What’s new: A former deputy director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda has fallen under a graft probe, authorities announced .
Zhang Haiqing, 63, is being investigated by a team of the party’s top anti-corruption agency stationed at the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) as well as the supervisory commission of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province, according to official statements published by the two departments Monday.
Zhang had retired from the giant panda research center three years ago, a person from the institute who wished to stay anonymous told Caixin, speculating that the probe into Zhang may be related to his previous role.
The background: Zhang was named one of the deputy heads of the research center under the NFGA in 2016. Subsequently, he appeared at several public events, including a ceremony to send off panda Yuan Yuan to Austria in 2019 and another event to welcome back pandas Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu from the U.S. the same year.
Previously, Zhang spent more than two decades working in Aba prefecture in his home province, including as deputy secretary-general of the prefecture government, director of the region’s labor and social security department, and party secretary of Jinchuan county.
In June 2016, former vice governor of the Aba region, Yang Changqing, fell under a graft probe .
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
