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Canadian pop star Wanting Qu’s mother is sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption in China

  • Zhang Mingjie, a former Harbin planning official, was convicted of taking US$15 million in bribes from a property developer
  • Her sentencing ends years of uncertainty about the high-profile case, in which Zhang had faced a possible death penalty

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Defendants Zhang Mingjie (right, in blue) and Wang Shaoyu attend their sentencing in the Harbin City Intermediate People's Court on Wednesday. Photo: Harbin City Intermediate People's Court
Ian Youngin Vancouver

The mother of Canadian pop star Wanting Qu has been convicted of corruption by a Chinese court and sentenced to life imprisonment, more than five years after a trial in which prosecutors had requested the death penalty.

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The Harbin City Intermediate People’s Court announced late on Wednesday that Zhang Mingjie, 66, a former planning official with the municipal government in the capital of northern Heilongjiang province, had been convicted and sentenced that morning, ending years of uncertainty about the high-profile case.

She was found guilty of bribery and abuse of power over a 2011 property deal involving the redevelopment of state-owned farmland, the court said in an announcement on its website.

It said she received a cash bribe of 5 million yuan (US$780,000) from the developer and a stake in the project worth 93 million yuan (US$14.6 million).

The scheme caused losses of more than 230 million yuan (US$36 million) to the public purse, the announcement said, and Zhang’s sentence included the seizure of all her assets.

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Wanting Qu (right) with her mother, former Harbin City planning official Zhang Mingjie in 2014. Photo: CTV
Wanting Qu (right) with her mother, former Harbin City planning official Zhang Mingjie in 2014. Photo: CTV
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