The Tianjin municipal procuratorate recently instituted public proceedings against Ling Jihua, former deputy chairman of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s highest political advisory body, who also served as a director of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the organization charged with managing relationships with extra- Party entities.
Placed under investigation at the end of 2014, Ling, according to the procuratorate, is charged with taking bribes, illegally obtaining State secrets and abuse of power.
Ling’s detention was a surprise to some – an article on ethnic relations written by him had appeared in the CPC journal Seek Truth just one week before. However, according to some reports, Ling’s family’s acquisition of wealth and power – all four of his siblings had been appointed to major government or corporate positions – sealed his fate long ago. In June 2014, Ling’s brother Ling Zhengce, former director of the Development and Reform Commission of the Ling family’s home province of Shanxi, was put under investigation for alleged corruption.
Although no official source has revealed any details of the case, media outlets connected the charges with the misappropriation of coal revenues.
The subsequent fall of Chen Chuanping, former Party secretary of Taiyuan, provincial capital of Shanxi, was seen as the beginning of the end for the Ling clan. Rumors at the time closely linked Chen to the Ling family, with the former Party chief allegedly giving a Ferrari to Ling Jihua’s son, who would later be killed in an accident while driving the same car.
Although official sources have remained silent on the car crash, which occurred in 2012, observers saw it as a turning point in Ling Jihua’s political career – having worked in the office of the CPC Central Committee for 17 years, he failed to secure an appointment to the Standing Committee of the Politburo, usually the natural next step for someone in his position.
After Ling Zhengce was detained, many media reports emerged detailing his family’s business network, revealing that another brother, Ling Wancheng, had made considerable investments thanks to the patronage of his elder siblings. Renowned financial commentator Li Delin once said that Ling Wancheng had constructed a “perfect underground network of power and money.” In January 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against “forming political factions for personal gain” at a conference on Party discipline, which the media later cast as a veiled hint at the coming fall of the Ling family.
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