Former PetroChina chairman detained for corruption: Boxun

Former PetroChina chairman detained for corruption: Boxun

Staff Reporter 2013-03-24

Jiang Jiemin, the former chairman of PetroChina, China’s biggest oil producer, has been detained by central discipline authorities for corruption, reports Boxun, a citizen journalism website that often makes claims that are difficult to prove.

According to Boxun, a “reliable source” inside the Commission for Discipline Inspection claims that Jiang, who was also the former general manager of PetroChina’s state-owned parent China National Petroleum Corporation and a former vice governor of Qinghai province, was placed under “double regulation” shortly after stepping down as PetroChina chairman last week.

Under the Communist Party’s investigation ordinance, double regulation is one of several strategies disciplinary authorities may employ when conducting an investigation into a government official, and requires that the subject appear at a specified time and location to answer allegations of misconduct.

The source added that the chairman of state-owned oil and gas giant Sinopec, Fu Chengyu, and the company’s general manager, Wang Tianpu, are also being targeted by authorities for corruption.

Boxun’s source said Jiang has accumulated assets in excess of a billion US dollars, most of which was obtained illegally through contracting major PetroChina and CNPC projects to people in his inner circle. The most noteworthy example, the source said, is a recent multi-billion dollar project awarded to a company run by the son of Zhou Yongkang, a former Politburo Standing Committee member and chief of the Central Politics and Law Commission.

Zhou has used his connections to Jiang, Fu and Wang to rake in billions of dollars, the source said, while China’s state-owned oil and gas monopolies have been providing consumers with sub-standard products at inflated prices. The companies have also been embroiled in numerous bribery and sex scandals, the most recent of which involves the alleged bribing of the daughter of a high-ranked official with male sex workers in a high-end Beijing club.

The investigations into Jiang, Fu and Wang will soon open the lid on the long-standing corruption plaguing Sinopec and PetroChina, with potentially hundreds of company officials set to be prosecuted, the source said.

Jiang Jiemin tipped to head state-owned assets commission

Staff Reporter 2013-03-23

Jiang Jiemin, the head of China National Petroleum Corporation, is set to become the director of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission this year, according to the Chinese-language Beijing Business Today. Jiang has been at the national oil company for almost 40 years and will now face the daunting task of restructuring and regulating state-owned enterprises.

The state oil giant announced on Monday that Jiang has formally resigned from his post as president. Vice president Zhou Jiping will take his place to serve as acting president before Jiang’s successor is elected.

Jiang has been greatly influenced by his father, Jiang Shijun, who was chief of the state reserve bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission. His father was a fan of frugal living, choosing to ride his bicycle to work, and he became a farmer after retiring.

After Jiang graduated from the University of Shandong in 1982, he began his career at the state-owned oil company as a technician at the Shengli oilfield. He became the oilfield’s deputy director in 1993 and then vice governor of Qinghai province between 2000 and 2004. He was promoted to CNPC party secretary in 2006 and then became chairman of the company in 2011. Last year he was made a member of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

He mysteriously disappeared from the public eye for around two weeks last year, an absence that was discussed on China’s social networking sites and sparked wild speculations, eventually forcing the company to announce that he had been hospitalized for a non life-threatening illness.

Rumors spread during the recently concluded annual meetings of China’s parliament that Jiang may succeed Wang Yong to head the state-owned assets commission after Wang was made a state councilor. The commission on Monday said Jiang’s resignation from CNPC had not been confirmed and it would not make an official announcement until the official document was received, according to Beijing Business Today.

Jiang will face tough tasks ahead, as his predecessors Wang and Li Rongrong both failed to streamline the total number of state-owned enterprises in the country to between 80-100 by 2010. The state-run China Grain and Logistics Corporation, which has been suffering from a huge deficit, is expected to merge with China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Cooperation.

Jiang will have to figure out how to make state enterprises strengthen their main business areas and how to prioritize their main and secondary lines of business. Jiang will also need to deal with major state companies, including his previous employer, since they have been criticized for the monopoly positions they occupy in their various sectors.