What’s new: The former head of the Shanghai legislature, Dong Yunhu, has been charged with taking a “huge amount” of bribes, national prosecutors announced.
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) has accused Dong of taking advantage of his past positions, such as chairman of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and publicity department chief of the Xizang autonomous region’s party committee, to hand out favors, according to a Wednesday statement.
The SPP alleged that Dong’s corrupt activities began as early as 1999, when he became the head of the seventh bureau of the International Communication Office of the party’s Central Committee.
The 62-year-old will stand trial in Hefei Intermediate People’s Court in East China’s Anhui province, the statement said, without giving a trial date.
The background: Domestic media reported in August that Dong had been removed from his position as a deputy to the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, after he fell under graft probe the previous month.
Previously, Dong served as the chairman of Shanghai’s top political advisory body — the People’s Political Consultative Conference — for five years, before being appointed to head the municipality’s people’s congress in January 2023.
With a strong academic background, Dong is known as one of the earliest scholars in China to focus on human rights. He had written a series of articles on the topic since the early 1990s.
Han Wei contributed to the story.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
