From December 5 to 7, 2003, the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work was held in Beijing. In his speech, Hu Jintao called for staying close to reality, close to life, and close to the masses, and stated that the Party's control over propaganda and the Party's control over ideology must never waver at any time.
After the Sun Zhigang case, on June 20, 2003, the State Council promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Assistance for Vagrants and Beggars with No Means of Support in Urban Areas, and the Measures for Custody and Repatriation were abolished as of August 1.
On April 20, 2003, the CCP Central Committee decided to remove Zhang Wenkang, Party Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and Meng Xuenong, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, from their posts. On the same day, Beijing's case figures were revised upward from 37 to 339 and changed to daily releases; Meng Xuenong subsequently resigned as mayor, and Zhang Wenkang was removed as Minister of Health on April 26.
On April 4, 2003, military doctor Jiang Yanyong learned that Health Minister Zhang Wenkang had claimed there were only 12 SARS cases in Beijing. He then told the real case numbers from military hospitals to CCTV and Phoenix TV, and the information was relayed out by foreign journalists.
On April 3, 2003, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang told a press conference in Beijing that Beijing had only 12 SARS cases and 3 deaths, and said it was safe whether or not you wore a mask; the next day, Jiang Yanyong disclosed higher figures from military hospitals.
Hubei youth Sun Zhigang was sent to a custody station in Guangzhou for not carrying a temporary residence permit and was beaten to death. The incident spread rapidly across the internet and eventually led the State Council to abolish the custody and repatriation system.
In January 2003, Cisco sued Huawei in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that it illegally copied Cisco's IOS software and source code, technical documentation, and other copyrighted materials, and infringed multiple patents.
In 2003, Li Wei obtained the development rights to 61,800 square meters of land at Taipingjiao in Qingdao. The project was nominally applied for under Capital Group, but in fact fell under Yichuang Real Estate, which was held in her name, and she later earned 84 million yuan from the transfer.
Li Jiating was investigated in 2001, and two years later was finally sentenced to death with a reprieve for accepting bribes of more than 18.1 million yuan; his son Li Bo and his mistress Xu Fuying were also successively sentenced.
Chen Jin's team ground off the markings on purchased Motorola chips and reprinted them as "Hanxin No. 1", announced it in February 2003, defrauding about 110 million yuan in research funding (over 60 million yuan received), and was exposed in early 2006.