Zhang Hongan, who was once secretary to sidelined former Chinese Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei, is facing corruption allegations and has been suspended from his current role as chair of China Construction Bank Investment’s supervisory board.

The news of Zhang’s suspension over allegations of “serious violations of discipline and law” – Party-speak for graft – emerged in a notice published on the website of the Shandong Provincial Committee for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on Dec. 18.

The career of the 55-year-old Hubei native has tracked that of Lou. Zhang was secretary of the finance minister’s office when Lou was deputy secretary and deputy minister of the ministry’s party leadership group.

Zhang also held key positions in China Investment Corp. and Central Huijin Investment when Lou was chair of both central government investment vehicles. In 2011, Zhang served as deputy general manager of Central Huijin Investment. Lou became Minister of Finance in 2013.

Lou, now the director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was once regarded as the favorite of former premier Zhu Rongji.

In early April 2019, Luo suddenly retired early, stepping down as chair of the National Social Security Fund Council. His criticisms in an interview with the Hong Kong media of “Made in China 2025” – a pet policy of President Xi Jinping – for being “a waste of public funds” were said to be a cause for his abrupt early retirement.

But that did not stop Lou from speaking out about the country’s economic policies. In September, he criticized the “dual-cycle” economic model – another of Xi’s pet policies, saying that the government should not intervene in the market. His remarks came under fire by netizens and his speech at the Chinese Economists 50 Forum was censored.

Zhang is the third former secretary to a Chinese finance minister to fall from power due to graft in the past four years.

Wang Baoan, the secretary of Xiang Huaicheng when he was finance minister in 2016, was sentenced to life imprisonment for taking 150 million yuan (US$22.9 million) in bribes as director of the National Bureau of Statistics and deputy finance minister.

Zhang Shaochun, secretary of 1990s finance minister Liu Zhongli, was dismissed as deputy finance minister in May 2018 and jailed for 15 years over 67 million yuan in bribes.

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