Zhou Bin

42-year-old Zhou Bin is the eldest son of Zhou Yongkang. He is the former chairman of Beijing Zhongxu Yangguang Petroleum and Natural Gas Technology Ltd. With 5 million yuan in registered capital, the company has seen frequent changes to shareholders in recent years, and much of its business has focused on the highly monopolized energy sector.

The company's official website, which is no longer accessible, stated its main business as providing IT services, ranging from design to implementation and outsourcing, to Chinese oil companies including China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), the two largest state-owned oil companies.

Zhongxu said on its company profile that it was responsible for building and managing 8,000 CNPC gas stations, or 40 percent of the company's gas stations around the country. It said that it also participated in building the delivery system of CNPC's oil products.

Sources said that Zhou and his classmate Mi Xiaodong, a former mid-level official at China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), purchased the equipment from various Chinese manufacturers, and wanted to make a profit by selling them to companies in Iraq. Since the Iraqi companies refused to purchase oil well equipment from China for quality reasons, Mi shipped some of the equipment to the United States first, then to Iraq.

Zhou is also deeply involved in the hydropower business and has ties to Sichuan businessman Liu Han, who was sentenced to death for gang-style crimes.

Caixin learned that in 2003 Zhou sold a tourism asset in the southwestern province of Sichuan to Liu for 20 million yuan. A former employee of Liu's said the asset was worth only several million yuan because the location was poor, but Liu said that "if it is not too much, we can agree." The deal helped Liu to maintain his relationship with Zhou, the employee said.

Indeed, Liu soon benefited from the relationship. In 2005, Hanlong Group set up a power company in Sichuan, but encountered difficulties. The province's economic planner said Liu could not own the entire company for environmental protection reasons. Zhou intervened, took a 20 percent stake in the company, then gave it back to Liu for free.

Zhou is reported to have been embroiled in corruption inquiries since last year. Media reported on July 29 that he has been detained by prosecutors in Hubei province.