China Expels Former Arts Institute Chief Linked to Liberal Magazine Takeover

Lian Ji, former president of the China National Academy of Arts, has been officially ousted from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and referred for prosecution over allegations of “bribery and abuse of office,” according to China’s top anti-corruption watchdog.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in an Oct. 9 announcement that Lian had accepted improper payments, gifts and banquet invitations, used his position to benefit others in personnel appointments, business operations and construction contracts, and illegally received “huge amounts” of property. His case has now been transferred to prosecutors.

Lian, 71, previously held senior posts in Inner Mongolia and Gansu before becoming head of the China National Academy of Arts in 2016. His tenure there coincided with one of the most controversial episodes in the history of Yanhuang Chunqiu, a political and historical journal long associated with reform-minded CCP veterans.

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A thorn on Beijing’s side

Founded in 1991, Yanhuang Chunqiu became known for publishing articles deemed politically-sensitive in modern Chinese history, including the Cultural Revolution, the Great Famine, former Party leader Zhao Ziyang, and debates over political reform.

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Campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward during Mao Zedong’s reign contributed to a famine that killed tens of millions, while the Cultural Revolution unleashed a decade of political persecution, imprisonment, public humiliation, and mass social upheaval. Yanhuang Chunqiu stood out for allowing relatively open discussion of those episodes and of the CCP’s historical record.

Its longtime publisher, Du Daozheng, had previously served as editor-in-chief of the state-run Guangming Daily and head of China’s press and publications administration. The magazine also enjoyed support from a number of retired reform-minded officials.

Pressure on the publication increased during the 2010s. In 2014, authorities changed its supervising institution from the China Yanhuang Culture Research Association to the state-run China National Academy of Arts. The magazine later said an agreement with the academy guaranteed it autonomy over personnel, finances and editorial decisions. That arrangement collapsed in July 2016.

Replacing editorial leadership

On July 13, 2016, the China National Academy of Arts notified the magazine that it was replacing its senior leadership and treating the earlier agreement as invalid. Du, vice president Hu Dehua, the son of former Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, and editor-in-chief Xu Qingquan were among those removed or reassigned. Academy officials were installed in key editorial positions.

The magazine’s existing leadership protested, saying the move violated the 2014 agreement. “The China National Academy of Arts unilaterally terminated the agreement and sent personnel into our editorial office, interfering with normal work,” the magazine said in a July 14 statement. It argued that the intervention deprived staff of the basic conditions needed to continue publishing and announced plans to take legal action.

The dispute effectively ended the publication’s independence. Former editor Yang Jisheng had already stepped down in 2015 after describing growing pressure from authorities. In resignation letters later made public, Yang said officials had repeatedly pressured him to leave and that many articles submitted for official review were either rejected or never cleared for publication.

Lian’s role draws attention again

Lian had become president of the academy months before the 2016 takeover and was serving as its top official when the personnel changes were imposed. Critics have long described him as a political ally or former subordinate of Liu Yunshan, who served as propaganda chief from 2002 to 2012 and later joined the CCP’s top leadership. Both men spent substantial portions of their careers in Inner Mongolia’s political and propaganda apparatus.

What is clear is that Lian headed the academy when it asserted direct control over Yanhuang Chunqiu, an intervention widely viewed at the time as a major blow to one of China’s few remaining outlets that allowed for relatively open discussion of the CCP’s controversial history.