China’s former railway head sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption
- Court finds Sheng Guangzu guilty of taking bribes totalling 63.8 million yuan (US$8.9 million) from 2004 to 2022
- Sheng, who retired in 2016 after overseeing the railway ministry’s transition to China Railway Corporation, was arrested in 2022
China’s former railway minister Sheng Guangzu has been given a 15-year prison sentence for corruption, a court in Shanxi province announced on Tuesday.
Sheng, 74, was found guilty of taking bribes totalling 63.8 million yuan (US$8.9 million) from 2004 to 2022, according to the Baoji Intermediate People’s Court.
Sheng was the latest of China’s powerful railway bosses to be taken down for corruption. His predecessor, Liu Zhijun, who was railway minister from 2003 to 2011, was given a suspended death sentence in 2013.
Succeeding Liu in 2011, Sheng oversaw the ministry’s transition to the China Railway Corporation in 2013, which he went on to lead until he retired in 2016. He was named a deputy director of the Finance and Economics Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.
In the past two decades, China has undergone massive railway construction, investing trillions of yuan to complete the world’s largest high-speed rail network of over 42,000km (26,000 miles).
The court said on Tuesday that Sheng used his power to obtain benefits for entities and individuals in areas such as business operations, contraction and career advancement in return for bribes.
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Before his years with the railway, Sheng was the head of China Customs, where the court said he also took bribes.
Even after his retirement, the court found, Sheng continued to wield his influence within the railway sector, obtaining benefits for some business entities in exchange for bribes that sometimes exceeded 7 million yuan.
“The defendant Sheng Guangzu’s behaviours constitute the crimes of accepting bribes and using influence to accept bribes, the amount of which is particularly huge,” the court statement read.
Besides imprisonment, Sheng was also fined 6 million yuan, and confiscation of all illegal income and the interest it had generated, the statement said.
The court added that Sheng’s sentence is a “mitigated punishment” according to law, since some bribes were incomplete and while under investigation he voluntarily confessed his crimes and surrendered properties he obtained illegally.
Sheng was detained in March 2022 and expelled from the Communist Party six months later.
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At the time he was expelled, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the top anti-corruption body, accused him of “using public power as a tool for personal gain”, and “combining the corruption both through his own power and through others”.
Other accusations levelled at Sheng included “resisting the party’s investigation”, “obsession with superstitious activities”, “attending banquets and sightseeing trips”, “accepting gifts that may affect the impartial performance of official duties” and “allowing family members and relatives to obtain private gains using his job influence”.
