Officials are often detained in secret, disappear from public view, and are quietly removed from their posts.
News Analysis
As U.S.-China tensions escalate over tech and national security, a new wave of corruption scandals is shaking the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) big data sector, one of the regime’s most strategically important industries.
On July 2, Chinese state media reported that Yu Shiyang, head of the Big Data Development Department at China’s State Information Center, is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law,” a phrase widely understood in China to mean political misconduct or corruption.
In most cases, such investigations do not result in open trials. Instead, officials are often detained in secret, disappear from public view, and are quietly removed from their posts.
Yu is the latest in a growing list of high-level officials in China’s data and tech sector to fall from grace. Yu, who once held a visiting scholar position at MIT, was considered a rising star in China’s digital governance sector, an unusual profile for a CCP official due to his international experience. He also served as executive deputy director of the Internet and Big Data Center under the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing’s top economic planning agency.
The announcement was jointly issued by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the CCP’s top anti-corruption body, and its counterpart in Hebei Province, underscoring the political weight behind the case.
Widespread Corruption at China’s Data Hub
The investigation into Yu is part of a broader pattern that has plagued China’s big data sector, particularly in Guizhou Province, which the CCP has touted as a national data hub since 2016. Once hailed as China’s first national-level big data experimental zone, Guizhou signed a landmark deal in 2018 allowing a local government-backed company, Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, to partner with Apple in operating iCloud services within mainland China.
However, behind the scenes, Guizhou’s data boom has become a political liability. Multiple senior officials spanning provincial data regulators, mayors, and executives at state-owned tech firms have been caught in sweeping anti-corruption probes.
Notable among them is Ma Ningyu, Guizhou’s former top big data official and the original architect of the province’s digital transformation strategy. He was detained in August last year amid allegations of abusing public data resources for private gain. Projects he championed are now under scrutiny for fraudulent procurement practices.
