The former chairman of China Eastern is under investigation for corruption (thanks to SK for flagging this). I’m not sure how much transparency there will be into what happened, but this could get interesting…
Former China Eastern executive faces government probe
Today (June 28, 2025), the Chinese government has announced that the former head of China Eastern Airlines is under investigation over corruption allegations. Liu Shaoyong was head of China Eastern from 2009 until he resigned in 2022. He has also held the position of party secretary at the airline.
He’s being investigated for “serious violations of discipline and law,” per a statement from China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission. Some reports suggest that the former China Eastern executive and even some family members have been taken into custody, but those details weren’t part of the official statement.
China Eastern is based in Shanghai, and is primarily owned by the government of China through its parent company, and it’s one of the three largest airlines in China. The airline grew a ton under his leadership, and also went from losing money to being profitable.
This investigation is part of President Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown, which admittedly people have differing takes on (for obvious reasons).
I’m curious what this corruption probe reveals
Admittedly over the years we’ve seen quite a few executives at state run airlines charged with corruption (at Garuda Indonesia, Thai Airways, etc.). All too often, they’re simply looking to pad their own pockets, rather than looking out for the best interests of the airline.
What I find interesting about this update — and it could be a total coincidence — is the timing. Liu resigned in August 2022, shortly after China Eastern’s deadly March 2022 Boeing 737 crash, which killed 132 people. In and of itself, that’s not unusual.
However, yesterday I covered how China is refusing to reveal the reason for this crash, claiming that “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.” That’s quite a statement.
So it’s possible that these things are totally unrelated, but the timing here is interesting — Liu resigned shortly after the accident, and now it has been announced that he’s being investigated for corruption around the same time that the government has announced it can’t reveal the cause of the crash.
Again, it could be totally unrelated, but that’s quite some timing. Even if it were related, it’s hard to know what to make of that, since it’s not like the Chinese government is exactly known for… well, you know.
Bottom line
The former chairman of China Eastern is being investigated by the government for corruption. He was in charge of the airline for 13 years, and oversaw quite the transformation at the company. It’s hard to know what exactly to make of this, given the party investigating him.
The timing sure is strange, though. He resigned soon after China Eastern’s major fatal crash, and the announcement of his investigation comes at the same time that the government is refusing to reveal the cause of the crash, on the basis of “national security and social stability.”
What do you make of the investigation of this former China Eastern executive?
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