On March 13th, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission published an article titled “Warning: Lost in Self-Interest, Twisted Family Ties, and Deepening Moral Decline.” It analyzed the serious disciplinary and legal violations of Yang Xingyou, former member of the Party Committee and former deputy director of the board of directors of the Guizhou Supply and Marketing Cooperative Union. A plethora of details revealing Yang Xingyou’s corruption and unethical conduct were disclosed for the first time.
Yang Xingyou, born in May 1962, began working in August 1982 and joined the Communist Party of China in July 1984. He is a native of Guizhou and has been working within the province. In October 2018, he was transferred to the Party Committee of the Guizhou Supply and Marketing Cooperative Union as a member and deputy director of the board of directors. He retired in December 2020.
In March 2022, Yang Xingyou was investigated, and in September 2022, he was expelled from the Party and had his retirement benefits revoked. In March 2023, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for bribery and fined one million yuan.
The disciplinary report showed that Yang Xingyou had numerous issues: he used the opportunity of hosting banquets to amass wealth, drank alcohol during official trips in violation of regulations, sought benefits for others in cadre selection, staff recruitment, and job transfers, abused his power for the benefit of relatives, engaged in corruption and debauchery, violated lifestyle disciplines, participated in gambling activities, and engaged in gross corruption through power and money transactions. The report also mentioned that he committed official misconduct, gambling, and was suspected of bribery.
Today’s article on the Commission’s website revealed more details of Yang Xingyou’s illegal and disciplinary actions.
The article mentioned that over the past 20 years, Yang Xingyou had accumulated millions of yuan in cash and high-end baijiu received from others as gifts for New Year, festivals, and celebrations.
Whenever someone gave him high-end baijiu, regardless of whether it was a bottle or several cases, Yang Xingyou accepted them all. He received hundreds of bottles of high-end liquor from subordinates and management service recipients while helping them coordinate engineering contracts, project undertakings, and resolving work transfers and promotions. Yang Xingyou used a set of houses measuring over 100 square meters in Zunyi specifically to store high-end baijiu. He also stored high-end baijiu on the balcony and under the bed at his home in Guiyang. During inspections and investigations, he repeatedly arranged for others to transfer and store the liquor involved in the case in an attempt to resist organizational inspections and investigations.
In the eyes of Yang Xingyou’s fellow villagers and businessman friends, his son was Yang Xingyou’s “spokesperson” and their gateway to getting close to Yang Xingyou and seeking illicit benefits for themselves. Yang Xingyou turned a blind eye to the bribery acts of some businessman friends who bribed his son under the guise of helping him “start a business” in various ways. To obtain Yang Xingyou’s assistance, businessman Wang paid project engineering fees totaling 900,000 yuan through Yang’s son. With Yang Xingyou’s tacit approval and indulgence, his son received hundreds of thousands of yuan in “gratitude fees,” becoming Yang Xingyou’s biggest “assistance” in corruption.
It is noted that Yang Xingyou had previously been disciplined in December 2018. At that time, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment summarized and released the accountability of the third batch of cases transferred openly by seven provinces in the central environmental protection inspection. Among the typical cases of accountability reported was the prominent environmental issue in the Caohai National Nature Reserve in Guizhou, located in Weining County.
As a result, multiple officials were disciplined. Among them, Yang Xingyou, deputy secretary and deputy director of the Provincial Agricultural Committee (then deputy secretary of the Bijie Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Weining County Party Committee), was given a serious warning within the Party.
In December 2022, Guizhou reported eight typical cases of violating the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulation, in which Yang Xingyou was also mentioned. Many instances involved “drinking high-end liquor”: from 2013 to 2021, Yang Xingyou repeatedly accepted gifts and money from management service recipients, totaling 125,900 yuan. In March and July 2018, Yang Xingyou violated the regulation prohibiting alcohol consumption during official trips in Guizhou Province, consuming high-end liquor. From 2012 to 2014, while serving as secretary of the Weining County Party Committee, Yang Xingyou attended banquets arranged by management service recipients and drank high-end liquor.