Five and a half months after he was sacked, the bribery case of Wang Chuanmin, the former deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Grain Bureau and the former secretary of the Zouping County Party Committee, was heard in the Laiwu Intermediate People's Court.Wang Chuanmin was accused of soliciting or illegally receiving more than 43.05 million yuan in property directly or through his specific related parties.

On February 22, 2018, the first working day after the Spring Festival holiday, the day when the Central Seventh Inspection Team entered Shandong, the Shandong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Wang Chuanmin was under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, and became the first corrupt official in Shandong Province at the beginning of the year..

On June 20, 2018, one month after the inspection team completed its inspection, Liu Shihe, former member of the Standing Committee of the Shandong Provincial People's Congress and former secretary of the Dongying Municipal Party Committee, was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law.After the end, Shandong's first sacked hall official.

18 years ago, Liu Shihe and Wang Chuanmin became colleagues in Zouping County; 18 years later, the two met again, and both fell.

Zouping model

Let's go to Zouping together.

Zouping is a county under the jurisdiction of Binzhou City, Shandong Province. It used to be a typical agricultural county, lacking industrial support, and urban construction has not been able to speed up.

This situation began to change in 2000. In the following ten years, Zouping's GDP and local fiscal revenue increased by 7 times and 10 times respectively.This speed and method of development is called the Zouping Model, and its creators and successors are Liu Shihe and Wang Chuanmin.

In January 2000, Liu Shihe was promoted from deputy secretary of the Zouping County Party Committee to county magistrate, and four months later he was promoted to secretary of the county Party committee.Also in January 2000, Wang Chuanmin parachuted from the chief staff member of the Binzhou Prefectural Party Committee Office to Zouping to serve as a member of the Standing Committee of the County Party Committee and director of the Office of the County Party Committee.

During Liu Shihe's tenure as secretary of the Zouping County Party Committee, Wang Chuanmin successively served as deputy secretary of the Zouping County Party Committee, secretary of the County Disciplinary Committee, deputy secretary of the Zouping County Party Committee, and deputy county magistrate.In the second month after Liu Shihe was transferred to the Standing Committee of the Heze Municipal Party Committee and Executive Deputy Mayor, Wang Chuanmin was promoted to the county magistrate of Zouping County, and served as the secretary of the county Party Committee from December 2008 until June 2013.

When Liu Shihe was in charge of Zouping, he chose Zouping as an industrially strong county, and many large-scale industries that were likely to generate economic benefits in the short term began to be launched.

Liu Shihe also formulated the 163 project plan. By 2007, the output value of industrial enterprises above designated size will reach 100 billion yuan, the number of enterprises with profits and taxes exceeding 10 million yuan will reach 60, and the number of enterprises above designated size will reach 300.

This goal was realized when Wang Chuanmin was the county magistrate.

Remaining issues

Wang Chuanmin himself is a doctor of industrial economics.

In an interview with the People's Daily in 2009, he also revealed that he loves reading, and that he would avoid unnecessary entertainment and find the happiness of reading outside the wine table.Many of Wang Chuanmin's bibliographies are about economy and finance, such as Ellsworth's International Economics, Friedrich List's National System of Political Economy, and the Truth About Financial Crisis.

After finishing his doctorate at the Institute of Finance and Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Wang Chuanmin also did a research on the coordinated development of China's county economy and industry.He conducted on-the-spot surveys in more than 40 counties across the country and collected 10-year economic and social development data of more than 2,600 counties and municipalities.In his opinion, these studies are still very beneficial to the scientific planning of Zouping's economic structure.

However, Zouping's economy still had problems during Wang Chuanmin's tenure.In 2012, a private lending crisis occurred in Zouping.

According to Zouping County Finance Office, People's Bank of China and other departments, as of the end of 2012, Zouping County's private financing scale was 2.49 billion yuan.After verification by the local public security organ, there were 6 death cases related to private lending in this county.

In June of the following year, Wang Chuanmin was transferred to be the deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Grain Bureau.

But other problems left over from the Zouping model have come to the fore in recent years.For example, environmental issues.

Aluminum industry, textile and clothing, food and medicine, equipment manufacturing, and iron and steel smelting are the five pillar industries of Zouping County today.Among them, as a well-known enterprise created by the Zouping model, Weiqiao Group has frequently encountered environmental violations in recent years.

  • In August 2017, Weiqiao Group was punished by Zouping County Environmental Protection Bureau for storing dangerous waste such as slag from overhaul of electrolyzers and slag in red mud.

  • In September 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Nonferrous Metals Industry Association conducted spot checks on Weiqiao Group, known as the aluminum boss, and approved Weiqiao Group to shut down 2.692 million tons of electrolytic aluminum production capacity (including illegalThe production capacity is 2.68 million tons, and 12,000 tons more will be shut down).Binzhou City also dealt with 28 people involved in illegal electrolytic aluminum projects, including 5 county-level cadres, 9 deputy county-level cadres, and 14 department-level cadres.

  • In November 2017, the Third Environmental Protection Supervision Group of the Central Environmental Protection Supervision Group reported to Shandong Province that the inspection situation was made public, and Weiqiao Group was named and criticized.The inspection pointed out that the self-provided coal-fired power plants in Shandong Province have shown a blowout growth. Since 2013, Weiqiao Pioneering Group has built 45 units in violation of regulations. Binzhou City has never taken effective measures to stop it.

  • In April 2018, Shandong Province notified the results of the 2017 corporate environmental credit evaluation, showing that Shandong Weiqiao Aluminum and Electricity Co., Ltd. scored 48 points, and Shandong Weiqiao Hengfu Knitting Printing and Dyeing Co., Ltd. scored 12 points, which were included in the 2017 environmental creditList of Red Label Enterprises.

In fact, this problem was discovered before Wang Chuanmin left office.

In January 2013, the Zouping County Entrepreneurs’ Spring Symposium was held. At the meeting, Wang Chuanmin pointed out that environmental indicators have become one of the lifeline indicators related to the survival of enterprises. Enterprises should speed up equipment replacement, transformation and upgrading, and actively promote economical production,Clean production, building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society.

Obviously, this special point has not been implemented.

Political and business relations

Bigger problems arise in the political ecology.

Xiwang Group is another well-known enterprise created by the Zouping model. One of its executives once described the relationship between enterprises and the government in the Zouping model era:

Entrepreneurs are like uncles, from the secretary, the county magistrate to the officials of various departments, they are all the waiters of the enterprise.

The most prominent manifestation is that the government directly intervenes in the enterprise.

The person in charge of the above-mentioned Xiwang Group said in an interview with the media that around 2002, Zouping County organized more than 100 party members and cadres to help key enterprises, ranging from studying industrial policies, observing markets, running projects, to helping enterprisesDoing formalities, sorting out documents, and carrying out standardized management are almost omnipotent.

Most of the time, the county sent 3 people to Xiwang Group to help them work. People from the Finance Bureau helped them manage their finances, people from the Propaganda Department helped them plan publicity, and people from the Organization Department helped them straighten out human resource management.For many years since then, the management of Xiwang Group has left the shadow of that year.

Likewise, government affairs also have corporate ramifications.

From 2000 to 2013, every year on the first day of work in the first month of the lunar year, a county-wide four-level cadre meeting was held.At the meeting, awards and commendations will be issued to large taxpayers, and key enterprises will also publicly explain the projects launched in the year, the expected goals, and any difficulties that still exist.Whoever pays more taxes will sit in the front row, and whoever contributes more will be the first to appear on stage.All townships and departments should also express their views and explain what kind of services they can provide for enterprises.

What problems will exist in such intersecting political and business relations?

It can be seen from the accusation against Wang Chuanmin.

According to the allegations made by the Laiwu City People's Procuratorate, Wang Chuanmin took advantage of his positions as the county magistrate of Zouping County People's Government, secretary of the Zouping County Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, and deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Grain Bureau, etc.Seeking benefits for others in terms of reduction or exemption of supporting fees for construction projects, job promotion, etc., directly or through specific related parties to solicit or illegally accept property, totaling more than 43.05 million yuan.