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Flies and Tigers | 鎶撹潎鎵撹檸

Ex-railway minister expelled from Party
鍘熼搧閬撻儴闀垮垬蹇楀啗琚紑闄ゅ厷绫

By Zha Minjie | May 29, 2012, Tuesday | Print Edition

CHINA'S former Railway Minister Liu Zhijun was expelled from the Communist Party of China after being found guilty of corruption, the CPC disciplinary watchdog announced yesterday.

The Party's Central Commission for discipline Inspection said Liu had taken massive bribes and abused his authority to help a private businessman make huge illegal profits.

It also accused him of fostering major corruption throughout the country's railway system and having "degenerate morals," a term that often refers to sexual liaisons and the keeping of mistresses.

"Liu should hold most of the responsibility for corruption in the railway system," according to the Party's discipline body.

Liu's case will now be handed over to prosecutors.

Liu had been under investigation since February 2011, when he was removed from his position on suspicion of "serious disciplinary violations."

In the investigation, it was shown Liu helped Ding Yuxin, who is also known as Ding Shumiao, the president of an investment management company, make huge illegal gains.

Liu took huge bribes and other valuables, according to the discipline watchdog. But the authorities did not disclose the amount of the bribes.

The country's rapid railway network development slowed down after the fall of Liu and the fatal bullet-train crash that killed 40 passengers in July last year in Wenzhou.

Liu, born in 1953 in central China's Hubei Province, began his career in 1972 as a railway worker and joined the CPC a year later. Liu took control of the railway ministry in 2003 and soon oversaw the railway system's leap into countrywide expansion of high-speed railways.

It was during the period that Ding's Boyou Investment Management Group Ltd benefited greatly from providing equipment to the nation's high-speed projects.

During Liu's tenure, fatal railway accidents frequently made headlines. A train collision killed 72 in 2008 in Shandong Province. Liu was criticized then but was not removed.

Together with Liu, several high-ranking railway officials were removed and investigated in a series of graft probes.

Zhang Shuguang, the ministry's former deputy engineer, who was Liu's right-hand man, also faced corruption charges when he was found to own luxury homes in the United States.

China's bullet train system has been the subject of a series of scandals involving corruption, some of which are still under investigation.

The bidding process for high-speed railway projects was fraught with difficulties that gave business executives such as Ding with close ties to top rail officials priority in equipment contracts.

As a result, such equipment was found to have been bought at prices much higher than the market rate.

The July accident led to a public furor and accusations of reckless growth without proper attention to safety.

The current railway minister, Sheng Guangzu, ordered thorough checks of the railway network and slower speeds on high-speed railways.
 

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