Corruption was exposed again, and five members of China Mobile’s management were taken away

Corruption was again exposed, and five members of China Mobile’s management were taken away. After more than a year of “cessation”, China Mobile’s corruption case has started to ripple again. …

After more than a year of “quiescence”, China Mobile’s corruption case has made ripples again.

On April 25, a reporter from China Business News learned from China Mobile insiders that a senior executive of Tianjin Mobile had been taken away for investigation on April 23.

This is the highest-level executive of China Mobile involved in the case again after China Mobile Vice President Lu Xiangdong was investigated in February last year. Sources said that as many as five people were "taken away" from China Mobile nationwide the day before yesterday, and the Tianjin Mobile executive was the highest-ranking among them. Prior to this, he had been investigated and "questioned" by relevant departments. The remaining four people are middle-level managers from Guangdong Mobile and Inner Mongolia Mobile. One of the middle-level managers from Guangdong Mobile returned to work after only one day, and the conditions of the others are unknown.

On the one hand, it is experiencing a slowdown in revenue and profit growth. On the other hand, challenges from new applications such as WeChat are making mobile operators overwhelmed. The corruption case that broke out again after more than a year of silence will undoubtedly make China Mobile's "troublesome life" more difficult and longer.

>Tianjin Mobile senior management dismissed

According to the reporter's understanding, the above-mentioned Tianjin Mobile senior management matter has been officially notified to China Mobile Group. On April 24, China Mobile held a party group meeting. Huang Wenlin, vice president of China Mobile Group, rushed to Tianjin on the afternoon of the 24th and convened Tianjin Mobile personnel for an internal briefing. It is said that work arrangements such as successors have been basically completed.

"It should be related to the SP business when he was a relevant executive in another province's mobile phone." An insider revealed to reporters. "SP business is the area where power-for-money transactions are most likely to occur, and it is also the easiest to be caught," said the above-mentioned person familiar with the matter.

Since the first corruption case involving Zhang Chunjiang, the former party secretary of China Mobile, in December 2009, and now the above-mentioned Tianjin Mobile senior executives have been involved in the case, as many as 12 members of China Mobile’s management have been “lost”. Related to the data business are Li Xiangdong, former general manager of Sichuan Mobile's data department, Ma Li, former deputy general manager of the group, and Ye Bing, former head of the data department and CEO of Aspire Holdings.

Provincial management includes: Li Hua, former general manager of Sichuan Mobile, Shi Wanzhong, former general manager of Anhui Mobile and general manager of the human resources department of China Mobile, Shen Changfu, general manager of Chongqing Mobile, and Lin Donghua, deputy general manager of Hubei Mobile, etc.

According to the reporter's understanding, the corruption cases of the above-mentioned persons do not have the characteristics of large-scale "nest cases". "Power-for-money transactions" in data and SP business and corruption arising from equipment procurement account for a considerable proportion. The latest news learned by reporters yesterday showed that according to official notifications from relevant departments, Ye Bing was the person with the highest amount of money involved, including company equity, and the amount involved was as high as 230 million yuan, followed by horsepower, which was about 120 million yuan.

A Troubled Year

From Lu Xiangdong to the above-mentioned Tianjin Mobile senior management, the two people had "accidents" more than a year apart. This really made China Mobile, which was already worried about "WeChat charging", even worse.

Why are there so many corruption cases in China Mobile? Why are they so concentrated? People familiar with the matter revealed that as early as January this year, at an internal meeting of the State Council, the three major problems of "extravagance and waste", "nepotism" and "lax management" of many central enterprises were directly named. China Mobile was among the five central enterprises criticized.

After Xi Guohua took over as chairman of China Mobile, the 2012 working meeting specifically proposed three major strategies for China Mobile's future development, namely strategic transformation, reform and innovation, and integrity and health. Anti-corruption and integrity have been elevated to one of China Mobile’s three major strategies. China Mobile is also trying to solve the collusion of interests and rent-seeking space caused by the long-term presence of "frontier officials" in one place through nationwide job rotation. Obviously, this method is not enough to prevent corruption.

The reporter also learned that the National Audit Office will release audit reports on some central enterprises before and after May Day. It is one of the routine tasks of the National Audit Office to select some central enterprises for financial audit every year. Last year and the year before last, the National Audit Office released audit results on China Unicom and China Telecom, and more than ten problems were found in both companies.

According to people close to the National Audit Office, the National Audit Office is about to release the audit results of 9 central enterprises and has discovered a total of 178 problems, of which China Mobile alone accounts for 1/3.

According to China Mobile's 2012 annual report, China Mobile's revenue increased by only 6.1% year-on-year, and its profit increased by 2.7% year-on-year, both falling to historical lows. What's worse is that this trend will continue. Even if China Mobile can launch TD-LTE in the next few years to make up for the current technical shortcomings and competitive pressure in the 3G market, it will still face many problems such as huge capital expenditures.

Compared with the sustainability of business development, whether internal management can be further refined and the system can be used to eliminate corruption is the most urgent task for China Mobile, which currently has revenue of more than 560 billion yuan.

> Attached table statistics of dismissed executives of China Mobile from 2009 to 2012

Zhang Chunjiang December 2009 Party Secretary and Deputy General Manager of China Mobile Group Suspected of serious economic violations

Li Xiangdong March 2010 General Manager of Sichuan Mobile Data Department and General Manager of Infinite Music Operation Center Suspected of taking huge amounts of bribes and absconding with money

Li Hua June 2010 General Manager of Sichuan Mobile Suspected of taking huge amounts of bribes

Shi Wanzhong In early 2010, former Chairman and General Manager of Anhui Mobile, suspected of accepting bribes from Siemens

> General Manager of Human Resources Department of China Mobile Bribery of US$5 million

Su Jinsheng March 2011 Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Suspected of the Zhang Chunjiang case and the origin of the huge property is unknown

Horsepower May 2011 Deputy General Manager of China Mobile Data Department Suspected of major disciplinary violations

Ye Bing May 2011 CEO of Zhuowang Information, a subsidiary of China Mobile Suspected of the Horsepower Case

Shen Changfu October 2010 Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Chongqing Mobile Co., Ltd. Suspected of accepting huge bribes

Lin Donghua July 2009 Deputy General Manager of Hubei Mobile Suspected of huge amounts of corruption

Wu Weining End of November 2011 General Manager of China Mobile Terminal Department Suspected of economic problems

Lu Xiangdong February 28, 2012 Vice President of China Mobile Suspected of economic problems