Political Violence Hit Son of Chinese Anti-Corruption Official

The son of the former head of the Chinese Communist Party’s anti-corruption bureau was assassinated in January 2007, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks on Sept. 1, 2011. The cable, prepared by U.S. consul general in Shanghai, Kenneth Jarrett, was not widely reported at the time.

The son of former Central Commission for Discipline Inspection chief Wu Guanzheng, Wu Zuhua, was murdered while “on a business trip to the city of Qingdao in Shandong Province to ink a contract for the state-owned enterprise for which he worked,” according to the leaked cable. Wu Zuhua was CEO of a real estate business called Tianyi, according to overseas Chinese media Boxun. Records of Tianyi being purchased 11 months after Zuhua’s death were found on e696.com, a finance information website certified by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The cable also said that communist leader Hu Jintao’s son made special security arrangements after being targeted for assassination in 2006. It cited information provided by Gu Su, a professor of philosophy and law at Nanjing University, and later explained that Gu has a relative who works in the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

Gu was also the source for the news of the Wu Zuhua killing.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is supposed to sniff out corrupt officials within the Communist Party, but stepping on the wrong toes can be fatal. The murder of Wu’s son was a warning message from his political enemies, who were infuriated by his “investigations into Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu’s corruption and investigations into the corrupt activities of unnamed top-level Beijing municipal leaders,” the cable said, citing Gu Su. 

Chen Liangyu was sentenced to 18 years in 2009, but a year later he was bailed out to retire in the coastal city of Hangzhou.

According to the consul general’s cable, Wu was devastated by his son’s death as Wu Zuhua was seen as the family’s future representative in politics. In 2009, Wu’s other son, Wu Hanhua, was promoted as the secretary to the governor of Hebei province. He since took on the name Jiang Bo, according to Chinese media reports.

The email referred to other incidents of political violence in Shandong, and mentioned that some high-level Communist Party leaders, including propaganda chief Li Changchun, have close ties with organized criminal gangs.