The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
has made clear its decision that the fight against corruption is a
major political task of fundamental importance. The year of 2003
saw a good catch of corrupt officials in the net of justice. This
demonstrated the determination on the part of the central
government to punish corrupt officials but it also indicated that
corruption is still a serious problem.
Hu Angang is a professor with Tsinghua University and director
of the Center for China Study under the Chinese Academy of
Sciences. He estimates annual losses to the Chinese economy due to
corruption are running at some 987 to 1,257 billion yuan (US$123 to
157 billion). This would place the problem in the range of say 13
to 17 percent of the country's GDP.
Government official who took bribes
A former provincial government official in east China's Shandong
Province was convicted of taking bribes and given a life
sentence by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court on April 23.
Pan Guangtian, 59, former vice chairman of the Shandong Provincial
Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC) and president of the Shandong Association of Industry and
Commerce, was found to have accepted bribes totaling 1.53 million
yuan (US$189,000) between May 1992 and October 2001.
Pan is the highest-ranking official to have been prosecuted in
Shandong, and also the highest-ranking official without party
affiliation to have been found guilty in China.
Pan was born in 1945 in a suburb of Jinan, capital of Shandong
Province. After graduating from high school he worked as a bank
clerk in Chiping County. From February 1992, he worked for various
branches of the Shandong Agricultural Bank of China. By April 1998
he had a post on the CPPCC Shandong committee.
But Pan had a lust for money that grew stronger with each career
advancement. It was in May 1992 that he opened his Pandora's Box
when he took his first bribe of HK$10,000. By October 2001 he had
accepted a total of 31 bribes.
The Judge who flouted the law
Tian Fengqi, former president of the Liaoning Provincial Higher
People's Court, found himself on trial at the Dandong Intermediate
People's Court May 12-13 charged with taking bribes. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment on May 15 as a convicted
criminal.
The court found that when holding the post of vice secretary of
the municipal Party committee of Shenyang, Liaoning
Province, Tian exploited his office and accepted bribes
amounting to 2.54 million yuan (US$317,500) between May 1997 and
November 1998.
Then when acting as president of the Liaoning Provincial Higher
People's Court, Tian took advantage of his new position and power
with bribes totaling a further 760,000 yuan (US$95,000) between
June 1999 and August 2001.
The authorities have seized his ill-gotten gains in line with
the judgement.
Corruption under the pretence of religious
observance
The Zhangjiakou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Cong Fukui,
former vice governor of
Hebei
Province, to death on April 27. The sentence was made subject
to a two-year suspension. Cong lodged an appeal.
On June 13, the Hebei Provincial Higher People's Court handed
down the final judgment. The higher court had upheld the original
verdict.
Cong was convicted of taking bribes totaling 9.36 million yuan
(US$1.17 million) between the beginning of 1997 and June 2000.
Cong's guilt was first brought to light in May 2000. To atone
for his own crimes, a Hong Kong suspect who was involved in the
notorious Xiamen Yuanhua smuggling case reported Cong to the
authorities for soliciting a US$250,000 bribe. And so the weight of
justice came down on the tip of Cong's bribe-taking iceberg.
Cong's downward spiral into disgrace can be traced back to 1996
when he first met up with self-appointed "clairvoyant" Yin
Fengzhen. Targeting Cong as having considerable potential to be
fraudulently exploited, Yin lured him into believing in his own
corrupted version of Buddhism. Over a period of a couple of years
Cong misused his position to the tune of over 17 million yuan
(roughly US$2 million). In Cong's case, the pretext of Buddhism
also served as an avenue for money laundering as ill gotten gains
were disguised as funds raised for Buddhist services.
Though it can sometimes be a long trawl, once the net of justice
is in place there is no way out for the criminal. A 10-month-long
investigation finally led to Cong, once an important political
figure, being thrown into prison in April 2001.
The corrupt governor and his corrupt son
On June 20, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court upheld a
ruling by the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court given on May
9. And so Li Jiating, once the governor of Yunnan
Province, finds himself under sentence of death with a two-year
stay of execution.
From early 1994 to July 2000 when he served as deputy Party
secretary of Yunnan provincial committee and vice governor and then
governor of the province, Li took over 18.1 million yuan (US$2.2
million) in bribes. His misdeeds were undertaken in collusion with
his son Li Bo, whose case is being examined separately.
In reaching its verdict the intermediate court took account of
the fact that after his arrest Li had cooperated with the law
enforcement agencies with all the bribes having been recovered.
Li first stepped onto the slippery slope of his criminal path to
raise money to help his son study abroad. "Everything I did, I did
for my son including taking bribes, confessing my crimes, informing
against other wrongdoers and lodging an appeal," Li said.
'Commander-in-chief' of a bunch of corrupt
officials
The Guizhou Provincial CPC Standing Committee decided on April
22 to expel a senior Party official from the CPC for corruption.
The decision was approved by the Third Plenary Session of the Ninth
Guizhou Provincial CPC Committee on July 19.
Liu Fangren, former secretary of the Guizhou Provincial CPC
Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou
Provincial People's Congress, was found to have taken over
US$200,000 in bribes in office while engaging in a long-running
affair with a married woman.
Other punishments awaiting Liu have yet to be decided.
In 2003,
Guizhou, a province in southwest China, saw a whole bunch of
corrupt officials being brought to justice. The list included
notorious names like Liu Changgui, former vice governor of Guizhou,
Lu Wanli, ex-director of communications of Guizhou, Yao Kangle,
former head of Guizhou Press and Publication Administration, Luo
Fayu, former director of Guizhou Land Tax Administration and so on.
Among all these criminals, Liu had the dubious distinction of being
recognized as the "commander-in-chief."
Liu's downfall started when he was ensnared by the charms of a
hairdresser surnamed Zheng. Her lover, Chen Lin, a businessman
engaged in real estate, acted as a go-between and arranged frequent
rendezvous for Liu and Zheng. Chen was eventually to succeed in
making Liu his accomplice in crime. Liu accepted approximately
US$35,000 in bribes from Chen.
Both Chen and Zheng are now behind prison bars.
The bribes Liu received from the Guizhou Jundian Construction
Group topped the list adding up to 1.49 million yuan
(US$186,250).
Guizhou is an underdeveloped province. But the country launched
the Western Development Strategy in recent years and investment
came rolling in. Some officials found themselves tempted by
opportunities to divert public funds into their own private
purses.
Unhealthy market practices, lack of transparency in government
and weak administrative and supervisory mechanisms may serve to
explain the prevalence of official corruption in Guizhou. This was
the view expressed by Xie Yi, vice president of the Guizhou
Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
Disgrace in his later years
Wang Zhonglu held the important posts of vice governor of Zhejiang
Province and chairman of the board of directors and general
manager of the Zhejiang International Trust and Investment
Corporation.
With the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China and the CCDI, Wang was expelled from membership of
the Chinese Communist Party for violating Party discipline. In
addition he has been charged with breaking the law and is facing
court proceedings.
Wang was born in 1930 and joined the Communist Party in 1956. He
took up the post of vice governor of Zhejiang Province in 1987.
Between September 1992 and August 1996 he became not only secretary
of the Party group, but also chairman of the board of directors and
general manager of the Zhenjiang International Trust and Investment
Corporation. He retired in October 2000.
Wang took advantage of his position and power. He accepted
bribes and arranged for a company to receive a substantial loan and
financial guarantees without going through the proper procedures
that would have involved collective scrutiny. This resulted in a
substantial loss of public funds.
Wang is further accused of dereliction of duty, leading a
dissolute lifestyle and knowingly permitting his son to accept
large sums of money.
A lack of accountability
Cheng Weigao was party secretary of the Hebei Provincial
Committee of the CPC and chairman of the Standing Committee of the
Hebei Provincial People's Congress.
With the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China and the CCDI, Cheng was expelled from the Chinese
Communist Party for violating Party discipline.
Born in 1933 Cheng now stands accused of misusing his influence
to enable his wife and children to engage in illegal activities, of
accepting valuable gifts as inducements and of conspiring with his
two secretaries to engage in criminal activities. And what's more
he has also been accused of seeking vengeance against the
colleagues who reported his corruption.
According to a terse announcement made by the Standing Committee
of the CCDI, Cheng should be held responsible for the substantial
losses of government funds that have resulted from his corrupt
practices.
Cheng's history of corruption may date back as far as the 1990s,
when he served as Hebei governor and Party secretary of the Hebei
Provincial Committee of the CPC. Two of his secretaries from those
days Wu Qingwu and Li Zhen, have already been found guilty of
corruption, accepting bribes and other crimes.
Wu was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and Li was
sentenced to death. It has been alleged that without Cheng's
patronage, Wu and Li could not have moved up the organizational
ladder with such amazing speed. And what's more it has been
suggested that without Cheng's backing, some of the bribery cases
where inducements were offered in return for their influence would
just not have happened.
When Cheng was in power, many officials in Hebei Province were
investigated and dealt with. Some 67 officials above county-level
are implicated in Li Zhen's case.
The downfall of a government minister
Tian Fengshan was Minister of Land Resources.
Tian was dismissed from his post for serious violation of Party
discipline in October 2003. This news attracted wide attention from
both home and abroad. It leaves no room for doubt as to the
determination of the state's new leadership to root out corruption
wherever it might reside.
Tian's violations were related mainly to his activities in Heilongjiang
Province and later in the Ministry of Land and Resources. The
allegations that during his tenure in Heilongjiang Province, he had
been involved in a number of corruption cases caused quite a stir
in northeast China. During his time in the ministry a series of
irregularities were discovered in connection with land approvals
and the transfer and use of state special funds.
Tian was born in October 1940 in Zhaoyuan County, Heilongjiang
Province. He joined the Communist Party in March 1970. In the early
1960s, Tian studied at the Second Artillery Technical College in
Xi'an, Shaanxi
Province. From 1965-66, he worked as a primary school teacher
in his hometown.
Tian pursued a successful official career from 1968. Starting as
secretary of the Party Committee in a village in Zhaoyuan County in
the late 1960s, he had progressed to the position of secretary of
the Party Committee of Mudanjiang City by 1988. He then went on to
become vice governor of Heilongjiang Province, secretary of the
Party Committee of Harbin City, deputy secretary of the Party
Committee of Heilongjiang Province and governor of the province. In
March 2003 he was appointed to the post of Minister of Land and
Resources.
Substantial assets of questionable origins
Wang Huaizhong was vice governor of east China's Anhui
Province.
The Intermediate People's Court in Jinan, Shandong Province,
sentenced this former provincial vice governor to death. He had
been found guilty of accepting bribes and holding substantial
assets that he could not account for.
The court convicted Wang of accepting bribes totaling 5.17
million yuan (US$623,000) between September 1994 and March 2001.
Wang was unable to account for 4.8 million yuan (US$578,000) in
assets seized by the authorities. He was found to have tried to
bribe the investigators into dropping his case. Wang misused his
powers for personal gain. He was responsible for massive losses to
the country that have been put at 41.2 billion yuan.
Wang was taken into custody in April 2001 and expelled from the
Communist Party in September 2003.
Abuse of power for personal gain
Liu Ketian was vice mayor of Shenyang, capital of Liaoning
Province, in the early 1990s and vice governor from 1995.
Liu was sacked in November 2003 for taking bribes and accepting
cash gifts. He also stands accused of misusing his official power
for personal gain and tolerating illegal activities by his
relatives.
With the approval of the Central Committee of the CPC and the
Central Discipline Committee, Liu was expelled from membership of
the CPC for violating Party discipline. His case has been put in
the hands of the courts on charges of illegal conduct.
Liu's fall came as no surprise to the province's political
community. Two and a half months before he was taken into custody,
local Party members knew that Liu was under disciplinary
investigation.
Liu's family is from Ninghe County in Hebei Province. Liu
himself was born in Shenyang in 1951. He graduated from the Central
Party School and then Liaoning University. He holds a master's
degree and a Ph.D. in economics.
He entered politics in the early 1980s and went on to hold the
post of vice mayor of Shenyang from August 1990 to February 1995.
In February 1995, he was elected vice governor of Liaoning Province
and occupied that position for two terms until his removal from
office.
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong and Shao Da, January 20, 2004)
