Zhao Zhengyong

When Zhao left his position as party secretary of Shaanxi for a seat on the National People's Congress, several business dealings resulting in personal enrichment to Zhao became public.^[8]: 129 Among these was an investment with private developers to build expensive villas on the northern slope of Qinling Mountain in an environmentally protected area.^[8]: 129 Zhao received multiple warnings from Communist Party leaders about the project and falsely reported that the villas had been removed.^{[8]: 129–130}

On January 15, 2019, it was announced that Zhao was under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party's internal disciplinary body, and the National Supervisory Commission, China's highest anti-corruption agency, for "serious violations of regulations and laws".^[9][10][11] He was expelled from the Communist Party on January 4, 2020, and his qualification for delegates to the 13th CCP Shaanxi Provincial Congress was terminated.^[12][13] The day Zhao stepped down, his fellow townsman and subordinate, Chen Guoqiang, vice-governor of Shaanxi, was also taken away for investigation.^[14] Wei Minzhou, former chief of Shaanxi's capital city Xi'an, was known to be a close ally of Zhao, was placed under investigation for serious violations of regulations in May 2017.^[11]

On May 11, 2020, Zhao's trial was held at the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin. The public prosecutors accused him of abusing his positions between 2003 and 2018 to seek benefits for others in terms of job promotions, energy resources exploration and utilization, business activities and project contracting and received a huge amount of gifts and money in return.^[15] On July 31, he was sentenced to the death penalty with reprieve by the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin after he was found to have accepted more than 717 million yuan ($102.4 million) in bribes.^[7][16][17] The court said that "Zhao was given a two-year reprieve for his death penalty and deprived of political rights for life, with his personal property confiscated. After he finishes the two-year probation, his death penalty will be reduced to life imprisonment without commutation or parole."^[16][17][15] He was also deprived of his political rights for life, and ordered by the court to have all his personal assets confiscated.^[17] He said he accepted the sentence and would not appeal.^[17]

Zhao married Sun Jianhui (孙建辉), the couple have a daughter.^[18][19] Zhao has a younger brother named Zhao Zhengfa (赵正发).^[18] After the downfall of Zhao Zhengyong, his wife, younger brother, and daughter were arrested for investigation.^[18][19]