1. Chinese prosecutors indicted Chen Weijun, former top Xinjiang official, on bribery charges, alleging exceptionally large illegal payments in Zhejiang and Xinjiang. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate approved his arrest and assigned the case to Chuzhou, Anhui, where it was filed with the Intermediate People’s Court. Chen, 60, was a member of Xinjiang’s party committee and executive vice chairman; his case makes 43 centrally managed officials charged after disciplinary investigations this year. [para. 1][para. 2][para. 3]
2. Prosecutors allege he used his posts to benefit others and accepted money and valuables in Zhejiang roles including Fenghua, Yinzhou, Huzhou, Wenzhou, vice governor and standing committee member, and in Xinjiang as standing committee member and vice chairman. The indictment calls the value “especially huge,” which can carry severe penalties. [para. 4][para. 5]
3. The top anticorruption agency expelled Chen from the party and removed him from office in June. It accused him of resisting investigation, accepting influence-affected banquets, failing to report personal matters, helping others in appointments, letting family profit from his influence, improperly accepting gifts/cash/consumption cards, borrowing from supervised entities, unauthorized profit-making, and having others pay his expenses. He allegedly traded power for money in project land use, tax/fee reductions and construction contracts. [para. 6][para. 7][para. 8]
4. Chen came under investigation on Nov. 30, 2025, while executive vice chairman. His last public appearance was Nov. 21 at a Urumqi water-conservancy conference. In December 2025, Xinjiang’s legislature removed him from the vice-chairman post and stripped his regional people’s congress seat. [para. 9]
5. A native of Ninghai, Zhejiang, Chen began work in 1986 after graduating from what is now Ningbo University of Technology. From 2002 to 2013 he held senior posts in Fenghua, Yuyao and Yinzhou, including mayor and party chief positions; prosecutors excluded his Yuyao tenure from March 2006 to November 2011 from bribery allegations. [para. 10][para. 11]
6. Chen left Ningbo for Huzhou in late 2013, becoming mayor in February 2014 and party chief in March 2017. In 2018, at 51, he became one of Zhejiang’s youngest vice governors and later Wenzhou party chief, replacing Zhou Jiangyong. He joined Zhejiang’s standing committee in July 2019 while remaining Wenzhou party chief; he had written in People’s Daily about defining government-market boundaries. [para. 12][para. 13][para. 14]
7. Several Zhejiang officials who rose with Chen have been caught up in the campaign: Zhu Congjiu, vice governor alongside Chen, got life in prison in November 2024 for over 105 million yuan ($15.6 million) in bribes; Gao Xingfu, another vice governor, was indicted in June. Zhou Jiangyong, Chen’s Wenzhou predecessor, was investigated in 2021 and received a suspended death sentence in 2023 for over 182 million yuan. [para. 15][para. 16]
8. After nearly 35 years in Zhejiang, Chen transferred to Xinjiang in May 2021 as regional party standing committee member and became executive vice chairman a month later, also heading financial/economic, military-civilian integration and defense-mobilization work. He was the fourth senior Xinjiang official investigated since the party’s 20th National Congress in 2022; Li Pengxin got a suspended death sentence in April 2025 for over 822 million yuan, and Yang Fasen got life in October 2025 for over 147 million yuan, both having overlapped with Chen. [para. 17][para. 18][para. 19]
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