.Zheng Fazhong, for example, took bribes when he was the head of Siyang County in Suqian between December 1996 and March 1999.After he was made chair of the Siyang County People's Congress in March 1999, he continued to extort 'contributions' from others.He was later sentenced for eleven years for corruption.Rong Wenfeng, as another example, was mayor of Gaoyou (county-level city) and vice mayor of Yangzhou.She was found guilty of taking bribes 113 times from 37 people between 1991 and 2001 with the total amount of 1.16 million yuan.She was sentenced for 15 years Another official, Wang Xinmin, was head and mayor of Jingjiang (a county-level city) in Yangzhou between 1991 and 1996 and became chair of the city's People's Political Consultative Conference in 1996.He was found in 1997 guilty on accounts of taking bribes, raping, and gambling and was sentenced to death with two years' probation.Li Yuanzhang began taking bribes when he was deputy secretary and head of Sihong County under Huaiyin between 1993 and 1996.But he was transferred to the Huaiyin municipal government as chief of the Labor Bureau in 1997 and was made chair of Sihong County People's Congress in 1998.He was caught in 2000 and sentenced for seven years.Yu Ruimao was known as a 'womanizing county head' (hua xian zhang) when he was head of Fengxian in Xuzhou in the early 1990s.He was transferred to the Xuzhou municipal government in 1992 as the head of Xuzhou Municipal Public Utilities Bureau.He was later made head of the Xuzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau in 1999.He was found guilty of taking bribes mainly during his tenure as bureau chief.Xu Guoxi, former head of Suqian under Huaiyin, became head of the Finance Bureau of Huaiyin municipal government in March 1991 and was found guilty of taking (together with his wife, Guan Xia) 33 bribes between 1987 and 1996.There are other similar cases, such as Zhang Donglin (former head of Tianning District and vice mayor of Changzhou), and Xu Heping (former head of Qishuyan in Changzhou).
Xu Shousheng was promoted from Party secretary of Rudong County in Nantong to deputy secretary of Lianyungang in December 1991.Yu Jiashu was promoted from Party secretary of Wuxi County to deputy secretary of Lianyungang in December 1992.Chen Zilong was promoted from Party secretary of Huai'an in Huaiyin to vice mayor of a newly established Suqian Municipality in September 1996.Zhu Hongchun was promoted from Party secretary of Yandu in Yancheng to director of Organization Department in Nantong in 1999.Chen Zhenyi was promoted from Party secretary of Changlang in Suzhou to secretary of Wuxi Municipal Disciplinary Inspection Commission in 2001.Huang Jipeng (born 1960) was transferred from vice mayor of Xuzhou and concurrent Party secretary of Peixian in Xuzhou to vice mayor of Wuxi in July 2003.Wang Jianhua was promoted from Party secretary of Jiangning District in Nanjing to Party secretary of Lianyungang in June 2005, replacing Chen Zhenning.Cao Xinping was promoted from Party secretary of Kunshan (a county-level city) in Suzhou to mayor of Xuzhou (a prefectural-level municipality) in June 2006.Wang Zhengyu (born 1956) was promoted from Party secretary of Gaoyou in Yanzhou to a standing member of Nantong Municipal Party Committee and secretary of Nantong Disciplinary Inspection Commission in September 2006.Third, another 124 people (23.7 percent) were transferred.Among them, 46 were transferred within the same municipality; 71 to same-rank positions in the same municipality; six to a different municipality; and one to the provincial government.Yan Changjun, former Party secretary of Rudong in Nantong, was transferred to Jiangsu's provincial government as a deputy director of the Grain Bureau with one-year probation.Fourth, more party secretaries than county heads retired: 113 party secretaries versus 38 county heads .Of the retiring party secretaries, 16 went to the people's congress of the same county; 39 to the people's congress of the same municipality; six to the people's political consultative conference of the same county; and 23 to the people's political consultative conference of the same municipality.23 people retired completely, and six people partially.Interestingly, three party secretaries became school administrators.These include Li Konghui, Zhou Dexin (born 1942), and Liu Wenyu.Their decisions might have been related to their educational background.Zhou Dexin, for instance, was a graduate of Jiangsu Normal College in 1964.After having served Changshu as mayor and Party secretary in the early 1990s, he went back to his alma mater (now Suzhou University since 1982) as vice president in 1995.