Sun Zhengcai, a senior official once considered a contender for top leadership, had been Communist Party chief of the city until an abrupt announcement in July that he had been replaced by a rising political star close to President Xi Jinping. In a brief report, the official Xinhua news agency said a party investigation found that Sun had "abandoned the party's aims" and "seriously trampled upon the party's political discipline".
Reverberations from the Sun Zhengcai case are said to have ensnared a number of senior officials from Chongqing, including former Organization Department head Zeng Qinghong (female). 14 out of 43 delegates to the 19th Party Congress from Chongqing are said to have lost their eligibility.