Sun Zhengcai, former Politburo member and secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday.This was four months before Sun Zhengcai was sacked last year, and he sat on the rostrum when he attended the National People's Congress in Beijing.(Reuters)
Sun Zhengcai, one of the once shining political stars, former member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday (May 8).Scholars interviewed said that the case of Sun Zhengcai has come to an end, but the work of cleaning up the residual poison in Chongqing will continue.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People's Court publicly pronounced the verdict on Sun Zhengcai's first-instance bribery case yesterday.
After the verdict was pronounced, Sun Zhengcai sincerely pleaded guilty, repented, accepted the verdict, did not appeal, and would seriously accept reform.
The court held that Sun Zhengcai accepted a particularly large amount of bribes, severely disrupted the normal work order of state organs, violated the integrity of state functionaries, and tarnished the reputation of state functionaries, and should be punished according to law.
The court alleges that since 2002, when he served as Secretary of the Shunyi District Committee of the Communist Party of China, Secretary General of the Municipal Committee, Minister of Agriculture, Secretary of the Jilin Provincial Committee, and Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, he took advantage of his position to help relevant units and individuals win bids for projects,Provided assistance in project approval, business operation, job promotion and adjustment, etc., and illegally received property worth more than 170 million yuan (S$35.46 million) alone or with specific related parties.
Caixin Weekly reported in February this year that Sun Zhengcai had two business mistresses, one of whom had known him for 20 years, followed him from Beijing to Jilin and Chongqing, and was involved in many major projects in Chongqing;The name is born in the 1980s, and has obtained multiple rounds of One Belt One Road funds through Sun Zhengcai's relationship.
The court held yesterday that in view of Sun Zhengcai’s crime of accepting bribes, most of the bribes were directly received by specific related parties. After he came to the case, he voluntarily confessed some of the facts of the crime of accepting bribes that the case-handling agency has not yet grasped, truthfully confessed all the facts of the crime, pleaded guilty and repented, and activelyThe stolen goods have been returned, all the stolen money and stolen goods have been recovered, and there are statutory and discretionary circumstances for a lighter punishment, so they can be given a lighter punishment.
In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for the Construction of a Clean Government at Peking University, said that considering various factors, Sun Zhengcai's sentence is equivalent to his crime.
Chen Jieren, an independent commentator, also said: Judging from the amount of 170 million yuan in bribes, the sentence of life imprisonment is in line with the balance of China's current judicial practice in the field of anti-corruption, and it is neither light nor heavy.
Sun Zhengcai was put on file for investigation in July last year for serious violations of discipline. In September of the same year, he was double dismissed (expelled from the CCP and public office).
After Chen Miner, the former Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, succeeded Sun Zhengcai as the Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, he launched a political campaign to eliminate the legacy in Chongqing. By convening a plenary session and frequently publishing articles in the Chongqing Daily, the organ of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, he emphasized the resolute elimination of the former Chongqing Municipal Party Secretary BoXilai and the former Public Security Bureau Chief Wang Lijun were poisoned and influenced by Sun Zhengcai.In the five years since 2012, Chongqing's top management has undergone several rounds of personnel changes.
Chen Jieren said: The verdict in the Sun Zhengcai case does not mean that the work of cleaning up the legacy of Sun Zhengcai will be over. On the contrary, it may even emphasize the need to clean up the legacy of Sun Zhengcai in the future.Whenever there is a political need in the future, the local leadership will pick up this topic and talk about cleaning up the legacy.
Zhuang Deshui said: The verdict of the Sun Zhengcai case provides a good opportunity for the next stage of building a clean and upright political life in Chongqing, which will help the current Chongqing leaders to better implement policies.
(The reporter is the Beijing correspondent of Lianhe Zaobao)
