Court sentences deputy mayor to death

Punishment showcases Party determination to crack down on corruption

A former deputy mayor of a North China city was sentenced to immediate death for accepting bribes worth 1.04 billion yuan ($166 million) by a court in Shanxi Province on Wednesday.

All death penalties by a lower court must be reported to the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing for approval before they can be carried out.

Zhang Zhongsheng, exdeputy mayor of Lüliang, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes and seeking illegal benefits for others with a severe impact on the local economy, according to the Intermediate People’s Court in the nearby city of Linfen, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Few Party officials have received an immediate death sentence since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012.

After considering the scale of the crime and the harm to society, the court ruled immediate execution, according to a statement issued on the website of Shanxi High People’s Court.

Among Zhang’s 18 bribery cases, two involved more than 200 million yuan. Zhang also demanded others pay bribes to him of 88.68 million yuan, the statement said.

Zhang was “extremely greedy,” it said. He “crazily took bribes from 1997 to 2013 and did not restrain himself after the 18th National Party Congress and caused extraordinarily great losses to the nation and its people and should be punished severely by law.”

This ruling would deter corrupt officials as China was usually “very cautious about imposing a death penalty,” Xie Zhiyong, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The decision was made not only because of the unusually sizeable amount of money Zhang had received, but also as his actions had an extremely bad influence on society and the local economy, damaging people’s interests, Xie believed.

“And it is in accordance with China’s law,” he added.

In 2016, Bai Enpei, a former senior lawmaker with the National People’s Congress, was sentenced to death – with a two-year reprieve – for taking 246.7 million yuan and holding excessive assets from unidentified sources, Xinhua reported.

Bai later received a life sentence, the standard practice for most such sentences, the Xinhua report said.

This showed China’s determination to strengthen its crackdown on corruption, said Xie.

More than 159,000 people were punished for corruption and violating the Party code of conduct in China in 2017, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC.

Since the start of 2017, a total 1,300 fugitives have returned to China, including 347 Party members and State functionaries as well as 14 others listed on a red notice of corruption suspects.

Zhang Zhongsheng, former vice city mayor of Lüliang in Shanxi Province, was sentenced to death Wednesday for taking bribes of 1.04 billion yuan ($159 million) by the Intermediate People’s Court in the Shanxi Province city of Linfen. It was the first death penalty for corruption since the 18th National Party Congress and mirrored the determination of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on comprehensively promoting the rule of law in governance.

One can comprehend the Party’s anti-corruption campaign and its future trend from the judgment on Zhang.

At the beginning of this century, China entered the golden age of coal. The economy of Lüliang skyrocketed thanks to its abundant coking coal. Shanxi Province was promoting mergers and reorganization in the coal industry mostly among local private enterprises.

But this seemingly market-oriented behavior was soon twisted by local officials. In the scramble for resources, private entrepreneurs started seeking policy concessions and market access through bribery. Zhang was the biggest winner among those raking in the dough.

According to the court, Zhang used his position to seek benefits for bribe payers through intervening in Lüliang’s economic development, severely infringed the integrity of Chinese officials, damaged their reputation, caused grave social impacts in not only Shanxi Province but the entire nation and inflicted particularly heavy losses on the State and people. Therefore the court handed down the ultimate punishment.

Many foreigners do not understand why Beijing won’t abolish its death penalty. The reason can be found in the nation’s relevant policy: China retains the punishment, but it must be strictly controlled and prudently operated. In other words, it can be scarcely put into practice, but its existence as the ultimate deterrent is needed. Zhang’s penalty is bound to have a warning effect.

Zhang was only a vice mayor, but was involved in gigantic bribery. This demonstrated the necessity and significance of the Party’s anti-corruption efforts since the 18th National Party Congress. The Party’s crackdown on corruption will be long lasting, arduous and complicated, but ceaseless.

Zhang’s sentence showed the system, rules and laws of China’s anti-graft drive are growing normal and the fight against corruption is gathering unstoppable momentum. Respect for the law, fear of discipline and abiding by the regulations are being consolidated in the mind-set of officials at all levels.

How did China realize law-based governance? Zhang’s case just provided an answer.