State employee who bragged about wealth suspended from job

A 28-year-old man in Jiangxi province whose online posts about his wealth and powerful family caused a stir has been suspended from his job amid an ongoing investigation into his claims, according to an official statement.

Recently, screenshots of a group of WeChat Moments posts made by Zhou Jie, who claimed to be an employee of Jiangxi State-owned Capital Operation Holding Group, went viral. The screenshots showed off his family's wealth and discussed his father's job promotion.

The incident draw widespread concern and queries online, with many netizens wondering whether Zhou's family accumulated wealth from corruption and whether his father was promoted through the abuse of power.

Capital Operation Holding Group issued a statement on Tuesday night, saying that the posts on Zhou's WeChat were published two years ago and that he is an employee of its equity management department. Zhou was suspended recently.

Zhou's father, 59, is a fourth-level investigator in the freight logistics division under Jiangxi's comprehensive transportation development center.

His father used to work in the passenger and cargo transport division of Jiangxi's former Highway Transport Administration, and he was promoted to his current position in September 2020. The investigation showed that his promotion was in line with regulations, it said.

The statement said that Zhou and his parents bought six houses with a total area of 705 square meters from 2006 to 2022, for which they collectively paid about 6.55 million yuan ($968,500). They also bought two shops comprising about 82.7 square meters for a total of 1.91 million yuan. They are currently repaying a 2.53 million yuan loan.

Additionally, Zhou posted that a provincial-level official once served him cigarettes and that he drank tea worth 200,000 yuan per 500 grams. These stories are false, the statement said.

On July 25, the company issued a notice saying that Zhou made the posts on his WeChat Moments from September 2019 to June 2020, and that the content was later forwarded by others.