During his tenure at the former Jinmei Group, Li Hongshuang had many interactions with Wang Maosheng, the former deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Energy Bureau who was under investigation.
In 2022, there have been new developments in Shanxi’s coal anti-corruption campaign. According to the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on April 28th, Li Hongshuang, former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice Chairman of Jinneng Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Jinneng Holdings”), is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
Li Hongshuang was born in 1960 and started working in August 1982, holding a graduate degree. He had worked for a long time at the former Shanxi Jincheng Anthracite Coal Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jinmei Group”). In his early years, he served as a technician, captain of the comprehensive mining team, deputy director, director, deputy mine manager, and mine manager at the Gushuyuan Mine of Jincheng Mining Bureau (formerly known as Jinmei Group); Since June 2007, he has served as a standing committee member and deputy general manager of the former Jinmei Group Party Committee, and later concurrently served as a director; In March 2011, he was promoted to Vice Chairman and General Manager. Six years later, Li Hongshuang was appointed as the Party Secretary and Chairman of the former Jinmei Group in August 2017.
During his tenure at the former Jinmei Group, Li Hongshuang had many interactions with Wang Maosheng, the former deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Energy Bureau who was under investigation. Wang Maosheng is 8 years younger than Li Hongshuang, and in his early work experience, he was also promoted from a technician in the ancient academy to a mine manager. In 2010, the year before Li Hongshuang was promoted from Deputy General Manager of Jinmei Group to General Manager, Wang Maosheng was promoted to Deputy General Manager of the Group; After Li Hongshuang was promoted to the former Chairman of Jinmei Group in 2017, Wang Maosheng took over the position of General Manager. Two years later, Wang Maosheng went to another provincial key coal enterprise in Shanxi, Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Shanxi Coking Coal Group”), to serve as the Party Secretary and Chairman.
In 2020, both of them experienced changes in their career paths. In May of the same year, Wang Maosheng was appointed as a member of the Party Group and Deputy Director (at the level of Director) of Shanxi Provincial Energy Bureau, assisting the Director in charge of the Coal Production Technology Department, New Energy and Renewable Energy Department, Information and Monitoring Department, and assisting in the management of the China Coal Museum until he was investigated during his tenure.
In September of the same year, the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and Government approved the establishment of Jinneng Holding Group, which invested in the equity of three state-owned coal enterprises in Shanxi Province, namely Tongmei Group, Jinmei Group, and Jinneng Group, to jointly restructure and establish a comprehensive energy group. The group also simultaneously integrated relevant assets such as coal and electricity from Lu’an Group and Huayang Group. At the same time, after transforming the China (Taiyuan) Coal Trading Center into an enterprise, it was injected into this large group – Jinneng Holding Group together with China Taiyuan Coal Trading Center Co., Ltd.
At that time, Li Hongshuang served as the Deputy Secretary and Vice Chairman of the Party Committee in the first leadership team of Jinneng Holdings Group, becoming the deputy of Guo Jingang, the then Group Party Committee Secretary and Chairman, until his retirement in 2021.
In mid June 2022, the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision announced that Guo Jingang, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Shanxi State owned Capital Operation Co., Ltd., is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
In January 2024, the second episode of the TV special film “Escort”, jointly produced by the Propaganda Department of the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision and Shanxi Radio and Television Station, was broadcasted. It introduced the series of corruption cases of Jinneng Holdings Group and disclosed the details of the former Party Secretary and Chairman Guo Jingang’s corruption. It is reported that the largest coal enterprise in Shanxi and the second largest in the country, under the wrong leadership of Guo Jingang, once deviated from the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the Provincial Party Committee, with rampant unethical practices, prevalent circle culture, rampant power and money transactions, and deteriorating political ecology. Guo Jingang appointed people based solely on kinship and money, and arranged his 30 relatives in the former Tongmei Group and Jinneng Holdings Group. In terms of seeking personal benefits alone, he took bribes of over 20 million yuan.
The reporter from First Financial News noticed that in addition to Guo Jingang and Li Hongshuang, several members of the first leadership team of Jinneng Holdings Group have fallen from grace, including Liu Wenyan, then Vice General Manager of Jinneng Holdings Group, Xuan Hongbin, and Cao Xianqing, Minister of Legal Affairs of the Group’s General Legal Advisor.