Former China Politburo member pleads guilty to bribery
TIANJIN, China: A former top Chinese Communist Party official who was once tipped for a leadership post pleaded guilty to accepting millions in bribes at his trial yesterday, the latest senior cadre to fall in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anticorruption crusade.
Sun Zhengcai, a former Politburo member and party chief of the southwestern mega- city of Chongqing, was accused of taking advantage of his position to seek profits for others and illegally accepting money, according to the court’s Weibo account.
Sun and his alleged associates were also charged with accepting money and goods worth 170 million yuan ( US$ 27 million) in return for providing help to unspecified organisations and individuals with engineering contracts, business operations and other matters, according to the No.1 Intermediate People’s Court in the northern city of Tianjin.
Sun pleaded guilty and “expressed penitence”, the court said, adding that it would make a ruling at a later date.
The court said more than 130 people attended the trial, including members of the country’s top political advisory body and media.
But some 20 plainclothes officers prevented an AFP reporter from entering the court and surrounded the journalist for more than 20 minutes, saying she should have registered to attend the hearing in advance.
One officer pushed the journalist and shouted.
Sun, 54, had once been tipped for promotion to the Politburo’s elite seven-member standing committee, which rules the country and is presided over by Xi.
As the youngest Politburo member, Sun was even seen in some quarters as a potential successor to Xi.
Sun was the first serving member of the 25-person Politburo to be placed under investigation since Bo Xilai, another former leader of Chongqing, who was jailed for life in 2013.
Xi has presided over a popular anti-graft campaign since coming to power in 2012 that has punished more than one million officials, but critics have compared it to a political purge.
Xi, who has become China’s most powerful leader since Chairman Mao Zedong, now has a path to rule for life after the country’s rubberstamp legislature lifted presidential term limits last month. — AFP