Luo Zengbin, 57, party secretary of Haikou and a member of Hainan’s provincial party standing committee, was “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law” – a euphemism for corruption, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said on Friday.
Before becoming Haikou’s party secretary in January 2022, Luo, a Sichuan native, spent most of his political career in his home province, where he served from 2021 to 2022 as party chief of Mianyang, home to many of China’s top nuclear and military technology research institutions.
His most recent public appearance was on November 22, when he headed a team to inspect private companies, encouraging them to continue to invest in Haikou. Luo’s disappearance from public view had set off speculation in the top levels of Haikou and Hainan province.
While Beijing has laid out a grand development plan for Hainan, hoping to turn the 35,000 sq km (13,514 square miles) island into the world’s largest free-trade port, the province has been hit by a string of corruption scandals.
