Sinopec chairman Fu Chengyu heads to US amid corruption rumors

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-09-19

Fu Chengyu speaks at an event in Chengdu on June 7, 2013. (Photo/Xinhua)

Fu Chengyu, chairman of the state-owned China Petrochemical Corporation, better known as Sinopec, has unexpectedly left the country for the United States amid rumors that he could be the next high-ranking oil sector official to be taken down by Beijing's sweeping anti-graft campaign, reports Mingjing News, a website allegedly sourced by political insiders and run by overseas Chinese.

Sinopec is the world's fifth-largest company by revenue, with an annual turnover of more than US$400 billion. According to a source claiming to be a Beijing-based political insider, the country's oil sector is undergoing its biggest reshuffle since 2002 through the removal of corrupt industry officials. Four high-level executives of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC, the parent company of PetroChina) were recently detained for graft, along with former chairman Jiang Jiemin.

Fu, like Jiang, was a trusted subordinate of retired oil sector heavyweights Zhou Yongkang and Zeng Qinghong, the insider said.

The 70-year-old Zhou, whose downfall has been speculated for some time, is a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest decision-making body, and the former chief of the Central Political and Legislative Committee, which oversees the country's security forces and law enforcement institutions. Earlier in his career, Zhou was also the general manager of CNPC and the minister of Land and Resources. A WikiLeaks cable from 2009 revealed that the US government believes he heads a group of individuals who control the interests of China's lucrative oil industry.

Zeng, 74, is a former vice president of China. Fu was Zeng's assistant in the early 1980s, when Zeng began holding a series of foreign liaison positions with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. After Zeng was named a member of the Politburo Standing Committee in 2002, Fu also quickly rose through the ranks, becoming president of CNOOC before eventually being appointed Sinopec chairman in 2011.

According to the insider, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China's top disciplinary watchdog, began secretly investigating Jiang and Gu from 2010, though Fu was able to escape punishment by seeking refuge under the protection of former premier Wen Jiabao.

Sources say Fu left Beijing for New York on Sept. 18 along with five bureau-level officials for an international conference and is also scheduled for a visit to Washington DC.