From Power to Prison: Unveiling the Zhou Yongkang Family Corruption Scandal

Zhou Yongkang, a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, once served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. He was one of the top leaders in China's political and legal system. Zhou had a long career in the oil industry before becoming the Party Secretary of Sichuan Province, overseeing local economic and social affairs. In 2002, he joined the central leadership, taking charge of public security, judiciary, and legal affairs, promoting stability policies. In 2014, Zhou was investigated for corruption and bribery, becoming the first former Politburo Standing Committee member to fall due to corruption, and was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

Wang Shuhua was Zhou Yongkang’s first wife, with whom he had two sons, Zhou Bin and Zhou Han. It has been reported that Zhou Yongkang orchestrated a car accident to harm her, leading to Zhou Han becoming estranged from him.

Jia Xiaoye is Zhou Yongkang’s second wife. In the late 1990s, as a producer for the Daily Finance program on CCTV’s Finance Channel, she frequently interviewed Zhou Yongkang, forging a relationship with him. After the mysterious car accident that killed Wang Shuhua, Jia married Zhou Yongkang, who was 28 years her senior.

Zhou Yuanxing, Zhou Yongkang’s second brother, gained wealth through connections with Zhou Yongkang. He and his son, Zhou Xiaohua, profited as distributors of Wuliangye liquor and leveraged Zhou Yongkang’s influence to intervene in legal cases, arrange favors, and engage in various business dealings, including supplying steel pipes to oil fields without owning a factory.
Zhou Yuanqing, Zhou Yongkang’s third brother, held several government positions, including Deputy Town Mayor of Houqiao Town, Director of the Xishan District Economic Cooperation Office, and Deputy Director of the Huishan District Land Bureau. His wife, Zhou Lingying, was a shareholder in Changlong Trading Co., which was involved in gas station operations. She also founded Wuxi Junfeng Agricultural Development Co., dealing in fertilizers, pesticides, metals, and firefighting equipment. Their son, Zhou Feng, invested in multiple companies in Beijing and Dongguan, with complex ties to subsidiaries of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Zhou Feng illegally secured cooperative and development rights for two oil and gas fields in Jilin Oilfield, earning illicit profits of 214 million yuan.

Zhou Bin, Zhou Yongkang’s elder son, engaged in energy and investment businesses, leveraging his father’s power to build wealth in the oil, gas, and infrastructure sectors. In 2014, following Zhou Yongkang’s investigation, Zhou Bin was charged with illegal business operations, bribery, and influence-peddling, becoming a key figure in the Zhou family corruption network.

Huang Wan, Zhou Bin’s wife, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and played a role in assisting Zhou Bin and her mother-in-law, Zhan Minli, in insider trading related to CNPC. Huang Wan produced the television drama Police Stories, which aired in prime time on CCTV in 2008. The series, aimed at promoting law enforcement, was partially filmed in Chongqing during Bo Xilai’s tenure and received support from Chongqing authorities and the Ministry of Public Security. After the fall of Zhou Yongkang and Zhou Bin, Huang Wan was placed under house arrest in Beijing and has since appealed multiple times on Twitter to be allowed to return to the U.S.

Huang Wan’s grandfather, Huang Jiqing, was a prominent geologist whose tectonic theory led to the discovery of the Yumen and Daqing oilfields in China. Although he was the actual discoverer of the Daqing Oilfield, the credit was attributed to Li Siguang due to Huang’s exile during the Cultural Revolution. In 2009, the CCTV drama The Founder was produced to honor Huang Jiqing’s contributions.