Hengyang vote-buying scandal

In December 2012, the Hengyang Municipal People's Congress convened to elect 73 allotted delegates to the upcoming provincial People's Congress (legislature). According to Hunan provincial media, during the elections process, some 56 candidates attempted to buy votes from the municipal congress members, exchanging goods and cash worth a total monetary value of some 110 million yuan ($17.7 million). Tong, as Hengyang party chief, was the top official overseeing the election process. During the process, it was said that some 518 out of 527 delegates to the municipal congress and 68 congress staff members accepted or received cash or gifts. The scale of the vote-buying scheme earned the scandal significant notoriety nationally, and was said to have been the most serious vote buying scheme since the communist state was founded in 1949.^[5]

On December 18, 2013, Tong was placed under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for "serious violations of laws and regulations".^[6] Several days later, Tong was dismissed from his position as Vice-Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. On January 2, 2014, Tong was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), then taken into custody for judicial proceedings.^[7] Tong's case is unique compared to other officials who have been accused of corruption since the 18th Party Congress in that the initial investigation did not explicitly state Tong was involved in the scandal itself, but only that he was negligent. This contrasted with other fallen officials who were accused of actively taking bribes or abuse of power. Nevertheless, after the CCDI's investigation concluded, Tong was said to have broken the law and his case was forwarded to prosecution authorities for further processing.^[4]

Tong's case sent a signal that "turning a blind eye" to abuses can result in just as severe of discipline as actively engaging in abuses.^[8] Tong was charged with dereliction of duty by the Beijing Intermediate Procuratorate in August 2014. Specifically, the prosecution asserted that Tong had been informed about the vote-buying scheme from four separate delegates at the municipal congress but consciously avoided conducting an investigation. The facts of the case mentioned, however, that Tong held several election preparatory committee meetings which paid lip service to following election laws and regulations generally, but did not discuss any specific abuses.^[8] On August 18, 2014, Tong was sentenced to five years in prison by the Second Intermediate People's Court in Beijing. Tong did not appeal the decision. The Court said that the sentence took into account Tong's cooperative attitude during judicial proceedings and his admission of guilt which presumably reduced the severity of his sentence.^[9]

On June 4, 2018, Tong was reduced penalty for 6 months, and he was released from prison on June 30. He became the first official of sub-provincial rank to be released following the ascension of Xi Jinping at the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.^[10]