The Shanghai Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, a branch of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), is intensifying its crackdown on corruption as it investigates yet another business leader. This time, the president of Shanghai Industrial Investment, Zhou Jun, is under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.
Zhou had held posts at several state-owned group’s Hong Kong listed subsidiaries before resigning recently, citing “personal matters.” His company operates in infrastructure, property, and pharmaceuticals, making him the latest prominent business leader in China to be investigated by authorities.
The CCDI has been investigating several top executives from various sectors like technology, finance, and real estate this year. Over a dozen executives have either disappeared, been detained or become subjects of corruption investigations. The CCDI has also been looking into Zhang Hongli, a former senior executive vice president at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of DouYu.
These developments have heavily impacted the business community in China overall. The rising risks to international consulting firms, such as raid or detention of executives, reported by CNN have caused concern among entrepreneurs. Fred Hu, chief of one of China’s leading investment firms suggests that entrepreneurs are “lying low” or “lying flat” against the backdrop of these investigations. He emphasized the need for China to reform its legal system particularly for protecting entrepreneurs from arbitrary political interference and prosecution.