Xia Guanglian, a former senior official in Longquan City of Zhejiang Province, east China, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking bribes totaling 140,000 yuan (about US$17,000), Xinhua News Agency reported today.
Xia, former secretary of the Longquan Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, accepted bribes five times by taking advantage of his position from 1994 to 1998, according to the court.
Prior to Xia, the former mayor and vice-mayor of a major northeast China city were expelled from the Party for taking bribes and other corrupt acts.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision announced Friday that former Shenyang Mayor Mu Suixin, and former Vice-Mayor Ma Xiangdong were punished for taking advantage of their posts.
Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning Province.
Mu was dismissed as a deputy to the Ninth National People's Congress, as well as to the provincial and city-level people's congresses. The former mayor's case has been transferred to the judicial system for further investigation.
Mu is suspected of having accepted a large number of bribes as director of Construction Bureau of Liaoning, vice-governor of Liaoning and mayor of Shenyang. He resigned in early March citing poor health.
Yet sources said Mu's resign came as an increasing number of Shenyang's senior officials were found to be involved with wrongdoings by former Vice-Mayor Ma Xiangdong. Ma is believed to have also accepted bribes and to have acted in collusion with a gang leader arrested and accused of homicide and other serious crimes.
An ensuing probe found the former mayor also took bribes, said Wu Dingfu, spokesman of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Ma was arrested last July and accused of squandering 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) in public money on a gambling spree in Macao.
The former vice-mayor has been transferred to the local procuratorate for prosecution.
China has enhanced its efforts to fight official corruption in the last year. The government reported investigations of more than 134,000 cases and punishments given to 136,161 officials.
More efforts to stop bribery and enhance supervision of official conduct are coming, said Liu Liying, deputy secretary of the Central Disciple Commission.
(Agencies 06/17/2001)
