Official confesses to 'blindly promote virtual currency mining' in anti-graft documentary

The latest anti-graft documentary aired on Sunday night revealed details of how Xiao Yi, a former senior political adviser in Jiangxi province, abused his power for personal means, such as blindly supporting virtual currency mining and car-making projects during his term, causing severe financial loss to the country and the people.

The 60-year-old was removed from the post of vice-chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference by the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Commission of Supervisory, China's top anti-graft watchdogs and placed under investigation in May 2021.

According to the four-episode series produced by the CCDI and China Central Television, Xiao abandoned idea of people-centered politics after becoming Fuzhou Party chief in 2015.

"I violated the central government's concept of development, leading heavy losses and propagating a bad influence. I am sad and regretful when I think of what I have done," he said in the documentary.

During his tenure, Xiao blindly promoted a local virtual currency mining company as a high-tech company engaged in "big data" and "cloud computing", touting it as a calling card of Fuzhou's digital economy.

During the episode, Lin Qingxing, the controller of the company, who has also been placed under investigation said: "I told Xiao that our company had the virtual currency mining business. Fuzhou's digital economy needed and that such an achievement was also a political achievement, and Fuzhou also needs this kind of calling card."

"I also told him that I think it is only after retirement that one can see whether officials and entrepreneurs are friends and that I was willing to be reciprocal about his support."

In 2018, the State asked governments to help mining companies exit the market, and banned the development of such projects under any guise, but Xiao tried to hide what was going on.

The company had about 160,000 machines operating daily, and from 2017 to 2020, was responsible for consuming about 10 percent of Fuzhou's electricity. Xiao instructed departments to make up statistics and adjust the classification of the company's electricity consumption to cover up the real situation.

He also illegally requested financial subsidies and pushed government agencies to provide guarantees, loans and other financial support to the company amounting to more than 2.4 billion yuan, to help it build a new data-center in the city's high-tech zone.

"I gave them land, financial subsidies and credit support, and mobilized resources to support restricted sectors. This has caused great losses to the country, which is painful to think about now," Xiao said.

Regardless of Fuzhou's needs, Xiao decided to invest 3 billion yuan in building an automobile industrial park in 2017. Construction of the park began in 2018, and it went into production in March 2019. But production was suspended in September due to its products lacking competitiveness.

"(I was) craving for greatness and success. I didn't really grasp the idea of the new development concept. After only a year of production, the park stopped. More than 1,000 workers faced unemployment, and over 2 billion yuan in investment now appears to have been lost," he said.

Xiao was also found to have used his influence to help others find jobs, to contract and develop projects, and illegally accepted property worth more than 125 million yuan.

"I am a criminal to the people of Fuzhou, I am sorry to the people of Fuzhou. I was assigned Party chief to lead the people out of poverty, boost the economy and help them live better lives. However, due to my distorted view of political achievement, I put my so-called 'achievements' before the interests of the people and acted recklessly, resulting in such heavy losses. I need to confess to the people of Fuzhou," he said.

Xiao was expelled from the Party and removed from his posts in November 2021, and was charged with taking bribes and abusing power in January 2022. The Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court, Zhejiang province publicly heard his case in December 2022. The verdict will be issued later.