1. Sun Zhengcai is a former Chinese politician and senior regional official.
32 Facts About Sun Zhengcai
1. 2.
From 2012 to 2017, Sun served as the Party Secretary of Chongqing, an interior municipality, and a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.
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Sun Zhengcai was abruptly removed from office in July 2017 and put under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
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Sun Zhengcai was convicted of bribery and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018.
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Sun Zhengcai was the youngest member of the 18th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, and the fourth sitting Politburo member to be expelled from the party since 1990.
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Sun Zhengcai was born to a family of farmers in a village located near the city of Rongcheng, Shandong province in September 1963.
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In 1980, Sun Zhengcai was admitted to the Laiyang Agricultural College.
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Shunyi was then converted from a county to an urban district; Sun Zhengcai continued to serve as district governor.
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Shortly thereafter, in May 2002, Sun Zhengcai unexpectedly defeated then municipal propaganda department head Jiang Xiaoyu in a municipal party committee election to earn a seat on the municipal Party Standing Committee, ascending to sub-provincial ranks at the mere age of 39.
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Sun Zhengcai was elevated to become secretary-general of the Beijing party organization from 2002 to 2006, in December 2006, he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture as nominated by Premier Wen Jiabao.
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At age 43, Sun Zhengcai was one of the youngest State Council ministers at the time.
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In November 2009, Sun Zhengcai was named party secretary of Jilin province, in northeast China.
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The post in Chongqing had emerged as one of the most important regional offices in China, and Sun Zhengcai's assuming the reins in the interior municipality signaled that he was likely destined for even higher office.
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In Chongqing, Sun Zhengcai advocated for a strategy he termed "Five Great Capability Areas", splitting Chongqing into five spheres from which to distribute resources.
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The events led to speculation in the media that Sun Zhengcai had earned Xi's endorsement to progress further.
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In February 2017, Sun Zhengcai's fate seemed to take a fatal turn.
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On July 15,2017, party authorities announced that Sun Zhengcai was to be replaced in his post as party secretary of Chongqing by Chen Min'er, who was propaganda chief in Zhejiang when Xi Jinping was provincial party secretary there.
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The meeting to announce the event had been called abruptly, and Sun Zhengcai himself was not present at the handover ceremony; there was no mention of his record in Chongqing, either, as was customary for major transition meetings.
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Curiously, footage of Sun Zhengcai appeared to be deliberately cut from Xinwen Lianbo coverage of the National Finance Work Conference - a meeting attended by all Politburo members.
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On July 24,2017, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Sun Zhengcai was undergoing investigation for violating party discipline.
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Sun Zhengcai was the fourth sitting Politburo member investigated after 1990 - following Chen Xitong, Chen Liangyu, and Bo Xilai; all of them were party chiefs of direct-controlled municipalities.
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Sun Zhengcai's departure seems to have upset the carefully calibrated conventions from previous administrations and made the congress more open-ended than would have otherwise been.
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The jurisdictions that Sun Zhengcai had once led - Chongqing, Jilin, and the Ministry of Agriculture, were among the first to declare their "unwavering support" for the decision.
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On February 13,2018, Sun Zhengcai was charged of bribery by the People's Procuratorate of Tianjin.
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Sun Zhengcai was pleaded guilty to corruption charges at the Tianjin First Intermediate People's Court on April 12,2018.
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Sun Zhengcai was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 8,2018, for bribery worth 170 million yuan.
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Sun Zhengcai was a member of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and, until his expulsion, a member of the 18th Central Committee.
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Second was that Wang Qishan was in charge of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection when Sun Zhengcai was purged, indicating that he was likely unable to protect Sun Zhengcai and Whitney from arrest.
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Sun Zhengcai was married to Hu Ying, a professor at Capital Normal University.
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Sun Zhengcai was at one point a visiting scholar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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Sun Zhengcai reportedly kept an emperor's dragon robe in a room in his home, and frequently prayed to it.
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Media reports said that Sun Zhengcai was addicted to the mobile video game King of Glory, would play the game prior to conferences, and would make his aides wait outside while he finished a game in his vehicle before getting off.