Since 2025, Jiangxi has attracted public attention due to a large number of officials being officially announced as falling from grace while “actively confessing problems to the organization.” The media has used this as a news point for reporting, but no media outlet has further interpreted and deeply reported on this concentrated special phenomenon.
These reports by the media have caught the attention of this “former political journalist who has lost his touch.” The concentrated appearance of an “active confession trend” in local officialdom is a very interesting and special phenomenon that is worth paying attention to.
I went to the official website of the Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision to check, and roughly estimated that since 2025, Jiangxi has had at least nearly 10 fallen officials who “actively confessed problems to the organization,” including Li Jian, former deputy director of the Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission; Xin Weiping, former director of the Police Security Department of the Provincial Public Security Department; Dai Xiaohui, former deputy director of the Jiujiang Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee; Wang Shuiping, director of the Provincial People’s Congress Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee; Zhou Jinming, deputy director of the Shangrao Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee; Li Mingsheng, director of the Provincial Department of Civil Affairs; Xia Taihua, former inspector of the Provincial Department of Justice; Wang Dehe, former director of the Provincial Government Decision-Making Advisory Committee; Cao Xiongyu, director of the Jingdezhen Municipal People’s Congress; Zhou Guohua, second-level inspector of Fuzhou City; and Sun Jintao, deputy director of the Ji’an Municipal People’s Congress.
Comparing the situation, the proportion of Jiangxi officials who “actively confess problems to the organization” is high, which is rare in the country. Why do so many officials “actively confess problems to the organization,” and what does this mean?
The official propaganda line says that the increase in those who surrender and actively confess problems is due to the deterrent effect of anti-corruption efforts. We cannot deny this point. With so many officials being caught, those with unclean backgrounds and timid officials are bound to be afraid, and there should be many who actively confess.
However, we cannot overestimate the so-called deterrent effect. As everyone knows, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection recently announced that a deputy secretary of the Luo Shan County Political and Legal Affairs Commission in Xinyang City, Henan Province, named Xia Yu, died after drinking alcohol.
Ironically, before their gathering, they held a meeting to study and implement the spirit of the Central Committee’s Eight-Point Regulation, one important content of which is to prohibit extravagant eating and drinking. However, they started eating and drinking as soon as the meeting ended. In the middle of the day, five political and legal officials, including the county party committee standing committee member, the secretary of the county party committee’s political and legal affairs commission, and the procuratorate general, drank four bottles of white wine, averaging eight taels per person. As a result, Xia Yu, the deputy secretary of the county party committee’s political and legal affairs commission, died that afternoon.
The latest news says that it’s not just Deputy Secretary Xia who died from drinking at a gathering of public officials in Luo Shan County recently; there was another incident some time ago, and the officials who drank at the same table pooled money to settle the matter. This time, the incident was exposed because the compensation was too different from the previous one, and the family members were dissatisfied.
Two years ago, Qinghai also had a similar incident, and the six people involved in the drinking party were all heads of departments. One person also died from drinking, which caused an uproar across the country. I believe that such things must still exist in other places. It can be seen that the Eight-Point Regulation and other repeated orders have no effect on these officials. Sometimes, we really cannot overestimate the so-called deterrent effect.
Therefore, we must calmly and rationally view the “active confession trend.” The complex reality of anti-corruption tells us that some of those who “actively confess problems to the organization” are deterred, while some officials are probably playing other calculations.
Let’s first study the “Disciplinary Regulations of the Communist Party of China.” Article 17 of the regulations stipulates that those who actively confess the problems they should be subject to disciplinary action can be given a lighter or reduced punishment. Article 40 of the regulations stipulates that the “active confession” mentioned in the regulations refers to a party member suspected of violating discipline who, before the organization’s talks, inquiries, and preliminary verification, confesses their problems to the relevant organization, or confesses problems that the organization has not yet grasped during the talks, inquiries, preliminary verification, and investigation.
It is clear that actively confessing problems can result in a lighter or reduced punishment. Therefore, some officials are actually aiming for a lighter or reduced punishment.
However, officialdom is complex, and some officials are inwardly unbearable. They may not be truly “actively confessing problems to the organization,” but rather confessing the minor issues while concealing the major ones, and confessing the small issues while concealing the large ones, in an attempt to get away with it.
This is not my speculation; there are many such officials in reality. Let’s still take Jiangxi as an example. On November 11, 2024, when the Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision announced the news of the fall of Zhao Dongliang, the former first-level inspector of the Nanchang Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee, it also stated that he “actively confessed problems to the organization.” However, on April 18, 2025, when the Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision announced that he was “double-opened,” it pointed out in harsh terms that Zhao Dongliang resisted the organization’s investigation, seriously violated the five major disciplines of politics, organization, discipline, work, and life, constituted serious violations of duty and was suspected of bribery, and did not restrain himself after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was serious in nature and had a bad influence, and should be dealt with seriously.
Look, initially it was “actively confessing problems to the organization,” but after the investigation, it was found that there was actually a problem of “resisting the organization’s investigation.”
Similarly, there is also Luo Xuan, the former member of the Pingxiang Municipal Party Committee and former deputy mayor of the municipal government, who also “actively confessed problems to the organization” when the official announcement of his fall from grace was made, and eventually “resisted the organization’s investigation”; Zhong Zhisheng, the former member of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee and former director of the Provincial People’s Congress Environment and Resources Protection Committee, also “actively confessed problems to the organization” when the official announcement of his fall from grace was made in September 2024, and was also “resisting the organization’s investigation” when he was officially announced to be “double-opened” on February 11, 2025, and was to be dealt with seriously.
It can be seen that not all officials’ “active confession of problems to the organization” is true; a considerable part of it is to fool the local Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, in an attempt to get away with a lighter or reduced punishment. Although there are many officials in Jiangxi who “actively confess problems to the organization,” many of them were eventually identified as “resisting the organization’s investigation,” and these officials still received “serious treatment.”
How to identify the true faces of these corrupt officials with ulterior motives is a great test of the professional ability of the investigators of the local Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision. Some will be exposed, and there will definitely be those who escape the net. Rationally view the “active confession trend” in Jiangxi officialdom, don’t be too quick to blindly cheer, and don’t underestimate the professional ability of the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
Chu Chaoxin
Drafted on May 10, 2025, and revised on May 15
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