Rui Chenggang, One of China’s Most Prominent Business Journalists, Hauled off by Authorities from The Studio Set on Charges of Corruption

Rui Chenggang, 36 and one of China's most prominent business journalists was recently arrested police on charges of corruption. This comes about a month after an investigation was launched into suspected bribery by his boss, Guo Zhenxi. His boss happens to be CCTV's advertising director and the director -general of the finance and economics channel. It seems tat the government is making good on its pledge to root out corruption at the highest levels especially if flashes itself using extravagance. This is one of the mandates that the current president, Xi Jinping, gave after recently going into office.

Rui was one of the popular host of financial news programmes on the broadcaster CCTV, which is state owned by the way. According to the ruling party's newspaper, the People's Daily, he was marched out of the studio before he could go on the air. He was not the only who was taken. Li Yong, who happens to be the network's vice-director of financial news was also arrested and taken into custody. Rui was known for designer suits and flashy cars and in some circles; the events that happened were not that much of a surprise.

One indication that the arrests came suddenly is the fact that there was a second microphone which appeared on the set of that night's edition of the Economic News broadcast. However, it was anchored only by Rui's co-host, who reported the financial news. Caixin cited an employee that would prefer to remain unnamed saying that 'Rui was taken from the CCTV headquarters by the authorities and no notice was given ahead of schedule to the programme hence the way things seemed a bit confused at the time. As a personality in the media, his strong nationalist stances and controversial remarks have made him quite a celebrity. His rise to fame began in 2007 when he made some remarks about a Starbucks branch which was located in Beijing's Forbidden City and it caused a public outcry. The coffee franchise was forced to close it due to all of the public negativity.

 

Tags : Rui Chenggang Rui Chenggang 36 Rui Chenggang CCTV Rui Chenggang business journalist Rui Chenggang on air Rui Chenggang host People's Daily Economic News broadcast Beijing’s Forbidden City Xi Jinping Rui 2007 Starbucks Li Yong CCTV's advertising director and the director –general Guo Zhenxi ruling party’s newspaper the People's Daily network's vice-director CCTV's advertising director Rui Chenggang Most Prominent Business Journalist Rui's co-host Caixin