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China news tagged with: Chongqing corruption (21)

• Bo Xilai: China’s Brash Populist

  

  An article in Asia Times looks at the reasons why Chongqing Paty boss Bo Xilai may not be as popular with Beijing’s top leaders as he is with the foreign media and Chongqing residents:

  While an otherwise fawning foreign media followed his every move at the NPC, quoting him freely, China’s top leaders did not deign to acknowledge him during this year’s gathering of the faithful. Why?

  On the surface, Bo’s war on crime and corruption should be welcomed by the leadership. At least on paper, fighting triads and bad apples in the party is a top priorities. But Bo’s naked ambition and appeal clearly scare the party elite. And so might his frontal attacks on corruption.

  Indeed, Bo, who trained as a journalist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has created a personality cult in Chongqing that some critics say harkens back to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution (1966 and 1976). He has even claimed Mao as his spiritual mentor, mass texting the Great Helmsman’s epigrammatic quotations, including “What really counts in the world is conscientiousness”, to millions of mobile phone users and leading party meetings in the singing of revolutionary songs. He appears to be going over the heads of the political elite and appealing directly to the people to advance his political ambitions.

  Read more about Bo Xilai and the Chongqing corruption crackdown via CDT.

  » Read more
  • March 18, 2010 12:55 PM

• Focus on Rising Chinese Political Star Bo Xilai (with Video)

  

  Following his role in the Chongqing corruption crackdown, Bo Xilai is expected to be the focus of attention at this week’s National People’s Congress meetings. From AP:

  Chongqing Communist Party boss Bo Xilai is riding a wave of popularity for the anti-gang crusade in the boisterous Yangtze River city that saw dozens of law enforcement officials arrested for collusion. State media have gushed about Bo’s resolve in editorials.

  The party’s official People’s Daily newspaper named him “Man of the Year” in an online poll, and a homemade music video by an unemployed crooner that popped up on the Internet last month praised Bo as “someone to count on.”

  The challenge for Bo is whether he can turn this Rudy Giuliani-like popularity into a spot in the Communist Party leadership’s inner circle. The party-dominated national legislature opens its staged annual session Friday to review government policies and rubber stamp two laws. This year’s session of the National People’s Congress also marks the unofficial start of the campaign season for 2012 when most of the current leadership is due to retire.

  For Bo and other candidates, the congress session provides a crucial burst of national media exposure and an opportunity to build relationships with the nearly 3,000 legislative deputies drawn from the national and provincial bureaucracies and the military.

  “Hello, Bo Xilai!… Bo Xilai, Bo Xilai, you are the hero of a peaceful era!”
  
  Read more about Bo Xilai via CDT.

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  • March 1, 2010 10:14 PM

• Children of the Revolution

  

  The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the political dynamics behind the complicated case of lawyer Li Zhuang, who was recently sentenced to one and a half years in prison for allegedly fabricating evidence in the Chongqing corruption crackdown:

  The man who must have authorised Li’s arrest is Bo Xilai, the only Politburo member who can comfortably wear epithets such as colourful, mercurial or maverick. The Communist Party boss of the central-west city of Chongqing has captivated the nation with a brave but risky war against the city’s organised crime.

  Bo got to where he is partly because he is the son of Bo Yibo, one of China’s “eight immortals” – the tag for an exalted club of revolutionaries who lived long enough to stamp their marks on China’s reform era history.

  The China Youth Daily hinted at the equally impressive power behind the lawyer that Bo arrested: “As Li Zhuang arrived at Chongqing, he began to play the peacock, saying many times ‘do you know my background? Do you know who my boss is?”

  What the censors won’t let local media spell out is that Li’s law firm is headed by Fu Yang, who is the son of Peng Zhen, also one of the eight immortals and more powerful than Bo Yibo. Li’s lawyer from the same Kangda law firm, Gao Zicheng, said he could not talk about the background politics: “I can’t go there …”

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  • February 13, 2010 3:27 PM

• Lawyer in China Mob Trial Gets 1 1/2 Years on Appeal

  

  Lawyer Li Zhuang has had his sentence reduced to one and a half years on appeal. From AP:

  The lawyer for an alleged mob boss in southwest China was given a reduced 1 1/2-year prison term Tuesday during his appeal on charges that he helped his client falsely claim torture by police during interrogation, the court said.

  But the Beijing Evening News reported that Li Zhuang yelled out in the court after the punishment was announced that he only confessed during the appeal after a “relevant official” told him that doing so would get him a suspended sentence.

  The Chongqing Municipality No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court upheld Li’s conviction but reduced his original sentence by one year because he repeatedly admitted to the charges against him during the latest trial, the court said on its Web site, without referring to any kind of plea bargain.

  Also from Economic Observer:

  After hearing the court’s verdict, an enraged Li grabbed the microphone before him and announced that his earlier admissions of guilt, made during the open-hearing stages of the trial, were false.

  He said the statements he made admitting to his guilt were induced by the local public security agency and prosecutors who promised him a suspended sentence in return. He also claimed that they said the only way a second hearing would be held, is if he admitted his guilt.

  He went on to declare that “the local public security agency and prosecutors have absolutely cheated me … the local prosecutor even tried to persuade me to give up my appeal. It was a complete deception and it will be exposed to the light of day sooner or later.”

  Li appealed the country’s 160,000 lawyers to continue to struggle in defense of their rights in the handling of criminal cases.

  Read more about Li Zhuang via CDT.

  » Read more
  • February 9, 2010 12:24 PM

• Chongqing Example for Real Harmony

  

  An opinion piece in China Daily praises Bo Xilai’s anti-corruption campaign in Chongqing as an example of how to bring real harmony to Chinese society:

  A third-year student from the Southwestern University of Political Science and Law appealed to Chongqing leaders to intensify their efforts to eliminate the “dark and evil forces” and help society regain its sense of security. Many others echoed his demand. Bo was quick to reply that no development could be possible in a place where the basic moral boundary had become blurred.

  The anti-gangster campaign is essentially an effort to restore decency and the good life of the people, he said. In a place run by triads, which used to monopolize many sectors – from mining, roads and transportation to grocery supplies – the already difficult life of wage earners would become unbearable. “And to help them out is what a government is there for,” Bo said.

  But he also had his own complaints. The applause he earned from the college students did not prevent him from saying that at times he has heard “sour remarks”, criticizing him for not being nice and perhaps not handling things properly. Incidentally, some overseas reports have suggested that the Chongqing campaign is politically motivated. But Bo said: “We won’t listen to this kind of twisted reasoning.” That the local government has been able to assure people of their safety and security can be gauged from the number of support messages it got on the Internet on Monday morning. There were hundreds, with the most frequent remark being “When will Chongqing’s campaign spread nationwide?”

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  • February 7, 2010 9:59 PM

• What Are Li Zhuang and the Chongqing Government Up to?

  

  On Inside-Out China, Xujun Eberlain comments on the confusing case of lawyer Li Zhuang who has been convicted of fabricating evidence in the Chongqing corruption investigation. He first appealed his verdict, and then admitted guilt. China Daily reported:

  Li Zhuang, the former lawyer of alleged gang boss Gong Gangmo, admitted he fabricated evidence and interfered with witness testimonies to save his client in a court in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality yesterday.

  But Li’s lawyer, Chen Youxi, continued his defense, saying Li “did not mean what he said” and only made the “ironic” confession because he was deeply disappointed with the judicial system, adding he would continue to fight to prove the tainted lawyer’s innocence.

  Last December, Gong, who is on trial for running a 34-member criminal gang, told a court that Li, his lawyer then, instructed him to fabricate evidence to prove police torture, leaving law practitioners across the country stunned.

  A separate trial to hear Li’s case was ordered immediately. Li was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Jan 8, and a week later he appealed the verdict.

  From Inside-Out China:

  However, as more complete coverage from independent media such as the Economic Observer appeared, it becomes evident that Li did not admit guilt genuinely, and that he tried to present obvious clues to that effect wherever he could. Here’s a small example: at one point, when examined by the prosecutor on how he incited Gong Gangmo, his client, to fabricate evidence of torture, Li said he leaned over an iron bar and whispered into to Gong’s ear. This is in complete contradiction to what Gong had told the court and CCTV, that Li gave him hints by “blinking his eyes.” Later, Li’s defense lawyer asked a police guard whether there was an iron bar in that room, and the witness said “no.” When it was Li Zhuang’s turn to question one witness, he asked, “Now there are two versions of how the ‘fabrication’ took place, so which is true?” Aha! He had created the 2nd version himself in order to ask this question. Though the witness evaded the question by answering “I don’t know,” Li fulfilled his purpose in revealing conflicting evidence.

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  • February 5, 2010 3:22 PM

• Lawyer’s Trial in Chongqing Rivets Public and Tests Chinese Courts

  

  Xujun Eberlain writes for New American Media about lawyer Li Zhuang, who has himself been put on trial while defending a gangster boss in the Chongqing corruption crackdown:

  China’s eventful 2009 ended with another controversial episode: a record-length trial in the widely observed case of Li Zhuang, a prominent criminal defense lawyer from Beijing. Li is accused of  fabricating evidence for his gangster client. The trial opened at 9:10 a.m. on December 30 at a local court in the city of Chongqing, with a heated argument between prosecutors and the defense team that lasted for 16 hours. The session adjourned at 1:03a.m. on Dec. 31. No verdict has yet been delivered, and a tense debate between news media, legal circles, and Internet commentators continues.

  The Li case might seem minor, but taking place during Chongqing’s powerful campaign to crackdown on organized crime, it could set an important precedent. While the prosecution has been criticized by legal experts, there is great local, popular support for a guilty verdict, and the trial’s outcome could affect progress in China toward judicial independence.

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  • January 6, 2010 11:18 PM

• China Daily: Top Ten Crackdowns of 2009

  

  The endless collection of year-end Top Ten lists includes an unexpected one from China Daily: Top 10 Crackdowns 2009:

  The Chinese government has good reason to keep itself busy all year long. Here are the year’s top ten crackdowns, some are timely, some are belated and some are disputable, but all have had an impact on our daily lives.

  1. Chongqing triad
  2. Online porn
  3. Drunk driving
  4. Mobile porn
  5. Soccer scandals
  6. File-sharing websites
  7. Human trafficking
  8. Pajamas wearing in public
  9. Celebrity endorsements
  10. Phone scams

  » Read more
  • December 31, 2009 12:54 PM

• Christopher Hayes: The Great Leap

  

  From the Nation:

  There is no formal social contract that regulates the relationship between members of this ruling class and the people they rule, but there does seem to be an implicit one. It is roughly this: we (the government) provide you (the citizens) with 8 to10 percent annual GDP growth, 24 million new jobs a year and the chance to win the capitalist lottery of sending your son or daughter off to a prestigious school with the promise of a life of industrialized luxury. In exchange: you don’t question the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.

  This is not the easiest contract for the government to uphold, and it has already shown some signs of fraying. As recently as 2007, there were 80,000 protests a year in China, and the Internet has given a platform to increasingly rambunctious critics of government policies. The most potent issue is corruption, which captured wide public attention in the wake of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, when many blamed corruption for the fact that school buildings that collapsed had dodged building codes. Several Chinese officials told us corruption was the biggest threat the party faces, the “threat from within,” as one put it. Despite high-profile “crackdowns” (such as a trial currently under way in Chongqing involving 9,000 suspects), a recent China News Agency poll shows that corruption remains the number-one issue on the minds of Chinese citizens.

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  • December 24, 2009 8:48 AM

• Lawyers In Trouble In Chongqing

  

  ESWN translates a story from the China Youth Daily about the ongoing trials in the crackdown on corruption in Chongqing:

  In late November, the series of cases involving organized crime figures entered into the judicial phase in Chongqing. Like many other citizens, the police officers themselves paid close attention to the hearings.

  In Jiangbei District, the police noted that the suspected gang leader Gong Gangmo appeared seriously vexed and taciturn after he met with his defense lawyers including Li Zhuang. On December 4, after his third meeting with Li Zhuang, Gong Gangmo was especially troubled as he sat still all day refusing food and water.

  The police spoke to him many times and asked him to face the court hearings with a proper frame of mind.

  After much pondering, Gong Gangmo finally could not stand the pressure within himself and pressed the bell to summon the police: “I have something important to say!”

  Gong Gangmo told the case investigators about the secret that has been tormenting him for days: His wife had just hired the lawyers Li Zhuang and Ma Xiaojun from the Kangda Law Firm in Beijing. During three meetings between Gong and the lawyers, Li Zhuang taught him five tricks to “overturn the case”: The first trick was to corroborate the false testimony of his wife so that he turned from “gang boss” to “victim” and “charitable citizen.” The second trick was to claim falsely to the court that his confession had been extracted by torture and therefore he was recanting his previous statements. The third trick was to provide false testimony to the court so that his case can be reversed. The fourth trick was for the lawyers to read to him the statements made by his co-defendants so that he would know what to say. The fifth trick was to disrupt the court proceedings by insisting on a medical examination of his injuries so that the trial had to be postponed until a later date.

  Read also coverage from the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time blog.

  » Read more
  • December 16, 2009 9:55 PM

• Chinese Mob Bosses Sentenced to Death in Crackdown

  

  In the latest development in the Chongqing corruption crackdown, two mob bosses have been sentenced to death. From the Associated Press, via New York Times:

  Two gang bosses — nicknamed the ”Hammerhead” and ”Spicy Qin” — have been sentenced to death for murder and illegally running a business empire involving underground casinos, cement factories and poultry markets in southern China, a court official and local media said Friday.

  The long-awaited verdict, which was 60,000 pages long, is the latest development in a sweeping crackdown on organized crime in China. High-profile trials in other parts of the country have exposed powerful criminal networks, often involving collusion between gangsters and officials.

  In the latest sentencing Thursday in the city of Yangjiang, Xu Jianqiang, the ”Hammerhead,” was sentenced to death and fined 310 million yuan ($45.4 million), said a court official who would only give her surname, Mo. His convictions included abetting three murders.

  Xu’s partner, Lin Guoqin, or ”Spicy Qin,” was also sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and a 325 million yuan ($47.6 million) fine, the court official said. His life will be spared if his behavior is good during the two years.

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  • December 3, 2009 10:36 PM

• China’s Battle with Organised Crime

  

  Al Jazeera reports on the crackdown on corruption and organized crime in Chongqing:

  The area, which is home to some 30 million residents, has been in the clutches of the mafia-style gangs for years.

  Recent trials have exposed the unseemly relationships between gangsters, police officers and several high-profile public officials.

  But as Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports, for some of the gangs’ victims, the increased focus by law enforcement is too little too late.

  » Read more
  • November 23, 2009 10:30 PM

• Why Doesn’t Bo Xilai Publicly Back Up the Defense Attorneys Too?

  

  Innocent until proven guilty? That is the question some are asking during the Chongqing corruption trial, given the public’s treatment of the defense lawyers. More details, and questions on how this bears on China’s developing rule of law, from Guo Guangdong for the Southern Weekend, translated by Tim Hathaway:

  Not being able to fully protect the rights of criminal suspects is an embarrassment that seems to be taking place yet again as Chongqing cracks down on the underworld. It has become a huge problem for the Chinese legal system.

  Even though the law stipulates that people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the media has put forth extensive so-called reports on members of criminal world. They have hastily determined the guilt of these suspects through the court of public opinion.

  Despite the fact that defendants by law have the right to legal representation, the lawyers assigned to handle these kinds of cases are strictly told by the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Justice not to fuss over the details of the cases and not to say anything to the media that might influence the outcome. In stark contrast to this, one professor in Chongqing has publicly stated “the unprecedented power of propaganda” is a result of the crackdown and “it is obviously a very good plan.”

  What is even more unfortunate is that the majority of lawyers are unwilling to take on these cases. The two that have appeared in court , Zhao Zhangqing [赵长青] and Zhou Litai [周立太], have felt the ire of the public online, being called “criminal advisors to the underworld” for contradicting the accusations of prosecutors, that Li Qiang [黎强] and Li Zhigang [李志刚] are in the mafia. They say these lawyers are being paid unconscionable wages that conflict with the crackdown on the underworld.

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  • November 18, 2009 10:49 PM

• Photos: Chongqing Petitioners

  

  Gilles Sabrie, or Ji Le, of the photo blog “Eye on China” (“Un oeil sur la Chine”) has posted photos of his encounters with petitioners who claim to have been victims of the rampant corruption in Chongqing currently on trial. A selection of photos and text from the post “Rotten Cops” (“Ripoux“), translated by CDT:

  The word corruption evokes imagery of smoky banquets where some officials, potbellied and red from baijiu, discuss business with entrepreneurs no less round. Young, light-hearted girls complete the scene that finishes with the presentation of an envelope just as inflated and red as its recipient. That is, unless the scene winds down by a karaoke machine, in a sauna (practical, since nudity assures that no recorder will tape the exchanges), or in the back of a limousine with tinted glass. Picturesque images of a certainly reprehensible practice, but one which we end up finding almost acceptable. Exotic, maybe. And besides … isn’t corruption in the country’s culture, just as it is in many others? We’ll just have to do with.

  The anti-corruption campaign led in Chongqing by Bo Xilai lifted the veil over the ways and customs of a municipality (the most heavily populated in China with 30 million inhabitants) where politicians, police, judges, and gangsters work hand in hand. The court trial in process has attracted a crowd of petitioners, victims of these mafia-connected associations. They have a vague hope to get justice, but most of all, they are no longer afraid; they want their stories to be known, and take satisfaction in seeing the contrite face[s] of those who, just a few months before, terrorized the city. Far from the picturesque scenes described above, the corruption here is synonymous with terrible violence.

  

  Hong Guibi: When her husband refused to give up his field (about 100 square meters) to the local Communist Party secretary, some thugs armed with machetes entered her home. They cut the recalcitrant to pieces, and then went for his wife, whom they left for dead. She survived. The police did not intervene and refused to make an investigation. Hong Guibi is in front of the courts everyday, and shows photos of her husband’s body and her own body covered in long scars to anyone who wishes to see.

  

  The parents of Zhou Changyong, whose body was found stabbed twenty times in his taxi. Police refused to investigate.

  

  Jiao Jiawei explains on this banner that his daughter was killed by doctors in order to cover up a medical mistake committed during a surgical operation.

  More images by Sabrie can be seen in a New York Times slideshow accompanying the article “Chinese Trial Reveals Vast Web of Corruption” by Andrew Jacobs.

  » Read more
  • November 7, 2009 1:04 PM

• China Sentences Notorious Gang ‘Godmother’ (Updated)

  

  AP has the latest on the corruption crackdown in Chongqing, with the sentencing of the “godmother” of the criminal underworld, who reportedly kept a luxury villa and “a stable of 16 young lovers,” including her driver who was also sentenced:

  Her criminal reign ended Tuesday when Xie Caiping, 46, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials. Her trial was one of a series of gang prosecutions in the southwestern city of Chongqing that have featured lurid testimony about sex, corruption and the violent underworld.

  Xie is the only female gang boss to be tried as part of a monthslong crackdown on local gangs, known as “black societies,” in the sprawling southwestern megacity of 30 million. The trials have exposed the tangled web of links between government officials and police officers who sought to provide cover for the crime syndicates.

  See also a report from Xinhua.

  Update: The New York Times reports on the trial and about Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary who is behind the crackdown:

  …Like all big corruption cases in China, this one is as much about politics as graft. The political machine in Chongqing, a province-size mega-city of 31 million people in the southwest, has been broken up by a new Communist Party boss, Bo Xilai, who is the son of a revolutionary party veteran and has his eye on higher office.

  Mr. Bo, a former trade minister sent to Chongqing to burnish his managerial credentials, has conducted the crackdown in a way that appears devised to maximize national attention. The drawn-out nature of the trial and the release of lurid details of the criminal syndicate have given him a reputation as a leading corruption fighter, though the inquiry has yet to implicate any really high-ranking party officials.

  So far six people have been sentenced to death. Ms. Xie got off relatively lightly, receiving an 18-year prison term on Tuesday.

  How Mr. Bo’s performance is regarded by the party elite is a matter of speculation. There are some suggestions that his swagger, including boastful comments to the news media, strikes some fellow officials as excessive. Anticorruption campaigns by China’s one-party state are generally calibrated to show resolution in tackling venality, but also to reassure the public that whatever problems are uncovered are localized and effectively contained.

  » Read more
  • November 3, 2009 2:52 PM

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