Chinese province says former minister’s graft case involves huge sums
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Expenses
Beijing, Feb. 14, 2018 (Reuters/NAN) The Corruption case against Chinese former Minister of Agriculture, Sun Zhengcai, involves massive sums rarely seen in the country’s history, one of the provinces government said in comments published on Wednesday.
The Chinese prosecutors had on Monday charged Sun with bribery during various posts going back to 15 years in Chongqing, Beijing, Jilin province while he was serving as a minister.
That was the latest development in a corruption probe into the former minister who was once considered a contender for top leadership.
Sun was abruptly removed from his post as the ruling Communist Party’s chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing one of China’s most important cities in July 2017.
He was replaced by Chen Miner, who is close to President Xi Jinping.
The government has not given exact details of the crimes Sun is suspected of.
However, some senior officials have been giving closed-door briefings about his case, including in the northeastern province of Jilin, where Sun was party chief from 2009 till 2012.
The official Jilin Daily reported that during a meeting that was overseen by Jilin’s current party boss, Bayin Chaolu, “officials were told they had to learn the lessons from and deeply reflect on Sun’s crimes.
“The enormity of the sums involved in Sun Zhengcai’s case and the seriousness of the crimes have rarely been seen since the founding of new China.
Government officials in Jilin must continue to “fully and thoroughly purge the pernicious influence” of Sun Zhengcai,’’ the report said, referring to the 1949 revolution which brought the Communist Party to power.
It provided no more details.
It has not been possible to reach Sun or a representative for comment since he was put under investigation last year.
The next likely step against Sun will be to put him on trial, where he is certain to be found guilty as the courts are controlled by the party and will not challenge the accusations against him.
Xi has presided over a sweeping corruption crackdown since coming to power in 2012 and has vowed to target both “tigers” and “flies”, a reference to elite officials and ordinary bureaucrats.
Thousands of officials have been jailed and punished in a campaign that has also brought down dozens of senior party and military officials. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf