What draws China’s anti-corruption watchdogs to Guangdong and its ‘sin city’ Dongguan?

As dozens of high-ranking officials fall in corruption scandals, a political analyst reveals a common thread

Reading Time:3 minutes

A drone view of Dongguan, also known in some circles as “sin city”, where 42 sitting and former officials have faced corruption investigations so far this year. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:00am, 23 Nov 2024

China’s southern Guangdong province, with its sprawling textile and electronics manufacturing hubs, has long been known as a global economic powerhouse. But in recent years, it has gained a reputation of a very different kind.

In cities such as Dongguan and Huizhou, corruption investigations are widening against local cadres – often former officials accused of having used their position to take money from companies in return for special favours.

Xu Jianhua, who served as the Dongguan party secretary from 2011 to 2016, became the latest official to be placed under investigation, with the provincial disciplinary commission announcing on Wednesday that he had been detained.

Xu Jianhua, former party secretary of Dongguan. Photo: Weibo/ 大鹏守御千户所

Xu, 66, is suspected of committing “serious violations of discipline and law” – a euphemism for corruption.

Xu was well-known for leading a government crackdown in February 2014 after state broadcaster CCTV exposed an extensive underground sex trade and thriving red light districts in Dongguan, a sprawling manufacturing base known also as “sin city”.

Xu’s detention comes just two months after Zhong Ganquan, the former deputy head of Dongguan’s political advisory body, was placed under investigation.

Zhong, a Dongguan local who for decades was chief of the city’s Humen district famed for its textile and electronics exporters, earned fame as “the man who knows all”.

In August, former Dongguan mayor Li Yuquan, who served from 2006 to 2011, was also detained on corruption charges.