August 11
CHINA:
Corruption-buster faces death penalty for bribery
IS HUANG JINGAO a selfless hero who donned a bulletproof vest, surrounded
himself with 6 bodyguards and survived 26 death threats in his battle
against corruption in China?
Or is he yet another Communist Party official who succumbed to the lure of
lucre and deserves to be facing charges of taking bribes and of keeping
several mistresses? Was Mr Huangs role as whistleblower merely a front to
cover up his own corrupt activities? Or did his forthright tactics create
powerful enemies who made it their mission to bring him low?
A Chinese court in southern Fujian province will soon sit in judgment on
Mr Huang. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The outspoken
former Communist Party chief of Lianjiang county was formally charged this
week with taking bribes of about 600,000 in cash, gems, jewellery, a gold
brick and a laptop computer, state media said.
He is also said to have kept at least 4 mistresses and to have been fond
of prostitutes.
Such charges have become commonplace as hundreds of government and party
officials go on trial in China each year, almost always charged with a
string of similar offences that involve abuse of power to gain money and
women. Corruption, virtually snuffed out in the years after the Communist
Party swept to power in 1949, has staged a dramatic comeback in the wake
of market reforms over the past 25 years.
Chinas leaders have even given warning that the party could destroy itself
if it fails to rein-in the scourge that helped to cause the downfall of
several imperial dynasties. Mr Huang won overnight fame a year ago when he
wrote an open letter published on the website of the party mouthpiece, the
Peoples Daily, in which he styled himself as a graftbuster ready to take
on the might of the State in the cause of justice.
The letter caused a sensation, becoming the top story on nearly every
major website in a country where few issues arouse as much popular anger
as corruption. The 53-year-old former farmer won praise for what
contributors called his unusual bravery in standing up to local officials.
"I could not get any support from local leaders or departments, I was
deeply puzzled," Mr Huang wrote in his letter.
Within days the letter had disappeared from the internet at the behest of
propaganda tsars. Mr Huang became the object of an 11,000-word report
laced with vintage Marxist rhetoric, in which provincial officials denied
all his allegations and accused him of inflated individualism. "It is a
serious political incident, which has caused political instability," they
said. By the end of the year Mr Huang had disappeared, detained for
investigation. Officials said that he wrote the letter to divert attention
from his own misdemeanours. The Boxun News Network website took a
different tack. "The forces of darkness have collected enough evidence to
throw Mr Huang in jail," it said.
At home, Mr Huang's leadership has struck a chord. "Mr Huang has been
working in Lianjiang for years and I've never heard bad things about him,"
one woman shopkeeper said. "In my eyes he has been an honest official who
speaks out for ordinary people."
"This is dogs biting dogs," another Fujian resident said. "It is difficult
to say if Huang Jingao is clean, but how many party officials are?"
(source: The Times)
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Drug dealers get death sentence
3 drug traffickers were sentenced to death and 2 others got life
imprisonment at the Foshan Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday.
Guo Jizong and Peng Guowei of Yunnan Province and Zhang Fajian from
Guangzhou were executed after the final sentences were passed. Li Zhaoze
of Foshan and Wang Jiazhang of Yunnan were all sentenced to life
imprisonment.
The 5 criminals received the severe sentences because they had been
involved in a big drugs deal 77.9 kilograms of heroin in October 2003, the
largest trafficking case since South China's Guangdong Province launched
an anti-drug campaign.
The Guangdong Provincial High People's Court, after investigation and
questioning, refused the criminals' appeal and sent the case back to
Foshan for the final judgement.
The Foshan court had made the initial judgment in April 2004.
Local police tracked down the gang, who had hidden the heroin inside four
4-metre high statues of the Goddess of Mercy, which weighed over 10 tons
each. They then had the statues transported to a town in Foshan's Nanhai
District.
Guo and Peng were caught red handed selling the heroin to Zhang.
Li, who was responsible for the heroin-filled statues and Wang, an
accomplice of Guo and Peng in Yunnan, were arrested soon after.
Chen Xiaochen, an official with the Foshan court, said that Foshan would
continue to severely punish drug producers and traffickers in a bid to
prevent the drugs trade from spiralling out of control.
Guangdong Province, which, probably owing to its geographical location
neighbouring China's southwestern regions, Hong Kong and Macao, serves as
a gateway into the country's inland, has long been a hotbed for
drug-related crime.
Last year, the provincial high court pronounced judgment on a case
relating to more than 12 tons of amphetamines, or "ice." The haul was one
of the largest of its kind in the world.
(source: China Daily)
