Former Politburo member and Xinjiang Communist Party chief Ma Xingrui has been stripped of party membership and dismissed from public office following an anti-corruption investigation.
Ma, 67, who once headed China’s new-generation carrier rocket programme, is the third member of the Politburo – the party’s elite political body – to come under investigation in the current term that began in 2022, a situation unseen in decades.
Before his role in Xinjiang, Ma became deputy party secretary of the southern province of Guangdong in 2013 after a brief stint at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. He went on to become party secretary of Shenzhen, provincial vice-governor and then governor.
The Politburo reviewed and approved the report on Ma’s cases by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the party’s top disciplinary and anti-corruption body, on June 30, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
Ma was found to have “lost his ideals and beliefs”, abandoned “his political conviction”, “betrayed the party’s principles and original mission” and “seriously violated [the party’s] political discipline and rules”, the report said.
China announced the investigation into Ma in April.
The CCDI accused him of “improperly accepting gifts and money, helping relatives buy houses at discounted prices” and engaging in “power-for-sex and money-for-sex transactions”.
Ma also condoned efforts by his relatives to profit from his influence, “fostering rampant corruption across his family”, it said.
“He distorted public power [entrusted to him] into a tool for personal gain, using his position to seek benefits for others in business operations, project contracting and job promotions,” the report said.
It added that Ma, via family members or associates, had been “illegally accepting huge amounts of money and property”.
The investigation also found that he “neglected to supervise and manage the serious violations of [party] discipline and law and suspected crimes committed by his staff”, resulting in severe consequences.
According to the CCDI’s charges, Ma was also found to have intervened with personnel decisions, “seeking benefits for others in cadre selection and appointment, and improperly arranging jobs for others, personally and through relatives”.
Ma did not truthfully confess his corruption during the CCDI’s initial inquiries, the commission said, adding that his behaviour continued after the 18th party congress, when President Xi Jinping announced his sweeping anti-corruption campaign and strict official conduct rules.
Ma’s conduct was “extremely serious in nature and [he was] an extremely bad influence”, the CCDI’s report said. His ill-gotten gains would be confiscated and Ma handed over to the judiciary to face trial.
Ma succeeded Chen Quanguo as party boss of the sensitive western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 2021, becoming a Politburo member the following year at the 20th party congress.
With the removal of Ma and two top military leaders, the Politburo is down to 21 members.
He Weidong, former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s top military command body, led by Xi, was expelled from the party and military in October.
Another CMC vice-chairman, Zhang Youxia, was placed under investigation for suspected serious violations of party discipline and law, the defence ministry said in January.
A slew of officials from Xinjiang have come under investigation in recent months.
They include Chen Weijun, former executive vice-chairman of Xinjiang whose case was announced in December, and Li Xu, former deputy commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, whose investigation was made public in January.
As an aerospace expert, Ma spent many years working at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, serving as its general manager from 2007 to 2013.
During that time, Ma was both deputy commander-in-chief of China’s manned space programme and commander-in-chief of the new-generation carrier rocket project. Several of his former subordinates in the aerospace sector have been caught in the anti-corruption net in the past few years. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
