China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced Tuesday that Ye Hanbing, the former vice-governor of southwest China’s Sichuan province and former director of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department, has been formally indicted on charges of taking bribes.
The corruption case against Ye was first investigated and closed by the National Commission of Supervision, China’s top anti-graft watchdog, before being transferred to procuratorial organs for review and formal prosecution. Following the investigation, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate approved Ye’s arrest on suspicion of bribery, and issued a designation that the Fifth Branch of the Chongqing People’s Procuratorate would handle the prosecution proceedings. That prosecuting body recently filed a formal public criminal case with the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court, opening the next phase of the legal process.
Court documents from the prosecution detail the full scope of Ye’s alleged misconduct, spanning decades of his career in senior public security roles across two Chinese provinces. Prosecutors claim that Ye abused his authority in a series of senior positions, ranging from his earlier roles as head of the public security administration corps under the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, chief of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau, deputy head of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, and chief of the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau, to his final posts as vice-governor of Sichuan and head of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department. Across these roles, he is accused of improperly securing benefits for various individuals and entities in exchange for illegal acceptance of large sums of money and valuable assets. Prosecutors note that the total amount of bribes involved in the case is categorized as especially huge, which carries severe criminal penalties under Chinese law, and argue that Ye must be held fully legally accountable for his bribery offenses.
A 60-year-old native of Zhejiang province, Ye began his professional career in 1982 and joined the Communist Party of China in 1985. He spent more than four decades working within China’s public security system, climbing the ranks to senior leadership roles over his career. In July 2000, he was promoted to lead the public security administration corps of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, followed by an appointment as head of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau in March 2009. He rose to deputy head of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department in January 2012, and took over as chief of the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau two years later.
In 2018, Ye was transferred to Sichuan to take up the dual senior posts of vice-governor of the province and director of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department. He held these positions until May 2025, when anti-graft investigators launched a formal investigation into his suspected violations of discipline and law. By November 2025, following the completion of the internal disciplinary investigation, Ye was expelled from the Communist Party of China and removed from all his public positions, clearing the way for criminal prosecution.