China’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced on Thursday that a retired former senior political advisor from east China’s Anhui province has been put under formal disciplinary review and supervisory investigation over suspected violations of Party rules and national law.
Yao Yuzhou, 66, who once served as vice-chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is suspected of committing serious breaches of Party discipline and legal regulations, according to an official statement released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Commission of Supervision (NCS), the country’s top anti-graft bodies.
A native of Anhui, Yao built his decades-long public service career entirely within the province. He entered the workforce in 1979 and became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1987. Over his decades of service, he held a series of key provincial and municipal leadership posts: he assumed the role of mayor of Ma’anshan city in 2003, before moving to the position of Party chief of Tongling city in 2008, later taking the top Party post in Xuancheng in 2013 and then Chuzhou in 2016.
Towards the end of his career, Yao was appointed secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Anhui Provincial Committee. He was named vice-chairman of the Anhui Provincial CPPCC Committee in 2020 and officially stepped down from public office for retirement in 2023.
The investigation marks another step forward in China’s ongoing nationwide anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted both high-ranking officials and lower-level public servants across all regions and sectors of government since it was launched, demonstrating the country’s consistent commitment to rooting out graft and enforcing disciplinary and legal accountability for all public officials, regardless of their position or retirement status.