Senior Communist Party boss arrested after handing himself in to anti-corruption watchdog



A former Communist Party provincial chief who turned himself in to anti-corruption investigators has been officially arrested by prosecutors, state media reported on Friday, moving him a step closer to an indictment.


Qin Guangrong, the former boss of Yunnan province, is one of the most senior officials to surrender himself to investigators during an ongoing crackdown on graft.

Xinhua, the official state news agency, reported that he was suspected of taking bribes, citing the Supreme People's Procuratorate, without providing further details.

The National Supervisory Commission, the top anti-corruption watchdog, announced in May that Qin had surrendered to investigators.


The announcement followed reports by the leading Chinese news outlet Caixin that his son Qin Ling had been placed under investigation as part of a wider corruption probe into his employer China Huarong Asset Management, the country's biggest state-owned manager of distressed assets.

The anti-graft commission finished its investigation into the older Qin four months later. It accused him of taking bribes and referred his case to prosecutors. He was also expelled from the Communist Party.

Qin, 68, served on the national legislature's Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee after stepping down as Yunnan party secretary.

He was the first provincial party chief to hand himself over to investigators and has been under detention since May.

Corruption investigators said last month that he had "failed to perform his duties, interfered with disciplinary and supervisory work, engaged in superstitious activities, accepted gifts and money and connived with his relatives, allowing them to use his influence to seek profits".



He was also found to have abused his power to seek benefits for others in terms of job promotions and operation of enterprises.

Earlier this month it emerged that another senior official who surrendered himself to the anti-corruption watchdog had been spared prison because of his "good attitude towards admitting wrongdoing".

Liu Shiyu, the former head of the securities regulator, was given two years' probation, downgraded in rank and forced to hand over his ill-gotten gains but was allowed to retain his party membership.

But despite the leniency shown to Liu, other senior officials who surrendered to investigators have still faced prosecution and jail sentences.

Another senior provincial official was jailed for 16 years on Thursday by a court in the northeastern city of Dalian.

Bai Xiangqun, a former vice-chairman of the Inner Mongolia regional government, was found guilty of taking bribes, embezzling public funds, insider trading and leaking information, Xinhua reported.

He was also fined 62.5 million yuan (US$8.8 million) and his illegal gains will be confiscated.

The court said Bai had been given a lesser punishment for confessing to criminal acts that were previously unknown to the investigators, returning most of his illegal gains and for expressing remorse.


The National Supervisory Commission said in May that more than 5,000 party officials had turned themselves in since late 2017, while around 27,000 officials had confessed to violations of laws and regulations.

According to a Supreme People's Court report to the national legislature this week, the Chinese courts have ruled on 194,000 cases of corruption or dereliction of duty cases involving more than 207,000 people over the past five years.

Those convicted include 140 senior officials directly under the central authorities.

The courts have also convicted 14,000 people for giving bribes.

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.


https://www.scmp.com/news/china/poli...ce=LINEtodayID


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