What’s new: Zhou Jiangyong, former Communist Party chief of the capital of East China’s Zhejiang province, was handed a suspended death sentence Tuesday for taking more than 180 million yuan ($25 million) in bribes, according to a court statement.
From 2001 to 2021, the ex-party secretary of Hangzhou accepted the bribes in exchange for favors that included helping individuals and companies obtain project contracts and land-use rights, the Chuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Anhui province said in a statement Tuesday.
Zhou received a sentence of death with a two-year reprieve, which will see the 55-year-old spend the rest of his life in prison if he does not commit any crimes during the two-year period.
The court also stripped him of his “political rights for life” and confiscated all of his personal assets, adding that his illegal gains would be turned over to the state.
The background: The ruling came nearly three months after Zhou stood trial in the Chuzhou court in April, where he pleaded guilty to bribery.
Zhou was placed under investigation for suspected corruption in August 2021. He was expelled from the party and removed from public office in January 2022 for “supporting the disorderly expansion of capital,” a phrase cited by the government to justify Beijing’s crackdown on illegal ties between government and businesses.
An investigation by the country’s top graft buster, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), found that Zhou accepted bribes worth 90 million yuan from a local construction company owner in exchange for helping the company obtain project tenders through Zhou’s brother, according to a documentary co-produced by the CCDI and state broadcaster CCTV.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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