A former state-assets chief in China was on Monday sentenced to 16 years in jail for corruption along with a deputy party chief of Sichuan province, becoming the latest officials to fall under President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption drive against “tigers and flies”.
Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission — the body that regulates China’s state-owned firms, and Li Chuncheng, former vice Communist Party of China (CPC) boss of Sichuan, joined the list of casualties in the three year-long campaign that has punished as many as 80 top officials of the country.
The two officials are considered close to disgraced security czar Zhou Yongkang, the top-most CPC leader to be sentenced in China’s recent history after Bo Xilai, party leader from Chongqing.
Jiang (60), was found guilty of taking bribes, holding huge amount of property with unidentified sources and abusing power.
Besides being sentenced to 16 years in prison, his personal assets worth 1 million yuan (about USD 1.60 lakhs) were also confiscated, the Hanjiang Intermediate People’s Court in central China’s Hubei Province said.
Jiang was chair of the board of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) before working for the state-assets commission in March 2013.
The court also ordered to confiscate other property he took as bribes or with unidentified sources as well as illegal earnings others got with his help.
Jiang accepted his sentence and will not appeal.
By the end of August, 2013, his personal and family property exceeded the legitimate earnings and he had 14.8 million yuan unaccounted, the court said.
With instruction and consent from Zhou, former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Jiang violated regulations by helping others in businesses, causing huge losses to the state, it added.
In a separate sentence handed down on Monday, Li was sentenced to 13 years for accepting bribes and abuse of power, according to a statement from the Xianning Intermediate Peoples’ Court posted on Sina Weibo.
A total of 80 top officials of the ruling CPC — known as “tigers” for the highly influential posts held by them — have been punished by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection along with hundreds of “flies” or low-ranked officials, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The figure does not include top military leaders.
Mr. Xi broke the norm as he pressed ahead with the anti-corruption campaign against “tigers and flies”, meaning all ranks in order to restore the sagging credibility of the party among people.
Over 40 top ranking military officials including two Vice Chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the highest authority of the Chinese military forces, were investigated for widespread corruption including allegations of selling top posts in the military for money.
The punished “tigers” worked in state security, sports, courts, environmental protection and safety supervision — sectors that had not previously been touched by the graft crackdown, the Xinhua report said.
Top officials such as Zhou, Bo and Ling Jihua who held high posts in the previous administration are just the first of the top leaders the party’s anti-graft campaign is expected to bring down.
Corrupt provincial-level leaders, such as Zhou Benshun, former Party chief of north China’s Hebei Province, and Su, Fujian governor, will also continue to fall as the campaign continues, the report said.
Only Beijing, Shanghai and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have yet to see a senior official investigated in the anti-graft campaign.
Among the remaining 28 provincial-level regions, Shanxi Province has had seven provincial officials investigated or prosecuted for corruption, the largest number of any province.
There is no safe zone for officials, even retired ones.
At least 10 retired “tigers” have been investigated for corruption, it said.
In August, the top legislature amended the Criminal Law to tighten sentencing in corruption cases.
The new law ruled out commutation for most corrupt officials, saying criminals convicted on serious corruption charges who have received a two-year suspended death sentence will face life imprisonment.
