(TibetanReview.net, Apr25’24) —China has charged with corruption an official who was for many years responsible for promoting its official line on Tibet and human rights, including with a stint as the propaganda chief of Tibet Autonomous Region, before rising to be the top legislator of Shanghai, official Chinese and other media reports cited prosecutors as saying Apr 24.
The prosecutors have accused Dong Yunhu, 61, of using his positions, such as head of the seventh bureau of the State Council Information Office, head of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Xizang [Tibet] autonomous region Committee, chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, to seek benefits for others, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Apr 24.
The report said he also used his power and status to seek undue benefits for others through other civil servants; that in return, he accepted a large amount of property and money. Prosecutors have said he should be held criminally responsible for the crime of taking bribes.
Dong’s alleged crimes date back to 1999, when he was in charge of planning and publicising Beijing’s official message on human rights and Tibetan affairs as the bureau chief at China’s State Council Information office, reported the scmp.com Apr 24, citing prosecutors.
The corruption was alleged to have continued in other leadership roles.
Dong was stated to have trained as a philosopher and started his career at the Communist Party school, where he managed its School of Marxism and Human Rights Research Centre in the 1990s.
The report said he has published several books on human rights, including a 2011 study of the history and functions of human rights centres in various countries, and co-authored a compilation of facts and statistics about Tibet in 2008.
Dong’s leadership role was reported to have begun at China’s State Council information office in 1999, where he served as the office director for the China Society for Human Rights Studies, a state-led research body.
In 2011, he was posted in Tibet autonomous region to manage communication and propaganda work there. He went on to take up the same role in Shanghai in 2015, later becoming head of its legislative body.
He was indicted in Hefei, a city in Anhui province, an announcement published on the website of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate was cited as saying.
He was first placed under investigation for suspected corruption in July last year, making him the first ministerial level official to be purged after a major Communist Party reshuffle at the 20th party congress in Oct 2022, the report said.
Dong was expelled from the Communist Party of China, and removed from his public posts in Dec 2023. Later, he was arrested, and his case was handed over to procuratorial organs for review.
He is a native of Xianju, Zhejiang province. He spent much of his career working in publicity departments before he was transferred to the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress earlier this year, said the chinadaily.com.cn report.