Zhang Zhongsheng, the former vice mayor of Luliang City in north China’s Shanxi Province, was sentenced to death on Wednesday for taking bribes of more than 1 billion yuan (US$159 million), a court said today, according to Xinhua news agency.

Zhang’s personal assets will be confiscated, according to the Intermediate People’s Court of Linfen City in Shanxi.

The former official offered help in the approval of projects and the obtaining of coal resources from 1997 to 2013, when he served as the Zhongyang County chief and later the vice mayor of Luliang City. In exchange he received cash and property worth a total of 1.04 billion yuan, Xinhua reported

He couldn’t name the source of assets valuing 130 million yuan, blatantly ignored laws and was “extremely greedy.” His crimes caused “huge losses to the country and its people,” the court said, according to Xinhua. </s> A Chinese court handed down a death sentence on Wednesday for Zhang Zhongsheng, former vice-mayor of the city of Luliang, who has been convicted on corruption charges.

The court cited Zhang’s “extreme greed” to explain the harsh sentence, which China’s state-run Global Times hailed as the “ultimate deterrent” and a powerful signal to other corrupt officials.

Zhang, 65, was convicted of taking over a billion yuan in bribes from 1997 to 2013, which works out to about $160 million in U.S. dollars. Two of the individual bribery cases against him involved amounts of over 200 million yuan. About a third of his illicit fortune remains unaccounted for, according to prosecutors.

Zhang was known as the “godfather” of Luliang for cutting himself a piece of just about every venture in the city, especially its increasingly lucrative coal projects, and he was far from the only official who needed to have his palm greased before deals could be consummated. The vice-mayor’s lavish lifestyle was especially galling given the general poverty of the province surrounding his city.

The court breathlessly charged that Zhang “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.”

In other words, he kept taking bribes after Chinese President Xi Jinping launched his much-ballyhooed war on corruption, which was very bad form on his part. The court mentioned concerns about Zhang setting an especially bad example for other officials that could best be corrected by giving him the most severe sentence.

The Global Times notes that death sentences are rare for corruption in China, citing a previous example in which a senior lawmaker was given a capital sentence for poaching a considerably smaller sum than Zhang did, although the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

Two other vice-mayors who were convicted of corruption were put to death in 2011. The amounts in their cases were much smaller than Zhang’s billion-yuan haul. Their harsh sentences were based in part on the notion that they were holding up projects important to the Chinese people in order to extract bribes, which is also one of the allegations leveled against Zhang.

“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,” the Global Times explained.

Zhang’s impending date with the executioner is seen by the Global Times as firm evidence that China has achieved “law-based governance” and that “the fight against corruption is gaining unstoppable momentum,” as officials at all levels gain a healthy “respect for the law” and “fear of discipline.”

It will not just be administrative officials getting that message, as the UK Daily Mail points out the National People’s Congress is in the process of creating an anti-graft agency with power over just about everyone in the public sector, which means just about everyone in China.

“This means the Communist Party-led anti-corruption agency would police not only the party’s cadres, but also doctors, teachers, entertainers and other state employees,” the Daily Mail muses.

Under Chinese law, Zhang still has the option of appealing his death sentence, and it must be approved by the Supreme Court in Beijing before it can be carried out. Given how often the Global Times chirps about his “immediate execution,” it doesn’t seem like the editors think much of his chances. </s> A former vice-mayor of a poverty-stricken city in the coal-rich province of Shanxi was on Wednesday sentenced to death, without reprieve, for accepting over one billion yuan in bribes (US$160 million).

The sentencing of Zhang Zhongsheng – known for his splendid hilltop mansions and dubbed the “godfather” because of his influence and power in the city of Luliang – was an unusually harsh punishment for economic crimes, even since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and started an unprecedented crackdown on corruption.

Zhang can still appeal the sentence handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court of Linfen, and the death penalty must be approved by the supreme court in Beijing.

In sentencing, the court said Zhang had shown “extreme” greed in taking bribes, according to Xinhua.

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Shanxi, in the north, was targeted by Xi’s anti-graft campaign in 2013, described as one of the country’s “disaster zones” that was suffering from a “landslide of corruption” among local officials, leading to a flurry of arrests of its political and business elite.

Zhang, 65, a short, bullish man, worked in local government for about 40 years before he came under investigation by the party’s graft-busters in 2014.

The court found Zhang accepted more than 1.04 billion yuan in bribes from 1997 to 2013, and in return he eased the way for entrepreneurs in the city, approving and granting licences for coal mine mergers and other projects, Xinhua reported.

Zhang was also unable to explain the source of over 130 million yuan of personal assets, according to the ruling.

The court said the amounts involved were “extremely large”, particularly in two cases.

“Two out of the 18 bribery cases concerned over 200 million yuan, and he asked for bribes of 88.68 million yuan,” the court said.

Zhang had not returned over 300 million yuan of these bribes, the court said.

It described Zhang as “contemptuous of rules and laws” and “extremely greedy”, saying he did not restrain himself even amid the nationwide anti-graft drive, concluding that he deserved the most severe punishment for “the big losses he caused to the nation and the people”.

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Nestled in the mountains of the dusty Loess Plateau, Luliang is best known for having served as a base for the Red Army during the second world war. Nearly 70 years since the Communist Party took power in China, Luliang still lags behind the rest of the country, with one-fifth of its population of 3.7 million living in poverty. Yet its rich deposits of coal have fuelled frenetic investment over the past decade, turning some mine owners into millionaires.

According to a three-month investigation into corruption in Luliang in 2014 by financial magazine , some of the area’s businessmen claim to have spent US$150,000 a year bribing officials who, like Zhang, controlled the mines and could close them down if they were deemed unsafe.

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“This is a typical case showing how officials, even the low-ranking ones, can easily amass a huge amount of wealth by wielding their influence to allocate resources,” said Hu Xingdou, an independent political economist.

“This is a heavy price to pay for using your administrative power to manipulate the system,” he said. </s> An 'extremely greedy' former Chinese official has been given a death sentence after accepting massive bribes, according to China's state media.

Zhang Zhongsheng, 66, is said to have taken bribes amounting to 1.04 billion (£116.8 million) in the space of 16 years - the equivalent of being bribed 178,000 yuan (£20,000) a day.

The disgraced officials received the economic benefits while working senior roles in Lvliang, one of China's poorest regions, said the court.

The news has grabbed much attention in China because few corrupt officials have been given a death penalty - even after Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a tough anti-graft campaign while assuming the office in 2013.

Mr Zhang was sentenced today by the Intermediate People's Court of Linfen City in Shanxi, according to People's Daily Online.

The disgraced official received the astronomical bribes between 1997 and 2003 when he worked for the regional governments in Lvliang, Shanxi Province.

He was investigated in 2015 while working as the deputy mayor of Lvliang City. His other positions included the head of Zhongyang County in Lvliang.

Lvliang is a poverty-stricken area. According to China News, 1,346 villages and 480,000 residents of the area are classified as 'impoverished' by the central government.

According to the court, Mr Zhang accepted a total of 18 bribes in the forms of cash and property. Among them, two cases exceeded 200 million yuan (£22.5 million) in value; and over 88 million yuan (£10 million) had been requested by Mr Zhang from his contacts.

In return, the former powerful regional leader offered the other party help in the approval of projects and the obtaining of coal resources, which Shanxi is famous for, reported Xinhua News Agency.

The court said Mr Zhang is 'extremely greedy' and his crimes had caused 'huge losses to the country and its people'. All of his personal assets will be confiscated.

Mr Zhang's sentence came after China's ruling Communist Party vowed to further crack down on corruption with a proposed anti-graft agency.

Earlier this month, China's National People's Congress began a third and final reading of a draft supervision law that would extend the newly formed anti-graft body's authority, led by the party, over vast numbers of workers in the public sector.

This means the Communist Party-led anti-corruption agency would police not only the party's cadres, but also doctors, teachers, entertainers and other state employees.

Chinese University of Hong Kong law professor Ryan Mitchell told Associate Press that expanding the scope of the anti-graft agency's powers to include government workers may have been 'calculated as a way to intimidate the bureaucracy into more closely following the party line.'

In the past five years, roughly 1.34 million lower-ranking officials have been punished under President Xi anti-corruption drive. </s> A Chinese Court on Tuesday sentenced Sun Zhengcai, former agricultural minister and ex secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to life imprisonment for taking more than 170 million yuan ($26 million dollars) in bribes.

The Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin Municipality said Sun will be deprived of his political rights for life, and the state will confiscate all his personal property and illegal profits. </s> A former top Chinese Communist Party official who was once tipped for a top leadership post was sentenced to life in prison for bribery, Chinese state media said today, the latest senior cadre to fall in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption crusade. Sun Zhengcai, a former Politburo member and party chief of the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, was found guilty of taking over 170 million yuan ($26.7 million) in bribes, the official Xinhua news service said, adding that his “illegal gains” would be confiscated. </s> A Chinese court has sentenced former political high-flyer Sun Zhengcai to life in prison for taking more than $26 million in bribes.

Sun's sentence handed down Tuesday by the intermediate court in the northern port city of Tianjin appears to mark the end of a career that had once been seen as propelling him to the apex of power in the ruling Communist Party.

He was also deprived of political rights for life and had all his personal property confiscated. Sun had been a member of the party's powerful Politburo. </s> BEIJING — A former Chinese provincial Communist Party boss was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve Sunday as part of the country's ongoing crackdown on corruption at all levels.

The Anyang City Intermediate People's Court in Henan Province said Bai Enpei was found guilty of taking "a huge amount of bribes" and possessing a large amount of income from unidentified sources.

Bai had been a senior lawmaker with the national legislature and formerly served as the top-ranking official in the western provinces of Qinghai and Yunnan. His entire personal assets were also confiscated and he was barred from ever again holding office.

Suspended death sentences are usually reverted to life imprisonment after two years with good .

Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to end corruption and government waste, although critics have accused him of using the campaign to attack political rivals.

Thousands of officeholders have been investigated as part of the campaign, and some Chinese have complained that the drive has resulted in bureaucratic paralysis as officials refuse to perform certain standard tasks out of fear of being accused of bribe-taking. </s> BEIJING (AP) — A former Chinese provincial Communist Party boss has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve as part of the country’s ongoing crackdown on corruption at all levels.

The Anyang City Intermediate People’s Court in Henan Province said Sunday that Bai Enpei was found guilty of taking “a huge amount of bribes” and possessing a large amount of income from unidentified sources.

Bai had been a senior lawmaker with the national legislature and formerly served as the top ranking official in the western provinces of Qinghai and Yunnan.

Suspended death sentences are usually reverted to life imprisonment after two years with good behavior.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to end corruption and government waste, although critics have accused him of using the campaign to attack political rivals.
A Chinese court sentences Zhang Zhongsheng, the former Vice Mayor of Lüliang, Shanxi, to death. Zhongsheng was convicted of accepting bribes totaling 1.04 billion yuan (US$160 million).