Dongfeng Motor continued to fight corruption, and two marketing executives were investigated after many years of resignation
Dongfeng Motor's continuous high-pressure anti-corruption has attracted the attention of the industry.
On November 29, Zhou Kun, the former executive general manager of Dongfeng Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., was examined and investigated, which was the 15th management personnel to be investigated by Dongfeng Motor in the second half of the year.
According to the public notice of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Dongfeng Motor Company: in the first half of 2023, the company's discipline inspection and supervision institutions at all levels will handle a total of 297 clues, a year-on-year increase of 1.71%, and 80 cases will be filed, a year-on-year increase of 9.59%;
Since July 2023, the list of 15 people publicly notified by the Discipline Inspection Commission of Dongfeng Group is as follows:
In this list, Xiong Yi and Huo Jing, both from marketing, were investigated after resigning from Dongfeng for 6 years and more than 7 years respectively, and the two were dismissed less than 4 months apart. Whether the corruption of the two is related has attracted much attention in the industry.
The New Yellow River reporter combed through the timeline of the resumes of the two and found a lot of intersections:
Mapping of the New Yellow River
It is worth mentioning that Chen Xi, who succeeded Xiong Yi as the head of the marketing and sales department of Dongfeng Renault in 2016, was under supervision and investigation in August 2021, and during Xiong Yi's tenure, Qu Gang, who served as the assistant director of the marketing and sales department of Dongfeng Renault (later followed Xiong Yi to off-road e-family, Borgward and other companies), was also investigated in August 2021.
According to China Youth Daily, Chen Xi has only served as the head of the marketing and sales department for just over two years. In October 2018, Chen Xi resigned from Dongfeng Renault and joined Bojun Automobile, a new EV manufacturer, as vice president of marketing and sales, and in March 2020, Chen Xi served as the general manager of Chery Automobile's Xingtu brand marketing center until 2021.
According to an industry insider, Chen Xi, Qu Gang, and Xiong Yi, the three people under investigation, are responsible for the marketing and marketing sectors, and they are also the "hardest hit areas" of corruption where power is concentrated. All three personnel were investigated many years after leaving the company, which shows the strength of Dongfeng's anti-corruption work.
The automobile portal "Qishi Media" has disclosed that from May to June 2020, a number of media and auto company peers have received breaking news emails. The content of the revelations pointed out that Xiong and Huo formed a close-knit "iron triangle" with another Dongfeng marketing executive at that time. The trio have come all the way from Dongfeng, Borgward, and Ford, and have always favored a public relations company in the bidding, which is related to Huo Jing's husband. The revelation also said that Xiong Yi had transferred benefits to consulting companies affiliated with him by increasing capital and holding shares. These revelations have been denied by the parties concerned, and there is no authoritative media to verify them, and now after Xiong and Huo are investigated, if the details of their violations of discipline and law are made public, the content of the leaking email may be authentic.
In the past three years, Dongfeng Group's total sales have shown a downward trend year by year, with 2.87 million units, 2.78 million units and 2.46 million units from 2020 to 2022, respectively, and the cumulative sales volume from January to October this year continued to decline by about 19.2% year-on-year to 1.6969 million units, which is less than 60% away from the annual sales target (3 million units).