Tang Shuangning, the former Chairperson of state-owned Chinese banking behemoth Everbright Group, was arrested on charges of embezzlement, accepting bribes and “privately reading publications with serious political problems,” China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on Monday.
Just days ago on January 7, Shuangning was expelled from the Chinese Community Party on charges of “serious violations of disciplines and laws,” according to China’s highest internal corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
The case against Everbight’s Shuangning is also being investigated by the CCDI, per reporting from the state-run Global Times, which also reported that prosecutors decided to charge Shuangning following a referral from the country’s National Commission of Supervision.
Shuangning led the Everbright Group, one of China’s largest financial operations, during a surge in the state’s domestic economy from 2007 until 2017. However, towards the end of the decade, the firm came under intense scrutiny from state regulators, which led to numerous corruption scandals.
In 2019, then-Everbright chair Chen Shuang resigned and was placed under investigation by the CCDI, according to the South China Morning Post. No follow-up on that investigation was ever provided publicly by state officials.
In recent years, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s domestic corruption crackdown has escalated at a rapid pace. In October of 2023, former Bank of China chair Liu Liange was also arrested following an investigation by the CCDI. Facing internal pressure due to a prolonged economic slowdown, Jinping’s party apparatus arrested a record-high 42 officials on corruption charges in 2023, per data provided by Yahoo Finance.
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