Former China Everbright Group Chairman Charged With Taking Bribes

Former China Everbright Group Chairman Tang Shuangning has been charged with taking bribes and corruption, Chinese state media reported on Friday. He has been under investigation by the country’s anti-graft department.

Tang took advantage of his various positions, including at the People’s Bank of China and the China Everbright Group, to embezzle money and take bribes, state media broadcaster CCTV news reported.

Tang was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in 2024 over violations of discipline and laws. Some of the charges that were levelled against him include weakening the party’s leadership over the bank, failing to prevent and defuse financial risks, “privately reading publications with serious political problems and resisting organisational scrutiny.”

Tang served as vice-president of the China Banking Regulatory Commission from 2003 to 2007, before his appointment as chairman of China Everbright Group.

Tang has also been accused of nepotism. In a 2014 investigation into alleged nepotism at JPMorgan Chase, the New York Times reported that the US bank had received major assignments from Everbright after hiring Tang’s son in the company.

One of the biggest problems plaguing the Chinese government has been corruption. In 2024, addressing the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft agency, Xi ordered “greater efforts” to fight corruption in “finance, state-owned enterprises, energy, medicine and infrastructure”.

Xi also singled out the finance, energy, pharmaceutical and infrastructure sectors, as well as state-owned enterprises, which would be targets of fresh scrutiny.

Xi was quoted by Global Times as saying that “there’s no turning back, no relaxing and no mercy in fighting corruption”.

Xi’s comments back then had put vast swathes of the economy on notice for more turmoil ahead, potentially undermining his efforts to bolster investor confidence and arrest a growth slowdown.

China Everbright is one of about a dozen commercial banks founded in China in the early 1990s. Its shares are listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. It is controlled by Central Huijin, a state-owned investment company.

With inputs from Reuters