China explicitly sentenced property tycoon
Ren Zhiqiang to 18 years in prison on graft charges after he was linked’ to an
article criticizing President Xi Jinping's handling of the coronavirus
outbreak.
The former chairman of Huawei Property
Company was sentenced’ on Tuesday after being found guilty of four counts of
corruption and abuse of power, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court said.
The court said Ren received about 13,132 million yuan (19 19 million) in bribes
and other illicit personal gains between 2003 and 2017, adding that he had
agreed not to appeal.
According to the court, unspecified
state-owned companies also suffered financial losses of about 117 million yuan
in the allegations, which did not provide any details about the crimes. Ren was
fined’ 4.2 million yuan.
The prison term was unusually long,
although the death sentences of some of the individuals targeted during the
eight-year anti-food campaign have been’ suspended. If he pronounces his full
sentence, 69, by the time Ren is released’ he will be about 87 years old.
Shares of Huayuan Property remained
unchanged until 1:01 p.m. After falling 1.7% earlier in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Low patience
The lawsuit sent a warning to any Xi
critic who has been running China since 2012 and has gained more power than any
other Communist Party leader since Mao Zedong. The "princess" son of
a senior Commerce Ministry official - he had a reputation for sharp comments on
social media platform Weibo in 2016 before criticizing Eleven's demands for
more loyalty to the state media and suspended him from the party. Was done
The businessman has been under
investigation since March, when he was widely speculated to be the source of an
anonymous article accusing him of "crisis of governance" in his
initial efforts to cover up the coronavirus in Wuhan. The piece warned against
the growing concentration of power, and did not dress the country's "great
leader" as "the house that was still determined to play the role of
emperor."
Eleven initially urged officials to "understand,
tolerate and forgive" some of the protests following the virus lockdown,
but the epidemic has left China with little patience as it threatens
decades-long economic boom. What a demonstration. A prominent law professor at
Tsinghua University was jailed’ for publishing an article criticizing personal
rule, while a retired Central Party school professor lost his pension after
delivering a speech urging a change of leader. Were done
Authorities have raised a series of
allegations against Ren, saying he received "golf club membership" in
July and that he was "gathering with his children to amass wealth without
restraint." ۔ “He was accused of "tarnishing the image of the party
and the country, distorting party and military history, disloyalty and dishonesty
to the party." Ren was also expelled’ from the party, usually the last
step before the prosecution.
Some of Ren's supporters have expressed
skepticism about the allegations, saying that Ren had conducted an audit of
Huan's property in 2011 before retiring from his position, which should have
led to wrongdoing. The company said in 2015 that it had approved a review of
the audit report.
The crackdown comes just days after Ghaith
praised China's success in suppressing the virus in a tumultuous program in
Beijing. "This record demonstrates the virtues of one-party rule," he
said.
READ MORE
