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Former Shenzhen Deputy Mayor Gets 10 Years For Corruption

Posted: 12/29/2014 10:00 am
liang daoxing

Liang Daoxing

The former deputy mayor of Shenzhen, Liang Daoxing, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption. The 63-year-old who served from 2002 to 2009, was convicted of accepting RMB 1.94 million, HKD 2.78 million, and US $5,000 in bribes.

The laundry list of offences included, allowing businesses to pay for his travel expenses, as well as his daughter’s apartment. Liang disputed the charges, arguing he should have received a more lenient sentence due to his years of public service.

When Liang was party chief of Nanshan District, he reportedly took HKD 680,000 from an engineer at Nanyou Holdings Co., surnamed Ye, in exchange for appointing him head of the Nanshan Urban Construction and Development Co., a state-owned enterprise. Ye, also charged with corruption, pleaded guilty earlier this month to accepting RMB 2.09 million and HKD 290,000 in bribes.

Then there was Jiang Hanping, a deep-pocketed man who shelled out twice to Liang—once to become head of Shenzhen’s family planning commission, which cost him RMB 130,000, and later to ascend to the head of Shenzhen’s public health bureau, a promotion with a price tag of RMB 500,000.

Liang didn’t just hand-out promotions to the highest bidder, he also accepted RMB 428,510 and HKD 1.1 million in bribes to relocate Shenzhen’s Neurological Disease Hospital and a factory.

Liang also used a man named Zhang to purchase the aforementioned apartment for his daughter, who was getting married at the time. Liang paid roughly 60% of the cost, and Zhang shelled out the rest. Zhang then agreed to decorate and furnish the apartment, paying an additional HKD 600,000.

Photo: xwh

Haohao
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Former Shenzhen Police Chief, Jailed for Bribery, Bribes Her Way Out

Posted: 12/16/2014 5:00 pm

This is an insane story.

An Huijun, image courtesy of Shenzhen Daily

The ex-police chief of Shenzhen’s Luohu District has been jailed again after being released for medical treatment seven years ago, Shenzhen Daily reported yesterday. An Huijun was initially jailed in 2005 for accepting bribes from subordinates. She also had sexual relationships with many young male officers.

An’s sister was prosecuted this October in Xingtai, Hebei Province for offering bribes to make false medical documents for An while she was in jail. An, former director of Luohu District Pubic Security Bureau, was sentenced to 15 years for taking bribes in June 2005. Yet in January 2007, she was released for medical treatment after her sister falsified medical documents calling for her release.

The paper has more:

An, a native of Hebei, was appointed chief of Luohu Public Security Bureau in 1997. She took bribes of 1.64 million yuan (US$269,000), HK$530,000 (US$87,000) and US$1,000 in exchange for giving out promotions, contracts for public projects and deals for procurement of official vehicles. All 15 people who bribed her were her subordinates at the bureau.

According to her sentencing, An should be in jail until October 2019, but she was released in January 2007 from a Hebei prison after no more than three years.

According to the newspaper report, quoting some people who were familiar with the case, An’s sister, An Huilian, falsified medical records and gave 200,000 yuan in bribes to prison staff at the Hebei prison to buy her out.

Xingtai prosecutors started investigating An Huilian in November last year and prosecuted her for giving bribes. Sun Hai, ex-director of the Hebei Prison Administration Bureau, was also probed for taking bribes.

According to related regulations, An still needs to serve more than 12 years before she completes her term.

The thin blue line, eh?

Haohao
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Beijing Times Reporter Bribed Not To Report On Sinkhole

Posted: 09/10/2014 9:00 am

bj subway construction sinkhole header

Several construction workers bribed a reporter with the Beijing Times at the scene of a massive sinkhole on Beijing Metro Line 14, reports Guangzhou Daily.

While attempting to report on the incident, the reporter was confronted by seven to eight workers wearing safety hats. He was accosted and had his camera taken away. The reporter was then photographed receiving a bribe to ensure the story would not be publicized.

According to an eye witness, the hole suddenly opened around 1PM on September 6. The 25 square meter hole, which was 5 meters deep, opened at the construction site directly below Guangshu South Boulevard, near the location of the future Line 14 Futong West subway station in Chaoyang District.

When the Beijing Times reporter arrived at the sinkhole around 2pm, police were not present, nor was there any containment of the area. Upon seeing the reporter, one of the construction workers reportedly said,

What are you doing? Don’t let him go, take away his camera and delete his photos!

No injuries were reported in the collapse of the road, though a nearby car had to be towed away.

bj subway construction sinkhole header

Four nearby businesses are currently closed as access to the road was cordoned off, and broken sewer pipes seeping raw sewage have left a foul smell in the air.

Construction workers for the Line 14 Futong Station construction company used two front loader dump trucks to fill in the massive sinkhole soon after the incident occurred.

On the evening of September 6, a spokesperson for the construction company named Mr. Guo, explained that due to heavy rains in Beijing, the soil beneath the road had swollen causing the sinkhole. However, according to Guangzhou Daily, the cause of the sinkhole was a collapse of a safety pillar required for the construction of the subway tunnel.

Photos: Guangzhou Daily

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Guangdong Has The Worst Public Image Of All Provinces In China

Posted: 06/17/2014 5:43 pm

color river boluo county guangdong pollution waterWe’ve seen many awards handed to Guangdong province: it has the most livable city in China and cities with the best air in China, for instance. It even has some questionable awards, like having the most crowded place in the world.

However, Guangdong has now been given the dubious honor of being called the province with the worst public image in China according to a blue book report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The report compiled more than 2,000 media reports concerning public safety, social order, the environment, public services and the performance of government officials and ranked them in terms of public image, province by province.

Tang Jun, editor-in-chief of the report and director of the Crisis Management Center at Renmin University, told Xinhua that he believes the report is a warning of the risks of the country’s rapid transformation.

We can only surmise that the culmination of all these varied awards can means that it is nice to live in Guangdong, but you shouldn’t ruin it by thinking.

Related stories that may somehow pertain to Guangdong’s public image:

Photo: Nanfang

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Swindling the Swindlers: Ripping Off Guangdong’s Corrupt Officials

Posted: 06/5/2014 9:07 am

When Xi Jinping first launched what scholars have since called “the most ambitious anti-corruption campaign since Mao’s days”, few knew what the campaign would entail and mean for the broader society. But a few men in Guangdong saw it as an opportunity to make easy money because when anti-corruption drives kicks in, corrupt officials would likely do anything to save them from prison. And indeed they did.

This is probably why swindlers disguised themselves as officials from the provincial discipline inspection commission, a bureau tasked with anti-corruption campaign, and were able to successfully swindle several Guangdong officials with guilty consciences.

READ: Mistress Publishes Nude Photos of Allegedly Corrupt Guangdong Official

officials swindled corrupt anti-corruption bureau

A farmer from Hunan Province disguised as an UN official and attempted to release a prisoner.

The fake anti-corruption officials would approach local cadres and notify them that they are currently under investigation. What follows is a friendly tip-off which goes something like, “By the way, if you transfer a certain amount of money to my account, the whole thing would disappear.” Then, the money rolled in.

The report by New Express Daily, however, did not disclose the number of officials who fell for the trick. A statement from the Guangdong anti-graft bureau would only say that the province has recently seen “quite a number” of such cases. We can only guess the number isn’t small. We have heard about swindlers disguised as officials targeting ordinary people, but cases of corrupt officials as victims are surely among the first we’ve heard.

READ: Guangdong Opens an Anti-Corruption Education Camp for Officials

Other stunts pulled by the swindlers include selling expensive book subscriptions to lower-tiered government departments in the name of the anti-graft commission, the report said.

The anti-graft bureau is encouraging cadres to report such cases to the bureau. But we are guessing some of the officials who had been swindled would have a hard time reporting the case—if reported to the bureau, an investigation would surely follow from the actual provincial discipline inspection commission.

Why else would an innocent official transfer the money unless they were guilty? If they don’t do anything upon getting the tip-off, then they have done nothing to stop their own downfall. Hmmm…it’s a tough call for these alleged “corrupt” officials.

Related:

Photo: New Express Daily

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Shenzhen Doctors Suspected of Taking Kickbacks from Sale of Health Supplements

Posted: 06/4/2014 7:38 pm

Pregnant patients suspect doctors at a Shenzhen hospital are prescribing superfluous health supplements in return for kickbacks, reports Shenzhen Online.

Several patients have complained that maternity doctors at the Bao’an Women’s Health and Pediatric Hospital have uniformly prescribed the same health supplements for purchase at a temporary structure located next to the entrance of the hospital.

On May 12, Ms Li had an examination at the hospital, and was told to purchase two types of health supplements. When she went again on May 25 to have another examination, she was told the same thing and given the same prescription.

When Li went to purchase the supplements at this pharmacy/medical product store, she wanted to use her medical insurance card to pay for them. However, Li was told that the pharmacy is not part of the hospital system, and that using her medical insurance to pay for the products was not possible. When Li requested a a receipt for the products, she was only given a computer stub.

The total cost of the health supplements cost RMB 564.

Mrs Chen also told of having the same experience with the hospital and spoke about her fear of offending the doctor:

For me not to accept the doctor’s proposal is to risk offending him. [I] am worried that he will withhold information during any other subsequent examinations [I have] with him.

Li says it’s obvious this “pharmacy” is not an official part of the hospital, although the sales staff wear white coats and provide receipt stubs with the name of the hospital stamped on them. Li suspects the doctors are getting kickbacks from the prescriptions.

Upon the first visit made by a reporter with Shenzhen Online, a Dr Zhang with the maternity ward confirmed that the “pharmacy is officially a part of the hospital”. However, a subsequent interview with Lin Haibo, the director of medical residency at the Bao’an Women’s Health and Pediatric Hospital, revealed something else entirely.

Lin said that the pharmacy is not part of the hospital, but an independent operation that is rented and operated out by a private organization. Lin said patients may voluntarily go to buy products there, but that the pharmacy has nothing to do with the hospital despite being located on its grounds.

When asked why this pharmacy had the hospital’s name on the prescription and receipt stub, Lin had no answer.

Photo: SZ Online

Haohao
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No More Clubbing for Guangzhou Officials

Posted: 05/8/2014 8:00 am

When night clubs meet officials, it’s bound to be epic! Officials should resist them, but still they fall for them. It’s often the set piece to a tragic fall when decadent cadres are seen dancing and singing with young girls as well engaging in some under-the-table activity.

Just look at what happened to the poor Shanghai officials who were caught on camera during their fun outings. Four Shanghai court officials were sacked last year after a video clip showed them spending a night with prostitutes at a night club.

In order to stave off corruption in Guangzhou, the city’s Discipline Inspection Commission has introduced the “Ten Prohibitions”: ten guidelines on official conduct to hopefully revive the last remaining moral standards in Guangzhou officials, reported the Nanfang Daily on May 7.

One prohibition says that Guangzhou officials cannot enter night clubs or cabarets. Another one for some reason is more specific and says that officials are not allowed to park government cars at golf courses, night clubs or cabarets.

Other prohibitions cover banquets, use of government cars, relationships with businessmen, receiving gifts and kickbacks from attending events, and giving out autographs or calligraphy (润笔费).

Some netizens applauded the detailed and ambitious rules, but most greeted the new rules with skepticism with many dubbing them as “halfway measures”.

刘胜军改革, a columnist for Financial Times’ Chinese edition, wrote on Weibo, “This is attending to the symptoms, but not curing the real disease (治标不治本) .”

我是北腿老爸 commented, “This tells the officials to stop horsing around and start finding an Ernai (a “mistress” in English).”

Another Weibo user named Mia-tendo wrote, “Does this mean the ladies have to go to officials’ houses and deliver the services at their home?”

Another Weibo user Yunzhi杨云志 asked the question that probably got every official thinking: “Not even if they pay for themselves?”

Home page: Shanghai court officials filmed in an elevator at a luxury night club.
Photo credit: Sohu 

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Guangdong Opens an Anti-Corruption Education Camp for Officials

Posted: 04/30/2014 9:37 am

First, Guangdong officials were expected to recite Xi Jinping’s eight-point guideline (八项规定) on official conduct as well as to cut back on their first-class flight privileges. Now, they’ll have to brave the latest such measures introduced by the government—a tour to a high-tech–boasting, real-life–simulating anti-corruption education camp that will “make a visiting corrupted official break out in cold sweat”.

The self-described “innovative and multi-media equipped” education camp has been visited by more than 50,000 officials in Guangdong last year; more than 40,000 of these are from department-level government organs, China News reported on April 29. Some officials even went back for a second or third tour as it offers a “baptismal-like effect on one’s soul and heart” (心灵洗礼), the report said.

The anti-corruption education camp in Guangdong (Photo credit: China News)

One example of the camp is a room filled with different confiscated goods including paintings and porcelain. A division head surnamed Li recalled his tour to the room and said after a video was played, four characters 万丈深渊 (meaning “the unfathomable abyss” in English) appeared on the ground along with a thin layer of ice with images of the character 贪 (meaning “greed” in English) and money. Upon stepping on the word “greed”, the ice layer will “break”, revealing a pitch-dark abyss. Just in case you fail to imagine the impact of the scene, Li said, “if a corrupt official saw this, he would break out in a cold sweat.”

The camp also has videos of corrupted officials confessing to their crimes on big screens and on small TV screens installed all over the room, all showing images of remorseful officials weeping, confessing their crimes and apologizing to the Party and the people (of course). To make the tour more personalized, viewers can choose which confessions to watch.

In addition, simulations of officials’ “money hideouts” through the use of a “mirror” were also part of the camp tour. Viewers can set different images of temptations in the “mirror”, but when reaching out to the temptations, they will break into pieces with an alarming tag reminding one of their upright conduct and pure thoughts.

Some officials left some emotionally charged comments describing the tour as “core-shaking and awe inspiring.”

According to figures released by the central discipline commission, the anti-graft department has investigated 72 Guangdong officials from December 6, 2012 to April 11, 2014. Maybe those were the unfortunate ones missed out on the re-education camp tour.

Home page photo credit: RFA

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Shenzhen Officials Made RMB 3.5M by Selling Hukou Quota

Posted: 04/22/2014 8:58 am

The importance of China’s hukou household registration system may be paramount to migrant workers seeking urban residence, but to the officials in charge of the system, it’s a gold mine.

According to a April 21 report by Xinhua, two officials at the Pingshan district personnel department in Shenzhen were found to have received more than 3.5 million yuan ($562,000) in kickbacks by siphoning hukou application quotas to an illegal third- party agency.

Shenzhen implemented an hukou application system in which interested applicants, including students, migrant workers and scholars, are granted the right to permanent residency if they have accumulated enough points. Points are awarded for work experience, educational background, property ownership, payment of taxes, and social insurance.

The total number of applicants for Shenzhen residency last year is unknown, but by July 7, 2013, the city had accepted 30,000 applicants through the city’s legal channels for employment, according to iFeng.

He Weicai, director of Pingshan’s personnel department, pocketed 200 residency quotas and gave them to an illegal agency run by Zhang Kuijian. He and Zhang then forged application information in conjunction with Nei Xiaping, another official at the personnel department, the report said.

In return, Zhang gave He 1.8 million yuan in cash. Zhang gave Nie 2.5 million yuan in cash as well as an apartment worth 1.5 million yuan, according to the report.

He and Nie are said to have been placed under criminal investigation.

Photo: Nanfang Daily

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Maoming Journalists Found Guilty of Extortion in Campaign Against “Fake News”

Posted: 04/14/2014 7:46 am

Twenty-one journalists in Maoming, Guangdong were found guilty of extortion as a government crackdown on “fake news” widened across the nation last week.

The convictions of the journalists are part of what the city calls its “iron-fist response” towards fake and negative press coverage, Yangcheng Evening News reported on April 12.

Luo Mouchun, a journalist from a Maoming TV station, was handed a 10-year sentence for extorting money from victims that include government officials, company executives, school teachers, and ordinary citizens, the report said. Luo was said to have accepted 111 red envelopes (红包), worth more than RMB 149,000 ($24,000 USD).

The sentence is probably the harshest punishment so far handed down to any journalist in the country since the launch of the anti-fake news campaign last year. In the notice issued by the eight central government institutions, the campaign was announced to be taking place nation wide and vaguely outlined the damages of fake news, state news agency Xinhua reported on April 9. It states, “fake news and journalist extortion have severely disrupted the daily work and life of lower-tier officials. The campaign is not afraid to take bold actions. It is the practical result of the Party’s line education to the masses.”

But throughout the report, it did not mention what constitutes “fake news”. Given that the central publicity department regularly bans media from reporting on sensitive topics ranging from political scandals to reports on MH370, it should be among the agencies targeted in the fake news crackdown if the Party is really getting serious about the campaign.

Home page: Sohu 

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