Former Provincial Police Chief Referred for Prosecution in Graft Case

1. China’s top anti-corruption agency expelled former senior police official Bi Baowen from the Communist Party and referred his case to prosecutors, six months after an investigation into the retired official was announced [para. 1]. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Commission of Supervision stated that Bi, a former vice governor of Heilongjiang province and former head of its public-security department, was accused of accepting gifts and banquets that could have affected his duties, taking money and valuables in personnel appointments, allowing relatives to use his influence for private gain, and illegally issuing motor-vehicle license plates [para. 2]. The agencies said Bi turned police powers into a tool for personal enrichment, helping others in case handling and project contracting in return for large amounts of property, and he is suspected of taking bribes [para. 3].

2. Bi was one of three senior figures whose disciplinary penalties and referral for prosecution were announced on the same day; the others were Zhang Yaoxue, former president of Central South University, and Li Bai’an, former deputy general manager of China Merchants Group [para. 4]. So far in 2025, 23 centrally managed officials who fell under investigation have been disciplined and sent to judicial authorities, including former senior officials in local governments, state-owned companies, and financial regulation [para. 5]. Bi, 65, was first placed under investigation on Nov. 20, 2025, five years after his retirement, and was the fourth senior public-security official to fall since the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress [para. 6].

3. The CCDI said Bi seriously violated the party’s organizational, integrity, work, and lifestyle disciplines and committed serious job-related violations, particularly serious because he failed to restrain himself after the party’s 18th National Congress, the start of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign [para. 7]. Bi will be stripped of benefits, his illicit gains confiscated, and his suspected crimes and related assets transferred to prosecutors for review and possible indictment [para. 8].

4. Bi was born in July 1960 in Zibo, Shandong province, and studied at the Central Party School [para. 9]. He entered the Shandong Provincial Public Security School in 1978, graduated in 1980, and began a four-decade career in the police system, working in cultural and economic-security divisions of the Shandong public-security department before taking posts in local police bureaus, including deputy police chief of Rizhao (1995), police chief of Rizhao (1999), and police chief of Binzhou (2001), also serving as an assistant to the mayor of Binzhou [para. 10]. He studied law through Shandong University’s self-study program from 1984 to 1987 and later took political science and law courses at the Central Party School’s correspondence college, also attending a cadre training program at the Shandong Provincial Party School in 2004 [para. 11].

5. In 2006, Bi returned to the Shandong public-security department as deputy head and a party committee member, then became deputy party chief in 2012, overseeing criminal investigations, narcotics control, and detention administration, later named executive deputy head [para. 12]. In May 2016, he left Shandong after nearly 36 years to become head of the Heilongjiang public-security department, its party chief, and chief inspector, and in 2017 became vice governor of Heilongjiang and deputy secretary of the provincial political and legal affairs commission [para. 13]. The then-head of Heilongjiang’s political and legal affairs commission, Gan Rongkun, later moved to Henan, was investigated in 2021, and in December 2023 was sentenced to life in prison for taking over 166 million yuan ($24.41 million) in bribes [para. 14].

6. During Bi’s tenure in Heilongjiang, a major fire at the Beilong Hot Spring Leisure Hotel in Harbin on Aug. 25, 2018, killed 20 and injured 23, causing direct economic losses of 25.048 million yuan; Bi co-led the provincial accident investigation guidance group [para. 15]. Bi retired in August 2020 [para. 16]. His investigation followed central inspection tours of both Shandong and Heilongjiang in 2025, during which CCDI inspection teams received tips involving provincial leadership and key officials [para. 17].