China's Anti-Corruption Crackdown... Inner Mongolia Official Embezzling 597 Billion Won Sentenced to Death

Photo by China CCTV

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Kim Hyunjung] A civil servant in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China has been sentenced to death for embezzlement exceeding 3 billion yuan (approximately 597 billion won), according to a report by China Central (CC) TV on the 28th.

According to the report, the Intermediate People's Court of Xing'an League in Inner Mongolia sentenced Li Jianping, former Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Hohhot Economic and Technological Development Zone in Inner Mongolia, to death yesterday. He was sentenced to death and lifelong political rights deprivation in the first trial for embezzlement, bribery, embezzlement of public funds, and condoning underground organization embezzlement. In addition, his personal property was confiscated as punishment for bribery charges. The confiscated personal property is expected to be returned to the national treasury.

It was revealed that Li Jianping continuously embezzled funds from 2016 to 2018 by abusing his position as Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Hohhot Economic and Technological Development Zone in Inner Mongolia. This included 1.437 billion yuan of state-owned funds, of which 289 million yuan has not yet been confiscated.

From 2009 to 2014, he abused his positions as chairman of a private company and Secretary of the Party Working Committee to unfairly support companies in project contracts, accumulating assets exceeding 577 million yuan. From 2006 to 2016, he was confirmed to have embezzled more than 1.055 billion yuan of public funds from state-owned enterprises. Local media reported that over 404 million yuan of this amount has not been returned.

Professor Feng Xinlin of the Criminal Law Research Institute at Beijing Normal University explained in an interview with China News Weekly, "Li Jianping's execution demonstrates the Party's zero-tolerance stance on corruption and shows that it is fighting corruption with integrity," adding, "Such cases have a strong deterrent effect on corruption."

Meanwhile, this first trial verdict came nearly three years after Li Jianping was investigated for related charges. The scale is known to be the largest in anti-corruption history, exceeding the combined amounts of bribery cases involving former Huarong Asset Management Company Chairman Lai Xiaomin (over 1.7 billion yuan) and former Shanxi Provincial Party Committee Secretary Zhao Zhengyong (about 717 million yuan). Former Chairman Lai Xiaomin was executed in Tianjin last year after his death sentence was carried out.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.