Pan Shengshen

Pan Shengshen, the former Vice Chairman of the Guangzhou Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is being investigated by Chinese authorities for leaking classified information to the Japanese.

According to a report in CaoKao Xiaoxi, the investigation relates to Pan’s role as the Vice President and CEO of Hitachi Elevator Co. Ltd., a joint venture between the Japanese Hitachi Group, and China.

While leaking information about the elevator industry is hardly on par with say, the NSA leaks, it is noteworthy in that it marks the first occasion China’s anti-corruption campaign has reached beyond Chinese officials and state enterprise to a foreign owned company.

The report cites sources alleging that Pan used his executive position at the company to leak insider details about the Chinese elevator industry to the Japanese in exchange for kickbacks. Pan was the vice chairman of the Guangzhou CPPCC committee from 2007 to June 2014, during which time he was also a top executive at Hitachi.

Caixin noted that Pan holds duel Party membership to both the Communist Party and the China Democratic National Construction Association.

Li Tuo, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Taiwan newspaper, Want China Times, that the basis on which the Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog is launching probes into non-Party civil servants was based on the “sixteen character guideline” of party cooperation, which specifies that parties must monitor one another.

Photos: Internet