The Shanghai Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, a branch of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), is intensifying its crackdown on corruption as it investigates yet another business leader. This time, the president of Shanghai Industrial Investment, Zhou Jun, is under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, commonly referred to as corruption.
Zhou had held posts at several state-owned group’s Hong Kong listed subsidiaries before resigning citing “personal matters,” according to CNN. His company, Shanghai Industrial Investment, operates in infrastructure, property, and pharmaceuticals, making him the latest prominent business leader in China to be investigated by authorities.
The CCDI has been investigating several top executives from various sectors like technology, finance, and real estate this year. Over a dozen executives have either disappeared, been detained or become subjects of corruption investigations. In addition to Zhang Hongli, a former senior executive vice president at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of DouYu are also under investigation.
These developments have heavily impacted the business community in China overall as international consulting firms face rising risks such as raid or detention of executives reported by CNN. The chief of one of China’s leading investment firms Fred Hu suggests that entrepreneurs are “lying low or lying flat” against the backdrop of these investigations. He emphasized the need for China to reform its legal system particularly for protecting entrepreneurs from arbitrary political interference and even prosecution.