China’s ex-industry tsar, Xiao Yaqing, expelled from Communist Party for taking bribes

A former government minister who oversaw China’s drive to surpass the US in technology and manufacturing has been expelled from the Communist Party after anti-corruption investigators concluded he had taken bribes.

Xiao Yaqing, the minister of industry and information technology from 2020 to July this year, was demoted to one of the lowest government ranks and sent into retirement, but avoided prosecution.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog, said on Monday that Xiao, 63, had accepted banquet invitations that might have affected the fair execution of his official duties.

Furthermore, he had “lost his bottom line on discipline and law”, could not draw a clear line between government and business and took a large amount of cash bribes from others, it said.

“Xiao seriously violated the party’s discipline and the law, and did not restrain himself after the 18th party congress [in 2012],” the announcement said. “This is a violation of a serious nature and should be dealt with severely.”

But it said Xiao, who came under investigation in July, was quick to admit his mistakes, show regret and fully repay all his illegal income, and so qualified for leniency. As such, authorities decided to expel him from the party and remove him from current position.

Xiao has also been demoted to the rank of level I principal staff member, the second lowest rank in the Chinese civil service, effectively bringing down his retirement age from the ministerial level of 65 years old to 60, making him three years overdue for retirement.

Procedures were under way for his retirement, the CCDI said.

Xiao will not face charges from prosecutors for taking the bribes, and is in no immediate danger of jail time.

Xiao led the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is at the centre of President Xi Jinping’s drive to reduce Beijing’s reliance on the developed world for technology. The ministry also oversees China’s vast internet infrastructure.

In this position, Xiao also oversaw the licensing of new technologies, electric cars and the development of China’s 5G and 6G communication networks.

He was regarded as one of the most capable Chinese technocrats, particularly after he turned a loss-making state-owned aluminium plant into a profitable joint-stock corporation by employing a debt-for-equity swap in 2000.

He served in a wide range of roles in the State Council, China’s cabinet. In 2009, he was promoted to deputy general secretary of the State Council.

He was promoted again in 2016 to head China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the regulator overseeing the country’s largest state-owned industrial conglomerates.

The investigation into Xiao was announced less than three months before the 20th party congress, a five-yearly party conclave.

Xiao’s last public event was in early July, when he hosted a party-building meeting for the ministry.

In June, Xiao co-hosted the first China-UK industrial cooperation dialogue with Kwasi Kwarteng, the then British secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy.