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- A top China official used billboard sales to obtain funds from local businesses, per CCTV.
- Zhang Xiaopei, the former party secretary of Jilin, had people pay "huge sums" to rent a billboard.
- The billboard was owned by his son, CCTV said in a new four-part documentary about corruption.
A top Communist Party official had for years used a digital billboard in the downtown area of the Chinese city of Jilin to channel illicit funds toward him, Chinese state media reported on Saturday.
Zhang Xiaopei, Jilin's now-disgraced former party secretary, was expelled from the ruling party in June 2023 after anti-graft officials announced he had been taking bribes.
But fresh details about Zhang's alleged schemes have emerged in a new, four-part documentary series by state broadcaster CCTV about China's crackdown on corruption.
As party secretary, Zhang held the top position in Jilin starting in 2011 before being assigned vice-chairman of the province's political advisory body in 2014.
Zhang, 66, had a son who owned the billboard, which was fitted onto a pedestrian overpass in the city's commercial district, per CCTV.
Business owners seeking favors from Zhang would dump "huge sums of money" into buying ads on the billboard, even though demand for advertising on the billboard was relatively low by market standards, according to CCTV.
"After companies discovered that the billboard was owned by the company of Party Secretary Zhang's son, many flocked in," Tang Zhaoyang, a staff of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said in the documentary.
"Some companies didn't even have advertising needs, but they took the initiative to buy these ads, typically in an effort to obtain benefits from Party Secretary Zhang," Tang added.
CCTV dubbed the billboard an "overpass bridge of Zhang's power," citing the overpass over which the display hangs.
The broadcaster also reported that Zhang received gold bars, property, and cash worth tens of millions of Chinese yuan from a businessman who was his colleague when both men started their careers.
The gifts were compensation for Zhang as he rose through government ranks and assisted his friend with state contracts, per CCTV.
Zhang is featured in a short clip in the documentary, wearing a black t-shirt in a gloomy corridor and solemnly expressing remorse for his actions.
"My biggest threat was myself," he said. Several other disgraced top politicians featured in the documentary appeared in similar clips, apologizing and condemning their past behaviors.
While Zhang is one of dozens of top officials to be expelled, the alleged details of his case shed light on the myriad ways corruption seeped into China's top echelons of leadership for decades — and on Chinese leader Xi Jinping's long-running effort to uproot graft.
His crackdowns have swept multiple bodies of the Chinese government, with a recent purge in the armed forces that reached as high as the defense secretary.
But Xi's war against corruption has also been criticized as a way for him to selectively take down political rivals and dissent.
The leader, who took the top office in 2013, has widely been thought to have cemented near-ultimate power in China after the country's governing body cleared the way for him to rule indefinitely. In October, the top seven officials appointed in the country were all loyalists to Xi.
from All Content from Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/city-official-zhang-xiaopei-billboard-funnel-huge-sums-china-media-2024-1
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