Dangshan County Party Committee and County Government Office Building. (Southern Weekly reporter Zhai Xingli/Photo)
Another former "star county official" was dismissed.
On April 10, 2024, the Anhui Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision announced that Zhu Xueliang, the former first-level inspector of the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, was dismissed.
The highlight of Zhu Xueliang's political career was in June 2015, when he was the secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee in Anhui Province and was awarded the title of National Excellent County Party Secretary.
Until Zhu Xueliang was investigated, in the past two years, three former secretaries of the Dangshan County Party Committee have been dismissed.
Zhu Xueliang became the secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee in November 2011 and left office in September 2015. His successor, Wang Guangmin, was investigated in May 2022 as vice chairman of the Suzhou CPPCC. Replacing Wang Guangmin as secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee is Tao Guanghong, and in August 2023, Tao Guanghong, who has been transferred to the secretary of the Xiao County Party Committee in Anhui Province, was investigated.
From November 2011 to March 2022, Zhu Xueliang, Wang Guangmin, and Tao Guanghong successively presided over Dangshan and "teamed up" each other. In particular, during Zhu Xueliang's tenure as secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, the three of them were still in the same "team"; at that time, Wang Guangmin was the county magistrate, and Tao Guanghong was the deputy secretary of the county party committee.
In 2011, when Zhu Xueliang served as secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, it was the first year of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", and the scale of Anhui's electronic information and high-end equipment manufacturing industry exceeded the 100 billion yuan mark for the first time, emerging in the field of strategic emerging industries. But the tuyere has nothing to do with Dangshan. Under the rule of Zhu Xueliang, Dangshan began to move towards the road of comprehensive urban construction. The successors, Wang Guangmin and Tao Guanghong, basically continued the ruling idea of "big city construction".
During the ten years they were in charge of Dangshan, this small county in northern Anhui missed the opportunity to undertake industrial transfer, and its economic development level ranked first from the bottom among the four counties in Suzhou for many years.
Agricultural counties began to "build cities"
There is a nursery rhyme in Dangshan County: "The skin of Dangshan pear is so thin that you can't find it when you fall to the ground." "This small county in northern Anhui, located at the junction of Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and Henan provinces, is rich in pears and takes fruit production as its pillar industry.
The old town of Dangshan is built on an island in the middle of the lake, and there is a bridge in the south, east, and west to connect with the land. The urban expansion of Dangshan is the expansion of the surrounding land around the ancient city area. From the Old Town, there are residential and commercial plazas built in the last 20 years in all directions.
Before being promoted to secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, Zhu Xueliang first served as a county magistrate in Dangshan for two and a half years. He was born as a middle school mathematics teacher, and after teaching in Suzhou No. 3 Middle School for three years, he was transferred to the Suzhou Municipal Education Commission and officially entered the official career. In his early years, a colleague in the Education Commission recalled to a reporter from Southern Weekend that Zhu Xueliang was well-read and memorized, and he still maintained a reading habit after work, and his material writing level was extremely high, which was appreciated by the leaders.
In 2002, Zhu Xueliang, who had been engaged in secretarial work for many years, was "parachuted" from the director of the Research Office of the Organization Department of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee to Xiao County, serving as a member of the Standing Committee of the County Party Committee and Minister of Organization, and was promoted to Deputy Secretary of the County Party Committee that year.
In April 2009, Zhu Xueliang was promoted to the county magistrate of Dangshan County, and two years later he was transferred to the county party secretary.
A person who worked in the Dangshan County Party Committee at the time remembered that after Zhu Xueliang arrived as the magistrate of Dangshan County, he often rode his bicycle in the morning to exercise near the park, which became a joke in the officialdom for a while.
After being promoted to secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, Zhu Xueliang did another thing to change the ecology of Dangshan officialdom: he announced his mobile phone number to the people of the county, and also pasted his mobile phone number on the road signs of national highways. He only had a cell phone at the time.
The above-mentioned person told the Southern Weekend reporter that in the early days of announcing the phone number, Zhu Xueliang received hundreds of calls every day, and the most was more than 200 calls a day. Someone persuaded him to apply for another mobile phone number, but he refused. ”
In 2015, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee awarded the title of National Outstanding County Party Secretary to 102 people who had achieved outstanding results in the post of secretary of the county (city, district, banner) party committee, and Zhu Xueliang was one of them.
"Being close to the people" is one of Zhu Xueliang's main "political achievements." In an interview with local media in Anhui Province after being named the national outstanding secretary of the county party committee, Zhu Xueliang said that in the years after the phone number was announced, he would only receive 10 or 20 calls a day, because most of the problems reported to him by the masses had been resolved.
"In fact, in the next few years, he could receive a lot of calls every day, at most 100 a day, reflecting many demolition problems," the person said, "The demolition was led by Lao Zhu, and he didn't care about (the problems arising from the demolition), and then he didn't answer strange calls." ”
During Zhu Xueliang's administration, Dangshan County has always been a key county in the country's poverty alleviation work. Throughout Zhu Xueliang's work report on the work of the Dangshan County People's Government during his tenure, there are two main levers for his administration: promoting Dangshan pear and comprehensively opening up the construction of the city.
Zhu Xueliang's transformation of Dangshan urban area is all-round. In 2013 alone, Dangshan County implemented 31 key urban construction projects, covering urban road construction and renovation, bridge construction, road and water system greening, parking lot construction, new parking lot construction, opening up new bus routes and shantytown renovation.
In 2010, the area of the central area of Dangshan County was 24 square kilometers. In the first two years of Zhu Xueliang's administration, the area of the central area expanded by 3 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the expansion of one-eighth of the county seat in two years.
"The urban construction of Dangshan did not start from Lao Zhu, but it was carried forward from Lao Zhu. The above-mentioned person said, "Because Lao Zhu began large-scale demolition and shantytown renovation in order to find land for developers." ”
He recalled that when Zhu Xueliang started the construction of the big city, Dangshan officialdom always had two different opinions, one was to abandon the old city to build a new city, and the other was to comprehensively renovate the old city, "The former has invested too much, and Dangshan is a poor county with no money." He said.
The price of the latter option is that the shantytowns in the old town of Dangshan have been almost uprooted, and the traditional residential areas have been demolished on a large scale in the name of demolition. At the same time, real estate developers poured into Dangshan, and batches of newly built commercial housing communities sprung up.
"There have never been so many developers in Dangshan before," the person said, "and the land that the developers want is in good locations, and the demolition is very noisy, and the people are petitioning everywhere." ”
When Wang Guangmin was the secretary of the county party committee, the Dangshan County government forcibly demolished the enterprise wall and built a baffle to cover it. (Southern Weekly reporter Zhai Xingli/Photo)
"Boss Wang"
In September 2015, Zhu Xueliang was promoted to the Standing Committee of the Huainan Municipal Party Committee and head of the Organization Department, and the post of secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee was taken over by Wang Guangmin, the county magistrate.
"I finally got on camera today. Lao Zhu has pressed me here for a few years, not to mention asking me to go on camera and touch scissors, I can't even go up to the rostrum. Not long after Zhu Xueliang left office, Wang Guangmin said to the people around him after participating in a ribbon-cutting event. A cadre of the Dangshan County Bureau of Commerce, who was also at the event, remembered that Wang Guangmin was in a good mood and asked for more ribbon-cutting activities.
After Wang Guangmin was dismissed, the notice of the Anhui Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision pointed out that he was "keen to stand on the platform".
Although Wang Guangmin has a lot of dissatisfaction with Zhu Xueliang, the news of the discord between the two when they "teamed up" has long been circulated in Dangshan officialdom. However, Wang Guangmin still copied Zhu Xueliang in terms of governing ideas.
In his first year in office, Wang Guangmin presided over the completion of 22 shantytown renovation projects, with an area of 3,865 acres, which greatly surpassed his predecessor in terms of intensity.
In the eyes of this cadre of China Merchants, Wang Guangmin's political vision is not very sharp. He explained that in 2015, when Wang Guangmin took over as secretary of the county party committee, northern Anhui had gradually undertaken the transfer of some industries between Hefei and the Yangtze River Delta. Since then, Suzhou City and Anhui Province have successively introduced some support policies, but Dangshan County has almost no response. In 2020, 24 measures were introduced at the national level to support northern Anhui to undertake industrial transfer agglomeration areas, "By this time, Dangshan has missed this round of opportunities." For an agricultural county, it's a pity. ”
During Wang Guangmin's tenure as secretary of the county party committee, his work was also remarkable. He was very interested in the e-commerce trend of Dangshan's most advantageous agricultural product, Dangshan pear, and also arranged for the commerce department to organize a live broadcast, and he appeared on camera to explain.
Dangshan County has given birth to the fruit industry with its unique sandy soil resources and light and heat conditions, and is known as the "pear capital of the world and the hometown of fruits". According to the data on the website of the Dangshan County People's Government, Dangshan County has an area of more than 700,000 mu of fruits, including more than 400,000 mu of Dangshan pears and more than 200,000 mu of peaches. In 2023, the total fruit output of the county will be 1.6514 million tons, and the output value of the primary industry will be 6.003 billion yuan.
Heading south from Dangshan County, you can see a continuous orchard after about 7 kilometers. The pear tree has sprouted, and its branches are covered with white pear blossoms.
"Agricultural products should walk on two legs, industrialization and e-commerce. The cadre said, but in the industrialization of Dangshan pear, Wang Guangmin has almost no achievements, and the brand effect of Dangshan pear has not met expectations.
In addition to the level of governance, among the three former secretaries of the Dangshan County Party Committee who have been dismissed, Wang Guangmin's reputation is also not good.
"He's very social. The above-mentioned cadres of the Commerce Bureau said that when Wang Guangmin was the magistrate of Dangshan County, problems such as his life style and openly eating and drinking with businessmen had already spread in Dangshan officialdom, "so some people gave him the nickname 'Boss Wang'." ”
According to the cadre, Wang Guangmin's inappropriate dealings with businessmen have almost reached the point where everyone knows about it. Among them, most of the people who have close contacts with Wang Guangmin are real estate developers and engineering builders, including developers of Dangshan Ancient City Project, Sunrise Shangcheng Community, and Yujing International Community.
This can be confirmed in Wang Guangmin's verdict. In 2018, Wang Mou, a businessman from Hangzhou, approached Wang Guangmin, then secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, and planned to invest in the Rising Sun Shangcheng project in Dangshan. In the process of contact, the family members of the two have become more and more frequent, and a close bond has been established.
According to the verdict, during the investment inspection stage, Wang Guangmin was his "consultant" and "military advisor". After signing the contract, in the process of demolition, Wang Guangmin dispatched on the spot and successfully solved the problem of demolition of nail households. During the implementation of the project, in order to help Wang, Wang Guangmin often invited county leaders and department heads to eat in Wang's company canteen. When the project was not going well, Wang Guangmin also called an executive deputy county magistrate to Wang's company canteen and asked him to pay attention to the solution.
During the interview, a reporter from Southern Weekly learned that it was an open secret that Wang Guangmin bought and sold official positions during his tenure. The Anhui Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision's notice to Wang Guangmin also wrote: "Using his position to facilitate others to seek benefits in fund allocation, project contracting, work transfer, etc., and illegally accepting huge amounts of property, destroying the political ecology and business environment of the area where he works." ”
Li Ping, an employee of Dangshan County Agricultural Machinery Bureau, has a deep understanding of this.
In 2016, Li Ping reported the financial problems of the bureau director in real name. In July 2017, Li Ping, his wife, and younger brother were suddenly detained by local police on suspicion of "contract fraud". In July 2018, the Dangshan County Court sentenced the three to one year and three months to one year and six months in prison for "contract fraud."
After the three appealed, in January 2019, the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court found that the facts of the original judgment were unclear and the evidence was insufficient, and ruled to revoke the original judgment and remand for a new trial. During the retrial, the Dangshan County Procuratorate withdrew the indictment on the grounds that the facts were unclear and the evidence insufficient. On November 25, 2021, the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court awarded state compensation to Li Ping and three others.
Li Ping said that during his report to the bureau chief, Wang Guangmin, secretary of the county party committee, asked someone to intercede, "It is not necessary for me to report the bureau chief, and if there are any requests, I can directly submit them to Wang Guangmin." Li Ping said that it was Wang Guangmin who promoted the director of the Agricultural Machinery Bureau.
After Li Ping's family was rehabilitated, they continue to report to this day. At that time, Wang Guangmin, who asked someone to intercede with him, was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Wuhu Intermediate People's Court in February 2024 for accepting bribes.
"Total Breaking Discipline"
In April 2021, Wang Guangmin was promoted to vice chairman of the Suzhou CPPCC, and Tao Guanghong took over the post of secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee.
Tao Guanghong has intersections with Zhu Xueliang and Wang Guangmin. When Wang Guangmin served as the secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, Tao Guanghong was the deputy secretary of the county party committee, and during Wang's tenure as secretary of the county party committee, Tao served as the county magistrate for five years.
Tao Guanghong and Wang Guangmin are also not on good terms. A relative of Tao Guanghong recalled that when Wang Guangmin was the secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, the county party committee had a small canteen outside, and there were special cooks and waiters to serve some leading cadres and businessmen. ”
The relative said that Tao Guanghong believed that the first time he was publicly criticized by his superiors after entering the official career was that he was implicated by Wang Guangmin.
In March 2017, staff from the Dangshan County Environmental Protection Bureau were violently obstructed and beaten while inspecting Yixiang Textile Co., Ltd. According to public media reports, after the case occurred, a number of leaders in Anhui Province issued separate instructions, demanding that the case be ascertained as soon as possible.
After the incident, a number of party and government cadres in Dangshan County were punished. Among them, Wang Guangmin, secretary of the county party committee, and Tao Guanghong, the county magistrate, were notified and criticized. He (Tao Guanghong) felt very wronged, saying that the secretary didn't say good things about him when his superiors came to investigate. The relative said that he did not think that Tao Guanghong was wronged, "The county magistrate must be responsible for the violent resistance to the law." ”
Tao Guanghong was born as a secretary, and worked as a teacher for one year in the Taoyuan Mine Workers' School of Huaibei Mining Group Company in his early years, and then transferred to the Taoyuan Mine Office as a secretary. In 2001, 29-year-old Tao Guanghong entered the government from the enterprise and worked in the general department of the Suzhou Municipal People's Government Office, starting a long career as a secretary. In 2013, Tao Guanghong, who was already the deputy secretary-general of the Suzhou Municipal Government and the director of the Municipal Government Research Office, was transferred to the deputy secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee.
"The county situation in Dangshan is more complicated, he likes to hide when he encounters things, and he has no prestige in the cadre team, which gives people the feeling that he has always been inaction. A cadre from the Dangshan County Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau said.
However, Tao Guanghong, who likes to hide in trouble, also has close contacts with businessmen. When Tao Guanghong was the county magistrate, he often accepted banquets from a real estate developer from another province.
The real estate developer hired an employee in Dangshan County. The employee told Southern Weekend that Tao Guanghong drank an astonishing amount of alcohol, drinking a bottle and a half of Moutai, and that he drove Tao Guanghong after the meal, but Tao Guanghong did not go home, but went to a woman with whom he had a specific relationship.
The Anhui Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision issued a harsh response to Tao Guanghong's circular, accusing him of violating all six disciplines, "comprehensively breaking discipline and seriously undermining the local political ecology of his office", including engaging in power trading.
In addition, Tao Guanghong also used his power to seek benefits for others in project contracting, planning adjustment, fund allocation, etc., and illegally accepted huge amounts of property.
In fact, Tao Guanghong was reappointed secretary of the Xiao County Party Committee less than a year after taking over as secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, and he did not put forward a clear idea of governing in Dangshan.
Report meritorious service
Among the three, Wang Guangmin was the first to fall off the horse.
In May 2022, Wang Guangmin was investigated as vice chairman of the Suzhou CPPCC. Wang Guangmin may have been aware of his investigation.
A cadre of the Suzhou CPPCC remembered that at the beginning of 2022, Wang Guangmin's work status was not good, "It seems to have changed suddenly, I used to talk much, but I didn't talk much at that time, and sometimes I couldn't even find others." ”
The verdict stated that in December 2021, the organization did not allow Wang Guangmin to participate in the re-election of the Suzhou CPPCC. Wang Guangmin's colleagues at the Suzhou CPPCC explained that this meant that he would not be allowed to work in the CPPCC after the change. Wang Guang was sensitively uncomfortable, and before being investigated, he had two phone calls with a bribe giver and recorded them, guiding and implying that the other party had no economic relationship with the bribe-giver's company, and then submitted the recordings to the organization. This behavior was deemed to be "interfering with the organization's investigation".
The Wuhu Intermediate People's Court has jurisdiction over Wang Guangmin's suspected bribery case. The Wuhu Municipal Procuratorate alleged that from 1997 to 2022, Wang Guangmin took advantage of his position to seek benefits for relevant units and individuals in the allocation of financial support funds, project contracting, and enterprise management.
In February 2024, the Wuhu Intermediate People's Court pronounced a verdict and found that Wang Guangmin accepted bribes of more than 30.32 million yuan, which was particularly huge.
The verdict also provided a piece of information: Tao Guanghong was dismissed precisely because of Wang Guangmin's report. The Wuhu Intermediate People's Court held that Wang Guangmin provided important clues about Tao Guanghong's suspected crime of accepting bribes, played an important role in the handling of the case, constituted a major meritorious service, and commuted Wang Guangmin's punishment in accordance with the law.
In October 2022, during the investigation of Wang Guangmin by the Anhui Provincial Supervision Commission, Wang Guangmin reported clues on Tao Guanghong's suspected violations of discipline and law. It mainly reflects that Tao Guanghong used his authority to provide assistance for Dangshan Ancient City and other engineering projects during his tenure as the county magistrate and secretary of the county party committee, and accepted other people's property. After investigation, Tao Guanghong was entrusted by Wang Mouming, the actual controller of Anhui Baibang Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd., to use his authority to provide assistance to the Dangshan Ancient City Project in planning adjustment, resettlement housing repurchase, etc., and through Wang Mouming, he accepted property from Lou Mouxiong, the actual controller of Anhui Shanlou Urban Construction and Development Co., Ltd., and was suspected of accepting bribes.
In August 2023, Tao Guanghong was dismissed as secretary of the Xiao County Party Committee.
8 months after Tao Guanghong was investigated, in April 2024, Zhu Xueliang was also dismissed. So far, the three secretaries of the county party committee who have been in charge of Dangshan County for 10 years have all been dismissed.
In 2011, when Zhu Xueliang arrived as secretary of the Dangshan County Party Committee, Dangshan County's GDP was 9.915 billion yuan, ranking first from the bottom among the four counties in Suzhou City. In 2022, when Tao Guanghong left office, Dangshan County's GDP was 26.2 billion yuan, still ranking first from the bottom. In the past 10 years, the GDP increment of Dangshan County has also been the first from the bottom of the four counties in Suzhou, and the gap with the third place has further widened.
In the past 10 years, Xiao County, which is also in Suzhou City, has seen its total GDP increase from 16.3 billion yuan in 2012 to 43.1 billion yuan today, and significant progress has been made in industries such as new materials, new energy, new building materials, and modern agriculture. Xiao County also ranks in the top 20 in the county economic ranking of Anhui Province.
Taihe County, Fuyang City, which is similar to Dangshan's economic development starting point, geographical location, resources and environment, has made efforts in the fields of new energy vehicles and intelligent networked vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, and smart home appliances, and its GDP has also increased from 12.6 billion yuan to 53.3 billion yuan in the past 10 years, and the county economy has broken into the top 10 in Anhui Province, and it is second only to Suixi County, Huaibei City, which is rich in mineral resources.
After Zhu Xueliang was dismissed, the above-mentioned cadres of the Dangshan County Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau remembered one thing:
In 2014, relevant leaders of Anhui Province went to Dangshan County to inspect the poverty alleviation work, and Zhu Xueliang, then secretary of the county party committee, Wang Guangmin, county magistrate, and Tao Guanghong, deputy secretary of the county party committee, were all accompanied by the scene. After visiting a township, a higher-level leader said to the people of the Dangshan County Party Committee and County Government, "If a place wants to develop, it must rely on cadres." Dangshan's burden is indeed very heavy, it's up to you. ”
How ironic those words were now. He said.
Southern Weekly reporter Zhai Xingli and Southern Weekly intern Fang Jinni
Editor-in-charge: Qian Wei