Returnees from overseas confess to crimes

Editor’s note: Corruption Fight Is Always Underway, a documentary produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and CCTV, continues to broadcast the stories of former senior officials accused of corruption during the country’s anti-graft drive. The series, which began on Monday last week, consists of eight episodes over nine days (Saturday was excluded) at 8 pmon CCTV-1. The interviews were conducted while the former officials were detained, but before any court action.

Wang Guoqiang, former top official in Fengcheng,

According to the documentary, Wang went to the US on a regular Chinese passport in April 2012, 20 days after he was removed from his post as the top official in Fengcheng. He turned himself in to the police in December, 2014. He was prosecuted in September last year. In his confession, Wang elaborated on the rough conditions of his US stay, describing it as a desperate period of time because of the fear of being caught whenever he was in a public place. He said he dared not to live in a hotel because he would be discovered when using his passport.

Li Huabo,

a former financial official in Poyang, Jiangxi province

Li returned on May 9 last year and turned himself in to the police after four years on the run in Singapore. He was accused of embezzling nearly 100 million yuan ($15.4 million), which was sent back to China after Singapore canceled his permanent residency permit, according to the documentary. He is alleged to have misused his powers at Poyang’s finance bureau to embezzle money fromthe local government’s infrastructure fund with former co-workers between 2006 and 2010.

“My daughter said: ‘What’s this all about? You and mom have nice jobs and you are an official. You have enough money!’ I felt incompetent as a father.” “I got into gambling there (casinos in Macao) after visiting for the first time. Regardless of the consequences, I lost heavily, but came back with public money.”