Chinese Communist Party official charged in
$100M graft case
By Elizabeth Shim
A former Chinese Communist Party official in Shaanxi Province has been accused of bribery and defying orders from President Xi Jinping. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
(UPI) -- A senior Chinese Communist Party official in Shaanxi Province has been charged with taking $101.3 million in bribes connected to the construction of an illegal resort village in the Qinling Mountains.
Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday that Zhao Zhengyong, former chief of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, was found to have embezzled more than $100 million during his trial at the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin Municipality.
The bribe linked to Zhao dwarfs the graft case of Xing Yun, a former senior legislator of northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Xing was sentenced to death in 2019 for accepting money and valuables worth $63.9 million.
Zhao, a former senior national legislator, was a leading Communist Party official in Shaanxi Province from 2003 to 2018. Of the $101.3 million he accepted while in office, $41 million "was not received," Chinese prosecutors said Monday.
Zhao reportedly pleaded guilty to taking bribes on Monday. He is being charged with forging ahead with construction projects in the Qinling Mountains, which was reportedly declared a nature reserve six times since May 2014 by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Zhao left office in January 2019 and is believed to have fallen out of favor with Xi for "disobeying orders," according to Chinese state media.
I wonder if he would have been prosecuted had he remained in Xi's favour?
Xi has kept a low profile following the coronavirus pandemic that began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
The growing movement among countries for China to apologize and pay reparations is drawing a nationalist response in the country, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday.
Chinese analysts are warning of trends that exclude China from global cooperation.
"We have every reason to say that an international alliance is forming that excludes China and the Chinese yuan," said Li Yang, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' National Institution for Finance and Development, according to the Post.
Luckin Coffee fires CEO, COO amid fraud probe
By Danielle Haynes
(UPI) -- China's rival to Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, announced Tuesday the departure of two senior management officials implicated in a fraud investigation.
The board of directors fired CEO Jenny Zhiya Qian (above) and Chief Operating Officer Jian Liu. Both also resigned from the company's board.
Jinya Guo, senior vice president, was named acting CEO, and Wenbao Cao and Gang Wu, both senior vice presidents, were named to the board as replacements.
The departures come after six other employees who were involved in or had knowledge of the scandal were suspended or placed on leave.
In April, Luckin revealed that Liu fabricated about $310 million in sales in 2019, prompting the company's stock to fall 80 percent.
"The company has been cooperating with and responding to inquiries from regulatory agencies in both the United States and China," Luckin said. "The company will continue to cooperate with the internal investigation and focus on growing its business under the leadership of the board and current senior management."
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