Minister's downfall 'linked' to corruption probe
By Zhang Xuanchen |
February 14, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE fall of China's railway minister could be linked to an earlier corruption investigation involving a high-profile female entrepreneur whose company benefited greatly from the country's expanding high-speed railway industry, it was alleged yesterday.
Liu Zhijun, 58, was removed from his post and put under investigation due to "severe violation of discipline," Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. No further details were given.
The investigation into Liu comes almost one month after a corruption probe into businesswoman Ding Shumiao, 55, president of the Beijing-based Broad Union Group and a member of the Shanxi Province committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Caing.com, a Beijing-based business news website, reported yesterday.
Ding began her business empire with coal shipping in her resource-rich hometown of Shanxi.
Since 2000, she expanded into railway construction and established Broad Union Group, which made profits largely from railway-related industries including equipment manufacture and advertising.
The group developed rapidly after China began high-speed railway construction in 2005. Shanxi Jinhande Environmental Engineering Co, which is controlled by the group, won a lucrative government contract in 2008 to build noise barriers for China's first intercity high-speed railway between Beijing and Tianjin.
The company later won bids for another three bullet train projects worth 610 million yuan (US$92.54 million).
In 2006, Broad Union Group collaborated with another two companies to establish Zhibo Transport Equipment Co, which later built up an Italian joint venture - Zhibo Lucchini Railway Equipment Co - which became China's only producer and maintainer of train wheelsets, winning contracts worth 2 billion yuan.
A source cited by Caing.com described Ding as "having a huge and complicated social network in politics," and suggested the investigation might lead to something bigger.
Ding was also prominent in charity circles. She was ranked No. 6 on the Forbes magazine China Charity List last May for making donations totaling 90 million yuan in 2009.
Another factor in Liu's case, the source said, might be his younger brother, a railway official.
Liu Zhixiang, former head of the railways bureau in Wuhan City, was sentenced to death in 2006 with a two-year reprieve after being convicted of conspiring to assault a man, embezzlement and bribery.
He was said to have hired someone to carry out the assault and also had a huge amount of unexplained assets.
Liu Zhijun, 58, was removed from his post and put under investigation due to "severe violation of discipline," Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. No further details were given.
The investigation into Liu comes almost one month after a corruption probe into businesswoman Ding Shumiao, 55, president of the Beijing-based Broad Union Group and a member of the Shanxi Province committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Caing.com, a Beijing-based business news website, reported yesterday.
Ding began her business empire with coal shipping in her resource-rich hometown of Shanxi.
Since 2000, she expanded into railway construction and established Broad Union Group, which made profits largely from railway-related industries including equipment manufacture and advertising.
The group developed rapidly after China began high-speed railway construction in 2005. Shanxi Jinhande Environmental Engineering Co, which is controlled by the group, won a lucrative government contract in 2008 to build noise barriers for China's first intercity high-speed railway between Beijing and Tianjin.
The company later won bids for another three bullet train projects worth 610 million yuan (US$92.54 million).
In 2006, Broad Union Group collaborated with another two companies to establish Zhibo Transport Equipment Co, which later built up an Italian joint venture - Zhibo Lucchini Railway Equipment Co - which became China's only producer and maintainer of train wheelsets, winning contracts worth 2 billion yuan.
A source cited by Caing.com described Ding as "having a huge and complicated social network in politics," and suggested the investigation might lead to something bigger.
Ding was also prominent in charity circles. She was ranked No. 6 on the Forbes magazine China Charity List last May for making donations totaling 90 million yuan in 2009.
Another factor in Liu's case, the source said, might be his younger brother, a railway official.
Liu Zhixiang, former head of the railways bureau in Wuhan City, was sentenced to death in 2006 with a two-year reprieve after being convicted of conspiring to assault a man, embezzlement and bribery.
He was said to have hired someone to carry out the assault and also had a huge amount of unexplained assets.
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