The once-celebrated big data hub of Guizhou, China’s first national-level big data comprehensive pilot zone, is now grappling with a deepening crisis of systemic corruption. In a dramatic escalation of the province’s anti-corruption campaign, two senior officials linked to its flagship big data initiatives have recently fallen from grace. On February 26, 2025, Liu Lan, the fourth-ranking vice mayor of Guiyang, the provincial capital, was announced to be under investigation while still in office. Just two days prior, on February 24, Jing Yaping, the former director of the Guizhou Provincial Big Data Development Administration, who retired only four months earlier, was also detained for probe. Both officials share a critical connection: they worked closely with Ma Ningyu, Guiyang’s former mayor and the inaugural head of the provincial big data authority, who himself was ousted in August 2024. This cascade of investigations, spotlighted by the Guizhou Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, underscores a troubling pattern of “collapsing-style corruption” that threatens to tarnish the province’s ambitious digital legacy.
A Legacy of Ambition and Excess
Guizhou’s big data journey began with lofty aspirations. During the “13th Five-Year Plan” (2016–2020), the province positioned big data as its paramount development strategy, leveraging its cool climate and abundant energy resources to attract tech giants. A landmark achievement came under Ma Ningyu’s tenure as the first director of the Guizhou Big Data Development Administration, established in 2017 as China’s first provincial-level agency of its kind. Ma played a pivotal role in negotiating the relocation of Apple’s iCloud operations to “Cloud Guizhou,” a move hailed as a triumph for China’s data localization policies and a boon for Guizhou’s economic transformation. When Jing Yaping succeeded Ma in November 2021, she inherited this high-profile project and furthered collaborations with industry titans like Huawei Cloud, cementing Guizhou’s status as a digital frontier.
Yet, beneath these glittering successes, a darker narrative was unfolding. Ma Ningyu, who later became Guiyang’s mayor, was the fourth consecutive mayor of the city to face investigation, following Li Zaiyong, Liu Wenxin, and Chen Yan. His predecessors were felled by charges ranging from reckless debt-financed “vanity projects” to blatant graft, setting a precedent of impunity that appears to have permeated the province’s leadership. Jing Yaping, a 60-year-old management PhD and veteran of Guizhou’s academic and administrative circles, and Liu Lan, a 51-year-old technocrat with deep roots in the province’s health and governance sectors, now join this ignominious list. Their overlapping tenures with Ma suggest that the iCloud project and other big data ventures may have been fertile ground for malfeasance.
The Fall of the Technocrats
Jing Yaping’s career epitomized the scholar-official ideal. Born in Zunyi, Guizhou, she spent nearly three decades at Guizhou University of Finance and Economics before transitioning to public office. As Ma Ningyu’s deputy in 2016, she helped lay the groundwork for the province’s big data bureaucracy. After a stint as president of the Guizhou Academy of Sciences, she returned in 2021 to lead the Big Data Administration, overseeing its operations until her retirement in October 2024. Liu Lan, meanwhile, rose through the ranks of Guizhou’s health bureaucracy before entering municipal leadership, serving as vice mayor under Ma Ningyu from 2021 to 2024. Both women, armed with advanced degrees and decades of local experience, were seen as stewards of Guizhou’s digital future.
Their downfall, however, hints at systemic rot. Tang Renwu, dean of Beijing Normal University’s Academy of Government Management, has suggested that the successive investigations of Guizhou’s big data and municipal leaders likely stem from the massive infrastructure investments tied to these projects. The iCloud deal, for instance, involved significant public funding and private partnerships, creating opportunities for kickbacks, inflated contracts, and other abuses of power. While official details of Jing and Liu’s alleged crimes remain undisclosed, the pattern mirrors that of their predecessors: Li Zaiyong’s reckless borrowing, Liu Wenxin’s decadent lifestyle, and Chen Yan’s illicit profiteering from project approvals. Ma Ningyu’s ongoing investigation, launched in August 2024, may yet reveal the full extent of this network’s misdeeds.
A Broader Purge
The corruption in Guizhou’s big data sector extends beyond Jing, Liu, and Ma. Since 2020, a slew of officials and business figures tied to the industry have been ensnared. Li Guangkun, former head of Qiandongnan Prefecture’s Big Data Administration, fell in August 2020; Luo Kun, chairman of Guizhou Dekun Big Data Group, was detained in April 2023; and Tang Yu, party secretary of Bijie City’s Big Data Bureau, was ousted in July 2024. This relentless purge signals Beijing’s intent to root out graft in a sector it deems strategically vital. Yet, it also raises questions about the sustainability of Guizhou’s big data experiment. Can a province so steeped in scandal retain the trust of global tech partners like Apple and Huawei?
The Cost of Ambition
Guizhou’s big data push was meant to lift the province from poverty and obscurity, transforming it into a digital powerhouse. The iCloud project, in particular, symbolized this ambition, anchoring “Cloud Guizhou” as a hub for data storage and innovation. But the fall of its architects—Ma Ningyu, who brokered the deal, and Jing Yaping, who sustained it—casts a long shadow. The province’s leadership has squandered not just public funds but also public faith, turning a visionary endeavor into a cautionary tale of unchecked power.
As China’s central authorities intensify their anti-corruption campaign, Guizhou stands as a stark reminder that technological progress cannot outpace accountability. The collapse of its big data elite is not merely a local tragedy; it reflects broader tensions in China’s race to dominate the digital age. For now, the officials who once presided over iCloud’s landing in Guizhou face a reckoning, leaving the province to salvage its reputation—and its future—from the wreckage.