The HongcouverChinese corruption prosecutors seek death penalty for mother of Wanting Qu, pop star girlfriend of Vancouver’s mayor

Last week, Wanting Qu, the Chinese pop star girlfriend of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, released a new song.

Titled Your Girl, the single is dedicated to her mother, Qu Zhang Mingjie. “Though I haven’t been able to talk to her, feel her or reach her in any way in the last two years, I know deep down in my heart, there’s a place that’s warm like the sun and bright like the moon. It’s a place for a daughter like me and a mother like her. I believe that place exists in everyone’s heart. I hope she can hear the song and it gives her love and strength,” the singer said, according to her record label, in a statement released on Wednesday.

Zhang likely needs all the strength she can get.

On the very day that her daughter was paying tribute, Zhang, a former official in Harbin city, was told at her Chinese corruption trial that prosecutors want her executed.

The accusations against Zhang are grave – she is charged with embezzling about 350 million yuan (C$69 million), in a real estate scam that reportedly left hundreds of impoverished farm workers in appalling conditions. The accusations are strongly denied by her defence, which told the July 19-20 trial at the Harbin City Intermediate People’s Court that her confession had been obtained illegally.

According to a lengthy account of the trial by the official Xinhua news agency, the case against Zhang centres on a 2009 deal to transfer control of a state-owned Harbin corn farm into the hands of Harbin Dongjiang Agricultural Technology Co, a private agricultural firm. But Zhang – the city official in charge of the transfer - allegedly conspired with the firm’s representative, Wei Qi, and co-accused Wang Shaoyu to doctor the terms of the sale.