The former Party secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee Jiang Chaoliang Photo: CCTV News

The third episode of an annual anti-corruption documentary series produced by China's top anti-corruption watchdog aired on Tuesday, exposing the corruption of former Party secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee Jiang Chaoliang, who abused his power to benefit his family members — even going so far as to have his household nanny solicit funds from businesspeople to purchase a house.

Jointly produced by the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the National Commission of Supervision and China Central Television (CCTV), the four-episode documentary series, titled "Never pause a single step, never yield an inch," is being aired from Sunday to Wednesday.

In the third episode, Jiang, also a former member of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) and vice chairperson of the NPC Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, confesses that he engaged in extensive family-style corruption. 

Jiang said in the episode that bribery schemes do not operate on a one-to-one basis targeting only the official; instead, they can infiltrate every member of an official's family.

According to the documentary, a businessman, named Li Yuanguang, patiently and attentively cultivated Jiang's favor. Every Spring Festival, he visited Jiang's mother with 20,000 yuan ($2,866) in small bills for her mahjong games. He also funded the education of Jiang's children, his brothers' investments, his parents' medical care, and even gave 600,000 yuan to help Jiang's nanny buy an apartment.

It revealed that Jiang, the eldest son of his family, doted on his two brothers from an early age. Their father, on his deathbed, entrusted him with the duty of looking after his siblings; yet after assuming a leading position, Jiang resorted to abusing his power to "care for" them, ultimately luring them onto the path of wrongdoing. 

Lured by hefty bribes from unscrupulous business tycoons, Jiang Chaoliang often secured a huge sum of money from graft with nothing more than a casual word, exploiting the conveniences afforded by his official position. The three brothers indulged themselves in the aura of power, utterly unable to extricate themselves from its grip.

For instance, Jiang Binliang, Jiang Chaoliang's fourth younger brother, said that relying on his elder brother for easy money allowed him to indulge in a lavish lifestyle — playing golf and purchasing luxury cars and villas.

The documentary also featured a segment in which Jiang and his two younger brothers appeared on screen together to express remorse. "When everyone places you on a pedestal, it truly feels like you're on top of the world. And indeed, a person can lose all sense of reason in an instant," Jiang Zhongliang, another brother of Jiang Chaoliang, said in the documentary.

Jiang Chaoliang was expelled from the CPC and dismissed from public office for serious violations of Party discipline and laws, including extensive power-for-money deals and family-based corruption, according to a CCDI statement released on October 27, 2025.

The episode also exposed another corruption case involving an official named Hong Lihe. 

Hong Lihe is a former senior legislator in east China's Jiangxi Province and formerly a vice head of the Standing Committee of Jiangxi Provincial People's Congress.

On one occasion, when he got into an argument with a passenger at the airport, Hong leveraged his official position to hurl threats, intimidating the woman he was quarreling with: "When you get back to Nanchang, you'll regret it." 

Hong said in the documentary that his long-standing mindset of indulging in a life of ease and acting like a high-handed official had fostered an overbearing sense of supremacy within him. "Therefore, my investigation and punishment by the authorities was by no means accidental, but an inevitable outcome," he added.

The most typical cases involved Hong's nephew Wu Wengang and his niece Hong Meifang, who served both as his "cash cows" and his "front men." Both Wu and Hong Meifang ran a business in Jiangxi Province, relying heavily on Hong Lihe's illicit assistance. In return, they continuously offered him lavish gifts ranging from cash to gold, real estate, and luxury cars. 

The extravagant villa located in Hong's hometown was a generous "gift" from Hong Meifang. The construction of the villa cost over 4 million yuan, covering an area of nearly 1,000 square meters across four floors, it was equipped with top-tier audiovisual systems, a billiard table and various other amenities. 

However, Hong Meifang's willingness to build a house for her uncle was not solely out of familial affection. The land for the villa was illicitly secured by Hong Lihe, who abused his authority to gain approval for the construction under the pretext that it was a hotel project.

"My descent into crime and lawlessness began with selfishness — my selfish motives and distracting thoughts; it was fueled by greed — my mind blinded by the desire for profit; and it culminated in arrogance — there were times when I became so arrogant that I had no sense of limits, even losing all sanity. I deeply regret all of this," Hong Lihe said in the documentary.

This documentary is a prelude to a future anti-corruption campaign, Zhang Xixian, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, told the Global Times. 

It conveys a clear message to the entire Party and all officials that the fight against corruption is an ongoing journey with ever-increasing intensity, Zhang said.