On May 31, courts across China separately found six disgraced high-ranking Chinese officials guilty of corruption and issued sentences.
All six officials are either associated with, or are part of, the political faction overseen by former Chinese Communist Party boss Jiang Zemin.
Three of the officials—former statistics bureau chief Wang Baoan, former Luoyang City head Chen Xuefeng, and former Ningbo City mayor Lu Ziyue—had accepted bribes totaling hundreds of millions of yuan (about tens of millions in dollars) in value, and were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The other three—former China Telecom chairman Chang Xiaobing, ex-Sichuan City vice governor Li Chengyun, and Wuhan Iron and Steel ex-chairman Deng Qilin—were to serve 6, 10, and 15 years respectively for taking bribes ranging from millions to tens of millions of yuan.
Chang Xiaobing is perhaps the most prominent of the six. He once helmed China Telecom and China Unicom, two of China’s largest state-owned telecommunications companies. China Unicom is widely believed to have long been in the hands of Jiang Mianheng, the elder son of Jiang Zemin.
