{"id":226926,"date":"2021-01-05T16:07:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T00:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=226926"},"modified":"2022-09-09T18:21:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T01:21:24","slug":"top-official-sentenced-to-death-on-corruption-and-bigamy-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2021\/01\/top-official-sentenced-to-death-on-corruption-and-bigamy-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Banking Official Sentenced to Death on Corruption and Bigamy Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lai Xiaomin, the former head of a state-owned asset management company was sentenced to death on January 5 for bribery, corruption, and bigamy. Lai led China Huarong Asset Management until his 2018 expulsion from his public duties and the Party, and was subsequently accused of accepting $277 million of bribes over the course of a decade. He stands to become one of the few high-ranking officials, or \u201ctigers<\/a>,\u201d to be executed for financial crimes in recent years. At The New York Times, Alexandra Stevenson situated Lai\u2019s arrest within Xi\u2019s signature corruption crackdown<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mr. Lai, 58, was among the highest-profile figures to fall from grace amid a sweeping crackdown on corruption by Xi Jinping, China\u2019s top leader. Mr. Lai was kicked out of the Communist Party in 2018 for violating party law and regulations, including abusing his power for sex. He confessed to taking cash bribes last year in a televised show on state media.<\/p>\n

The unusually harsh sentence could send a signal that Mr. Xi is not ready to ease his anticorruption campaign, which he began shortly after he took control of the Communist Party in late 2012. The campaign has taken down some of his most powerful rivals. But it has also helped him contain concerns in China that party officials were becoming increasingly corrupt.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] A high-profile death sentence will send a message, though its interpretation depends on the audience, said Joshua Rosenzweig, the deputy regional director for east and Southeast Asia at Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] \u201cThis could be a message to the public that the Xi regime is still treating corruption as a serious issue, or it could be a message to the business elite in China that they need to keep their noses clean,\u201d Mr. Rosenzweig said. \u201cOr it could be a message to both.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Lai Xiaomin, former chairman of Huarong Asset Management, was sentenced to death today.<\/p>\n

Death penalty has been rarely used to punish corruption since the Xi new era. As far as I know, Lai is the first centrally-managed-cadre \u4e2d\u7ba1\u5e72\u90e8 sentenced to death for corruption since 2012. pic.twitter.com\/7DdJVWIl1t<\/a><\/p>\n

— \ud835\udc0b\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc20 \ud835\udc0b\ud835\udc22 (@lingli_vienna) January 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n