China expels former CCCC chairman Liu Qitao from the Communist Party and refers him for prosecution

China's Communist Party has expelled Liu Qitao, a former party secretary and chairman of China Communications Construction Group (CCCC). The Tianjin Supervisory Commission has referred his suspected crimes to prosecutors for review and prosecution, according to an official notice carried by Xinhua on Tuesday, November 10. The notice is an official Party and supervisory finding. It was issued in the name of the disciplinary inspection and supervisory group stationed at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission, and of the Tianjin municipal commission. It is not a court verdict. Liu is described as suspected of bribery and of the crime of abuse of power by personnel of a state-owned company. No public response from Liu was found in the sources opened for this article.

The Xinhua item is dated 5:07 p.m. on November 10 and cites the CCDI and National Supervisory Commission website as its source. Caixin, in a report published at 8:15 p.m. the same day, noted that the announcement came six years after Liu's retirement. It also noted that some conclusions of the investigation were disclosed at the same time as the investigation itself was announced. Caixin said that combination has been uncommon in past anti-corruption cases. This article treats the Xinhua notice as the primary official text and Caixin as independent reporting on the process and on Liu's career. Draft source links circulated for this package that pointed to other officials' cases were checked and set aside; they did not concern Liu.

What the official notice says, and what it does not#

The notice says the SASAC-based disciplinary group and the Tianjin Supervisory Commission had opened a case against Liu for serious violations of discipline and law. After investigation, it lists a long series of Party findings. In the official language, Liu is said to have abandoned his ideals and original mission. He is said to have held a distorted view of political performance. The notice says he departed from high-quality development and from the firm's actual conditions, and pursued rapid apparent results to collect political capital. He is accused, still in the notice's terms, of political clinging and opportunism. The notice says he used central-enterprise resources to associate with "political swindlers" and project middlemen. It also says he operated a revolving door to place confidants, and seriously harmed the company's interests. He is said not to have fulfilled his principal responsibility for comprehensive strict Party governance. The notice says he formed cliques and worsened the firm's political atmosphere.

The notice also says he disregarded the central eight-point decision on conduct. It says he accepted gifts and money on a large scale, was keen to attend banquets, and long accepted unpaid personal services from people his office supervised. It says he violated organizational principles, failed to report personal matters, and did not explain problems truthfully when the organization made inquiries. It says he practiced favoritism in personnel matters. It also says he used his office for others' private gain and allowed related persons to use his influence to seek huge benefits. It further says he improperly performed his duties, made irregular external loans and guarantees, and intervened in economic disputes. It says his private conduct was corrupt. On the suspected criminal side, it says he used his office to seek benefits for others in project contracting and promotions, and illegally accepted huge sums. It says he abused his power by leading irregular mergers and acquisitions and financing-type trade, causing huge losses of state assets.

Those sentences are the Party and supervisory organs' findings as published. They are not findings of a people's court. The notice itself draws that distinction. It says Liu seriously violated the Party's political, organizational, integrity, work and life discipline. It says he committed serious duty-related violations of law, and is suspected of bribery and of abuse of power by personnel of a state-owned company. It says he did not restrain himself after the 18th Party Congress. It also says the nature of the case is serious and the impact vile. It then recites the legal bases: the Communist Party's disciplinary regulations, the Supervision Law and the law on government sanctions for public employees.

The sanctions, as stated, are as follows. After study by the SASAC Party committee, Liu is to be expelled from the Party. After study by the SASAC-based disciplinary group, the treatment he enjoyed is to be canceled in accordance with the rules, and his illicit gains from violations of discipline and law are to be confiscated. The Tianjin Supervisory Commission is to transfer the suspected criminal issues to the procuratorate for review and prosecution according to law, with the property involved transferred as well. "Transfer for review and prosecution" is the start of a criminal process, not its end. Unless and until a court issues a judgment, the criminal allegations remain allegations in the judicial sense, even though the Party has already imposed its own maximum disciplinary penalty of expulsion.

No dollar or yuan figure for the "huge" sums or the "huge" state-asset losses appears in the official notice opened for this article. This article does not invent one.

A retired central-enterprise chairman, and an unusual announcement#

Caixin identified Liu as the former party secretary and chairman of CCCC, a leading state-owned firm in transport and construction, and said the investigation was announced six years after he retired. The paper's reporter, Zou Xiaotong, wrote that anti-corruption work in the transport-construction sector had gone a step further. She also wrote that it has been uncommon for authorities to announce a case and, in the same breath, some of the investigation's conclusions. Caixin also noted, in a deck line, that another former CCCC chairman, Wang Tongzhou, had recently had his status as a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference member revoked. That is Caixin's report about a separate personnel action; it is not a finding against Liu, and it is not elaborated in the portion of the Caixin page that opened without a subscription.

CCCC is one of China's main state construction groups, with large domestic and overseas infrastructure projects. The official notice's references to project contracting, irregular mergers, financing-type trade, external loans and guarantees, and a "revolving door" for confidants are therefore pointed at the kind of business a firm like CCCC does. The notice does not name counterparties, projects or years. Caixin's open text similarly does not itemize deals. This article does not fill those gaps from unsourced memory.

Liu's own account is missing. No statement from him, from a lawyer, or from his family was found on the official notice page or in the opened Caixin report. In Chinese discipline cases it is common for a public defense to appear late, if at all. The absence of a reply is not proof of guilt or of innocence. It is a gap in the public record.

1. RetirementLiu left his posts about six years before the announcement, according to Caixin
2. Case openedSASAC-based disciplinary group and Tianjin Supervisory Commission opened a case, official notice says
3. 2026-11-10Xinhua publishes expulsion, cancellation of benefits, confiscation of illicit gains and referral to prosecutors
4. Court stageNot reached in the sources opened for this article

Source: Xinhua, Nov. 10, Caixin, Nov. 10

How this fits a wider Party campaign#

567politics has reported that the Party's fifth plenary session confirmed 33 expulsions as attendance fell and a discipline resolution appeared, and that the Party has begun electing delegates to its 21st Congress in 2027. Liu's case sits in that broader campaign against corruption and against what official texts call a poor political atmosphere in state firms. It should not be treated as a numbered addition to the 33 plenum expulsions unless an official tally says so; this article found no such official addition.

The official notice's language — "did not restrain himself after the 18th Party Congress," cliques, political performance, state-asset losses — follows a template familiar from other CCDI announcements. Recurrence of official language is not independent corroboration of the underlying facts. It is evidence of how the Party describes cases it has already decided to treat as serious.

China's political system is led by the Communist Party of China. 567politics does not publish a spectrum chart for China; closed-autocracy baseline rules mean party profiles and system context are available, but there is no competitive party chart to embed. Readers who want organizational context can use the Party profile and the earlier plenum story rather than a chart that the site does not offer.

Other discipline announcements appeared on official and news sites the same day. Pages opened in error for this package concerned different people, including an investigation of a former China Galaxy Securities chairman and an investigation of a Yangjiang official. Those cases are not Liu's and are not merged into his file here.

What "referral to prosecutors" means for readers#

In China's dual system, Party discipline and state supervision usually come first for senior officials and state-enterprise managers who are Party members. Expulsion, cancellation of benefits and confiscation of illicit gains can be completed before a court speaks. The procuratorate then decides whether to indict. A later trial, if there is one, may confirm, narrow or recast the official narrative. Until a judgment is published, careful wording is required on three levels at once:

• The Party has made an official finding of serious disciplinary violations and has expelled Liu.
• Supervisory authorities say he is suspected of specified crimes and have sent the file to prosecutors.
• A court has not, in the sources opened here, convicted him of anything.

Those three sentences can all be true at the same time. Treating the notice as a criminal conviction would overstate the record. Treating the notice as a mere rumor would understate it. The accurate description is an official Party penalty plus a criminal referral.

Caixin's process point is useful here. If it is unusual to announce an investigation and some conclusions together, readers should not infer a hidden motive from that fact alone. They can note that the public was given a finished official narrative rather than a bare statement that a retired chairman was "under investigation," and that the narrative still stops short of a trial.

Limits, and what would change the story#

Several facts are not in the public texts opened for this article. There is no official sum for bribes or losses, no list of projects, no date when the investigation quietly began, and no statement from Liu. Caixin's mention of Wang Tongzhou is a separate personnel item and is not a legal finding. The English Caixin headline linked from the Chinese page, "Ex-Chief of State-Owned Construction Giant Accused of Bribery, Abuse of Power," dated November 11, was not opened in full. The Chinese Caixin text and the Xinhua notice are the basis of this report.

The story would move if prosecutors announce an indictment. It would also move if a court schedules a trial or issues a judgment, if Liu or a lawyer replies, or if official documents put numbers on the alleged losses. Until then, the lead remains the one the official notice supports: the Party has expelled a former CCCC chairman and referred suspected crimes for prosecution, and no court has ruled.

For related 567politics coverage of China's political calendar, see the fifth plenum expulsions story, the 21st Congress delegate-election circular, and Li Qiang's announced visit to Thailand and the China-ASEAN summit in the same week. For the Party's organizational profile, see the Communist Party of China. The site's approach to sourcing, including the distinction between official findings and court verdicts, is described in the editorial standards and methodology.

Differing perspectives

Has the official action against Liu Qitao completed the case against him?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Treat the Party expulsion as a completed disciplinary finding

  Who holds it: The CCDI, the National Supervisory Commission and the Tianjin Supervisory Commission, in the official notice

  The official notice presents the case as decided for Party discipline. After investigation, the SASAC-based disciplinary group and the Tianjin Supervisory Commission found that Liu seriously violated Party discipline and is suspected of bribery and of abuse of power by personnel of a state-owned company. The notice says the nature of the case is serious and the impact vile. The sanctions it records are expulsion from the Party, cancellation of the treatment he enjoyed, confiscation of illicit gains, and transfer of suspected crimes to the procuratorate. On this official view, the Party has already imposed its maximum disciplinary penalty and sent the criminal file on for prosecution according to law.

  In their words: Xinhua ↗

• Treat the referral as the start of a court process, not a verdict

  Who holds it: Independent process reporting, as set out by Caixin, reading the official notice's own limits

  A completed Party penalty is not the same as a criminal conviction. Caixin noted that the investigation was announced six years after Liu retired, and that some conclusions were disclosed at the same time as the investigation itself was announced, a combination the paper said has been uncommon. The official notice itself says the Tianjin Supervisory Commission is to transfer suspected criminal issues to the procuratorate for review and prosecution. That is the start of a judicial process, not a court judgment. Until prosecutors indict and a court rules, the criminal accusations remain allegations in the judicial sense, even though the Party has already expelled him.

  In their words: Caixin ↗

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