Chen Gang, deputy secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and director of the Xiongan New Area Management Committee, will be appointed as secretary of the party group of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing.
The new Xiong’an New Area in Hebei province, which was set by Xi Jinping himself, has not taken off in the past three years, with loud thunder but little rain, and is regarded as China’s biggest “bad project”, as evidenced by the frequent entry of high-level personnel. The new Xiong’an New Area’s chief, Chen Gang, who seems to be a popular official, was suddenly transferred to the National Federation of Trade Unions at a young age, raising suspicions that something big has happened.
According to sources quoted by the pro-Beijing media on December 24, Chen Gang, deputy secretary of the Hebei provincial party committee and director of the Xiongan New Area management committee, will be promoted to the full ministerial level as secretary of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) party group in Beijing. The All-China Federation is chaired by Wang Dongming, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and the current party secretary, Li Yufu, is 66 years old.
Chen Gang, 55, was formerly secretary of the Chaoyang District Party Committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee. After the 18th CPC National Congress, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee, and became the manipulator of Guizhou’s big data. After Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of Xiong’an New Area, he became vice governor of Hebei and director of the Xiong’an New Area Management Committee, in charge of the Xiong’an security front, and was promoted to deputy secretary of the provincial party committee two months ago. He is also an alternate member of the 19th Central Committee, and in the eyes of the outside world, he can be considered to have a promising career.
However, now Chen Gang suddenly transferred to the National Federation of Trade Unions, surprising exactly what happened to the Xiongan New Area he was in charge of?
Observe that Wang Dongming, now 64 years old, was transferred from the secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee to the vice chairman of the National People’s Congress in 2018 at the age of 62 and also took the helm of the National Federation of Trade Unions chairman. Li Yufu, who moved from deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to party secretary of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions six years ago, is also min 60 years old. Now Chen just 55 years old to transfer to the National Federation of idle positions, is obviously a clear promotion and dark decline.
The new area of Xiongan has seen key personnel changes, and there must be a problem when things go wrong.
On April 1, 2017, the Xiong’an New Area in Hebei, which was decided by Xi Jinping himself, was officially touted as a so-called “millennium plan and national event” and was officially qualified as another new area of national significance after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Shanghai Pudong New Area. However, since the establishment of Xiongnu New Area, there have been many corruption scandals, no progress in construction, but repeated changes in personnel. The slow progress of the Xiongnu New Area’s large-scale construction has led netizens to describe it as the Communist Party’s biggest “bad project”.
On April 1, 2017, when Beijing authorities decided to set up the Xiongan New Area, Yuan Tongli, a member of the Standing Committee of the provincial party committee and executive vice governor, was appointed interim party secretary of the Xiongan New Area Preparatory Committee. On June 2 of the same year, it was changed to Chen Gang, who was transferred from the secretary of the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee to the Standing Committee of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee.
But after a strong publicity boom, by 2018, the Xiongan New Area seemed to fall silent, and large-scale construction did not start, sparking suspicion.
Yin Zhi, an expert in planning and design of the Xiongan New Area and a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Architecture, was quoted in Sina Finance on August 20, 2018 as saying that the political reason for the slow construction of the Xiongan New Area is that it has been relatively repressive for nearly a decade, “discouraging institutional exploration and innovation, and discouraging the government from taking charge,” so the construction of the Xiongan New Area is not at a time when the timing is right and the people are at their best.
That’s why nearly two years have passed and so far no shovel of earth has been moved, because many things have not been figured out,” said Yin Zhi.
On January 16, 2019, Xi Jinping said that Xiongan “has not moved a single brick or tile in the past two years” during his research in Xiongan New Area in Hebei. This statement is suspected of accidentally leaking Xi’s dissatisfaction.
To this day, three years after the construction of Xiongan New Area, it still does not seem to have made much progress.
On April 1, 2020, the official media “China News Service” reported the release of several pictures showing that the main structure of the Xiongan New Area site is still not completed, and there is still a large area of wasteland around it.
In the second half of 2019, personnel in the Xiongan New Area moved frequently.
On Sept. 2, Liu Chuncheng, who was 51 years old and served as general manager of Xiongnu Group in August 2017, was transferred to the party secretary of the Hebei Academy of Sciences.
On September 3, Niu Jingfeng, who has been the deputy director of the party group work department of the Xiongnu New Area in Hebei since the preparation of the Xiongnu New Area, was also transferred to the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Hebei Engineering University.
The Xiongan New Area has become a corruption-ridden area since its inception.
On March 28, four days before the official establishment of the Xiongan New Area, the website of the Communist Party of China’s Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision said that Wu Yafei, the former county party secretary of Xiong County in Baoding City, was suspected of “serious disciplinary violations” and was currently under review.
According to overseas party media, Wu Yafei is suspected to be involved in using insider information to profit from the birth of the new area.
On May 20, 2018, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and China’s State Supervision Commission (SSC) announced on their websites that Wu Lifang, deputy secretary-general of the Hebei provincial government, is under investigation for allegedly committing a “serious disciplinary offence”.
Hong Kong media reported that Wu Lifang was involved in issues related to his tenure as deputy secretary of Baoding City and the recent development of Xiongan New Area.
In addition, in July this year, the mainland media reported that the Xiongan New Area had launched a drone “eye in the sky” to monitor and inspect hidden food and drink issues. The inspection teams were not only equipped with special equipment such as law enforcement recorders, alcohol meters and cameras, but also launched the drone “eye in the sky” to supervise and inspect the hidden eating and drinking problems, and the effect was obvious.
The official move was seen by netizens as proof of the seriousness of corruption in Xiongan New Area.
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