China Geological Survey’s former head Zhong Ziran charged with state secrets leak, bribery

Zhong Ziran, 62, is the most senior natural resources official to have faced a corruption investigation in recent months

Zhong Ziran headed the China Geological Survey from 2014 to 2022. He was expelled from the party and arrested earlier this year. Photo: Handout

China’s highest prosecutorial body has charged the former head of the country’s geological survey agency with bribe-taking and leaking state secrets.

Zhong Ziran, 62, is accused of using his senior positions at the Ministry of Natural Resources as well as its affiliated China Geological Survey to take a “particularly big” amount of bribes, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in a notice on its website on Friday.

The sum involved was not disclosed.

The notice added that Zhong, who was also Communist Party head at China Geological Survey, had intentionally leaked state secrets.

The nature of the breach was “serious” and Zhong had violated the law of guarding state secrets, it said, but did not offer details.

Zhong is the most senior among a string of officials at government agencies overseeing natural resources to have faced corruption investigations in recent months.

The raft of investigations come as China doubles down on national security concerns.

‘No one is safe’: China purges record number of ‘tiger’ officials in 2023

In June, Zhong was expelled from the party over “serious violations of discipline and laws”, following an investigation launched six months earlier by the top anti-corruption bodies of the party and state.

In July, state media reported that he had been arrested by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

Zhong spent his career in government agencies overlooking mining, land survey and natural resources. In 2011, he became chief engineer of the then land and resources ministry, and was promoted to become a member of the ministry party committee and head of the survey agency in 2014.

He remained on the party committee when the ministry was restructured and renamed in 2018 as the Ministry of Natural Resources, and held the role until he retired in 2022.

China Geological survey is the country’s largest geoscience agency.

A statement issued by the procuratorate when Zhong was expelled from the party said he had forsaken Marxism and believed in superstitions. It also accused Zhong of using geological surveys, mine exploration approvals and staff promotions as means to take bribes.

Zhong also allegedly received “enormous” sums of money to help corporations win government projects or get mining approval, and abused his position for sexual favours.

He was also said to have resisted and lied during investigations by the party.

China airs 4-part anti-corruption series on prime-time TV amid renewed crackdown on graft

n article published earlier this year on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, the party and state corruption watchdogs respectively, highlighted Zhong’s case.

It said the investigation, along with those against other local-level senior officials in the natural resources agencies, sent a strong signal about China’s determination to clamp down on corruption in the sector.

The article was published in January, days after Zhong was first placed under investigation.

It said government agencies in charge of land resources faced “corruption risks” as they had the power to approve mining, farmland protection and ecological restoration measures, as well as monitor and enforce land use laws.

Government land leases, land evaluation, change of land use, land surveys, land records, and building demolitions were all potential bribery traps, it said.

While Friday’s official statement did not reveal what kind of state secrets Zhong had leaked, an amended state secrets law that took effect on May 1 has tightened requirements for government officials to protect work secrets.