Ling Jihua (born 22 October 1956) is a Chinese former politician and one of the principal political advisers of former leader Hu Jintao. Ling was best known for his tenure as director of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party between 2007 and 2012. Ling was charged with corruption, bribery, and other misconduct and was sentenced to life imprisonment as part of a larger anti-corruption campaign carried out by Xi Jinping.
Ling began his career as a functionary in regional branches of the Communist Youth League in his native Shanxi Province. His Youth League involvement propelled him to the national-level organization in 1979. At the Youth League Ling worked in its Publicity Department and edited its flagship newspaper. Closely following the footsteps of his patron Hu Jintao, Ling was promoted to a leadership position in the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party in 1999, and became an important member of the State Commission for Public Sector Reform.
Ling rose to become the Director of the General Office, an organ that handles day-to-day logistics and bureaucratic functions of the Communist Party, in 2007, when Hu was the party's General Secretary (i.e., paramount leader). He was initially seen as a promising candidate for promotion to the top leadership at the 18th Party Congress in 2012. However, his political fortunes abruptly took a turn when his 23-year-old son was killed while driving a Ferrari in 2012, an event that caused embarrassment for the party elite. Ling was then politically sidelined.
In December 2014, Ling was placed under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (party's anti-graft agency) and removed from office. He was expelled from the Communist Party and tried on charges of corruption, illegal possession of state secrets, and abuse of power, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2016.
Career Early career Born Linghu Jihua, Ling was the third son to Linghu Ye (), a party official, in Pinglu County, Shanxi Province. He and all four of his siblings received names related to the Communist Party's policies. His own name, Jihua, means "planning". In December 1973, as with many other young Chinese, he was sent to work in the countryside as part of the Down to the Countryside Movement. Ling worked in a printing factory. "Linghu" is a very rare surname, eventually most members of the Ling family shortened the "Linghu" to "Ling".
In June 1975, Ling was admitted into the Communist Youth League (CYL) organization in Pinglu County, and was soon elevated to deputy secretary of the local CYL committee. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in June 1976. In December 1978, Ling was transferred to CCP's Yuncheng Committee in Shanxi. In 1979, Communist Youth League's central organization selected young cadres nationwide to work in the capital. Ling, at the age of 23, was recruited to work in the Publicity Department of CYL Central Committee.
Rising through the ranks in Beijing
From August 1983, Ling studied at the Communist Youth League Academy (later China Youth University of Political Studies), majoring in political education. In July 1985, Ling worked in the political theory section of the Publicity Department of the Communist Youth League. At that time, Hu Jintao was the First Secretary (i.e., leader) of the Youth League, though it is not clear whether there was direct contact between Ling and Hu. From June 1988, Ling served in various posts in CYL, mostly as part of the CYL Secretariat and the CYL General Office. He also was editor-in-chief of Chinese Communist Youth League, the primary theory publication of the CYL, and between 1994 and 1995, and the CYL's chief of propaganda.
In December 1995, after having served in CYL for over ten years, Ling was transferred to General Office of the Chinese Communist Party, and continued his work in political theory. Between 1994 and 1996 Ling obtained an "on-job master's degree" in commercial management at Hunan University. In June 1998, he was promoted to head of research office of the General Office (). In December 1999, Ling was appointed as deputy director of General Office. Later, he also was the deputy chief of the General Office in charge of the Central Institutional Organization Commission, and chief of staff of the Office of General Secretary Hu Jintao.
On 19 September 2007, Ling was promoted to become Director of General Office of the Chinese Communist Party, the nerve center of the party that was in charge of all manner of administrative activities of the party's central authorities, including communications and leaders' scheduling and agendas. He also became a Secretary of the Central Secretariat, in charge of the implementation of tasks set forth by the party's Politburo.
Son's Ferrari crash Throughout Hu Jintao's leadership, Ling accompanied Hu on trips abroad and was often seen with Hu on inspection visits around the country. As one of Hu Jintao's closest associates and most trusted advisors, in addition to being of an appropriate level of seniority, Ling seemed to be a good candidate for higher office. Ling's political fortunes, however, took an abrupt turn in 2012. On March 18, Ling Jihua's only son, 23-year-old Ling Gu, was killed in a car crash on Beijing's 4th Ring Road while driving a black Ferrari 458 Spider accompanied by two women, reportedly of Tibetan ethnicity, one of whom died in the crash. Ling Gu was said to have been found naked, and the women were described as either naked or otherwise "scantily clad," which seemed to suggest sexual activity while driving. While this account was later disputed, the widely discussed "Ferrari crash" was sensationalized in the media and exacerbated the general public's cynicism over the debauchery and conspicuous consumption often associated with children of the Communist ruling elite.
News of the crash was reported in mainland Chinese media shortly after it happened, but the story was then rapidly suppressed. Reportedly, Ling Jihua, after viewing the body of the driver at the morgue, denied it was his son. Ling was also said to have mobilized staff from the Central Security Bureau, an organization in charge of national leaders' security which reported into the General Office, to cover up the crash. Chinese media also reported that Ling had contacted Zhou Yongkang, then chief of the powerful Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, to reach unspecified "political deals" in exchange for assistance in covering up the death of his son. Ling then went on to work as normal. In China, Internet search terms such as "Ferrari", "Little Ling" and "Prince Ling" were blocked, and a message dispelling the rumour was also posted under Ling Gu's social media alias "Wang Ziyun". In November 2012, an 'exclusive' from the South China Morning Post reported that Jiang Jiemin, a former associate of Zhou Yongkang then chief executive of China National Petroleum Corporation, wired money from the company's accounts to the families of the two women involved in the crash to keep silent about the crash.
Despite media censorship regarding the event, news of the crash was widely circulated in China and later reported abroad by major international media, including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Online Chinese-language communities also questioned how Ling Gu could afford a car worth around $500,000 when his parents had government jobs. The crash and subsequent suppression of the incident by Ling were said to have been what ultimately led to his demotion in August 2012, and his wife Gu Liping's subsequent removal from her position in January 2013.
Demotion and investigation On 1 September 2012, prior to the transfer of power between Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping at the pivotal 18th Party Congress, Ling was abruptly transferred from his position as General Office chief to become head of the United Front Work Department, an organ considered to be of less importance. Li Zhanshu, a close associate of Xi Jinping, replaced Ling's position as Director of General Office. This was seen as a demotion for Ling. At the 18th Party Congress held in the fall of 2012, Ling did not gain a seat on the Politburo as expected, nor did he retain his position as Secretary of the Secretariat; this signalled that Ling was excluded from all the major power organs of the party. In March 2013, Ling was elected as one of the vice-chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), barely holding onto his status as a "national leader". In addition, of the 23 candidates standing for confirmation for the CPPCC Vice-Chairmanship, Ling received, by far, the fewest votes in favour. A total of 90 CPPCC delegates voted against Ling, while 22 delegates abstained.The candidate with the second most votes in opposition was Chen Yuan, who received 27 votes against.
In the latter half of 2014, members of the Ling family were successively detained by the authorities (see #Family section below). Moreover, an unprecedented number of high-ranking officials in Ling's native Shanxi province were investigated for corruption and removed from office. Rumours circulated about Ling's own fate. Ling was officially placed under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (party's anti-graft agency) on 22 December 2014, and dismissed from his position as United Front Work Department head about a week later. The CPPCC then removed him from the office of vice-chairman in February 2015, in addition to stripping him of his ordinary CPPCC delegate status.
Several weeks prior to the announcement of the investigation, Ling continued to make appearances on state television in his positions of CPPCC Vice Chairman and United Front chief. On 15 December Ling penned an article on the Communist theory publication Qiushi brimming with praise for the signature political philosophies of Xi Jinping such as the "Chinese Dream". This was seen by observers as a 'last-ditch' declaration of fealty to the new Chinese leader with whom Ling was thought to have lost favour.
Ling was one of the highest-profile targets (next to Zhou Yongkang and Xu Caihou) of the anti-corruption campaign following the 18th Party Congress spearheaded by Party General secretary Xi Jinping and central discipline chief Wang Qishan. He was the second sitting "national leader"-level figure to be investigated by the party's anti-graft agency, after CPPCC Vice-chairman Su Rong. Chinese-language media have linked Ling to a mysterious political network composed of prominent politicians and businesspeople with origins in Shanxi called the Xishan Society.
Detention and trial On 20 July 2015, Ling was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, and was arrested to face criminal proceedings. Ling's case received significant media attention, since he was the most prominent political figure expelled from the party since criminal proceedings were initiated against former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang. In the party's disciplinary dossier against Ling, he was accused of "violating political discipline, violating political rules, violating organizational discipline, and violating confidentiality discipline." He was further accused of taking in large bribes, aiding in the business interests of his wife, sexual misconduct with "numerous women", and illegally obtaining party and state secrets.