Su Rong is a former senior regional official and politician in China. He began his career in his native Jilin, and successively served as Communist Party Secretary of Qinghai, Gansu, and Jiangxi provinces. In March 2013, he became one of the vice-chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 2014, Su was subject to a probe by the Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog for "disciplinary violations", which led to criminal charges. He was sentenced to life in prison for accepting a "massive amount of bribes". He is one of the highest-ranking officials to come under investigation for graft since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012.
In 2001, Su Rong was transferred to Qinghai province in Northwest China, serving as its Communist Party Chief, the top official of the province. He also became the chairman of Qinghai Provincial People's Congress in 2002. In 2003, he became the Communist Party Chief of the neighbouring Gansu province, and concurrently served as chairman of Gansu Provincial People's Congress in 2004. From 2006 to 2007, Su was the vice president of the Central Party School in Beijing, which is a minister-level position. In 2007, he became the Communist Party Chief of Jiangxi province in East China, succeeding Meng Jianzhu. The next year he also became chairman of Jiangxi Provincial People's Congress. He held both positions until 2013. He was an alternate member of the 14th and the 15th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and a full member of the 16th and the 17th Central Committees.
CPPCC and downfall
In March 2013, Su became one of the 23 vice-chairmen of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The position enjoyed the official ranking as a "national leader". However, in June 2014, the Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog announced that he was being probed for "disciplinary violations", which typically indicate corruption. At the time of the announcement, he was the highest-ranking official, and only "national leader"-class figure, to come under investigation for graft since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012. Several other senior officials of Jiangxi province had already been under investigation, including vice governors Yao Mugen and Zhao Zhiyong, and vice-chairman of the provincial congress, Chen Anzhong. His CPPCC colleague and former Hu Jintao aide, CPPCC Vice-Chairman Ling Jihua, was also detained for corruption in December 2014. The results of the CCDI investigation into Su Rong was announced February 16, 2015. It concluded that Su Rong "violated organizational discipline, unilaterally upstaged decisions made by consensus used his position of power to seek gain for others during the promotion process of officials and the operations of businesses, took a massive amount of bribes." It also said that he was responsible for wasting government resources and had "leading responsibility" for problems with corruption in Jiangxi province which festered under his watch. In the past, the CCDI's investigation announcements into officials have largely followed a bland and oft-repeated formula. In Su's case, however, the CCDI used many new phrases to describe the details of his alleged wrongdoing. He was said to have "shown blatant disregard about party political rules," "liberally sold offices for cash," "severely poisoned the local political environment," "encouraged and condoned his relatives to use their relationship to him to influence political affairs." His offenses were "of an especially egregious nature and caused extraordinarily bad influence." Su was expelled from the Communist Party of China, and indicted on charges of bribery and abuse of power, and his case moved to judicial authorities for prosecution. On January 23, 2017, Su Rong was sentenced to life in prison for bribery; court documents showed that he took bribes worth some 116 million yuan between 2002 and 2014.
