What’s new: Huang Min, a former deputy mayor of Shenzhen who oversaw the Qianhai cooperation zone, has been placed under investigation, the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog said Thursday.
Huang has been investigated “on suspicion of serious violations of law,” the Guangdong provincial commission for discipline inspection said. The graft buster didn’t explain the reasons behind the investigation, but the phrase often refers to corruption.
Huang, 60, was named deputy mayor of Shenzhen, southern China’s metropolitan and tech hub, in 2017. He was dismissed in November 2023 and there has been little public information about him since.
In 2020, Huang took over as director of the management bureau of the Qianhai cooperation zone and head of the management committee of Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone Shekou Area.
As a deputy mayor, Huang was responsible for development and reform, finance, urban planning, natural resources, land development, emergency management, taxation, statistics, law enforcement and rural revitalization among other tasks, according to the city government’s website.
Background: The Qianhai reform zone, officially known as Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, was established in 2010 as a testing ground for closer economic cooperation in the Greater Bay Area, which covers Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao.
Huang spent most of his career in Shenzhen, home to more than 17 million people. He worked nearly 30 years in the city’s public transport system and rose to the top position in the municipal transportation commission.
He was transferred to the city government in 2015 to head the Bao’an district in Shenzhen and became deputy mayor two years later. Then Shenzhen mayor Chen Rugui, who led the city between 2017 and 2021, was investigated in 2022 and confessed to taking 108 million yuan ($15 million) in bribes.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
