Ex-AVIC chief faces corruption charges

Tan Ruisong, former chairman of the State-owned defense conglomerate Aviation Industry Corp of China, has been charged with bribery, embezzlement, insider trading and the unlawful disclosure of information, the country's top procuratorate said on Tuesday.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement that an investigation into Tan's case was completed by the National Commission of Supervision and police in Chaoyang, Liaoning province, before being transferred to prosecutors in the city of Dalian for judicial proceedings.

The Dalian Municipal People's Procuratorate has since indicted Tan and filed the case with the Dalian Intermediate People's Court, according to the statement.

Prosecutors said Tan is accused of leveraging his various roles in the aviation industry to embezzle State funds and assets, accepting large bribes in exchange for using his position to seek illicit benefits for others, engaging in insider trading and leaking sensitive information to aid others in securities trading. The sums involved are "particularly enormous", the statement said, without disclosing specific figures.

Tan, 63, is a native of Hunan province and spent his entire career in China's automobile and aviation manufacturing sectors after graduating in 1983 from the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics, now known as Beihang University. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1985.

He served as chairman and Party chief of AVIC, China's dominant aircraft manufacturer, for nearly five years before being removed from his post in March 2023.

In August last year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision announced that Tan was under investigation.

In February, the country's top anti-graft bodies said he had been expelled from the Communist Party of China after investigators concluded that he had accepted bribes, embezzled large amounts of public funds, engaged in extramarital affairs and abused his power to help others obtain jobs, contracts and business acquisitions.

Tan is one of several senior executives at State-owned defense contractors to be rooted out by China's sweeping anti-corruption campaign over the past two years. Others include He Wenzhong, former deputy general manager of China Electronics Technology Group Corp; Liu Weidong, former deputy general manager at China South Industries Group Corp; and Hu Wenming, former chairman of China Shipbuilding Industry Corp.