What’s new: A former deputy governor of Southwest China’s Guizhou province has been handed a suspended death sentence for accepting over $60 million in bribes, a court in Chongqing municipality announced.
Li Zaiyong took advantage of positions he held between 1998 and 2023 to help others get project contracts and land acquisition approvals. In return, he accepted over 432 million yuan ($60.4 million) in bribes, Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court said in a Wednesday statement.
While working in Liupanshui, Guizhou, Li pushed through the construction of local tourism projects that damaged the environment and led to estimated losses of more than 86 million yuan, the court added.
Li’s sentence was mitigated by a number of circumstances. First, he never actually received most of the bribes he accepted. Second, he informed authorities about the criminal actions of others that were later verified, the statement said. His willingness to confess and repay his illicit gains also helped as well.
The background: Li, 62, is a Guizhou native who spent most of his career as an official in the province. He held several city-level positions in Zunyi and Guiyang before being named deputy governor in January 2018.
Li was featured in a state-backed documentary that revealed he saddled the local government in Liupanshui with debt due to reckless borrowing to build poorly designed tourism projects, such as a ski resort that only gets one month of snow each year.
A number of former Guizhou officials have fallen under graft probes in recent years, including three other ex-mayors of the provincial capital Guiyang, and another former deputy governor, Wang Xiaoguang.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
