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Flies and Tigers | 抓蝇打虎

Party expels top political adviser for ‘severe violations’
全国政协原副主席苏荣严重违纪违法

By Li Qian | February 17, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

FORMER senior political adviser Su Rong has been expelled from the Communist Party for severe discipline and law violations, China’s disciplinary watchdog announced yesterday.

An investigation into Su, 66, began on June 14 last year and on June 25 he was removed from his post as vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

The Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Su had broken Party rules by meddling in official decisions, and had accepted bribes to seek profits for others. It said he also failed to promote clean governance and was responsible for serious corruption in east China’s Jiangxi Province, where he was Party chief between 2007 and 2013.

Su abused his power over personnel appointments and the operation of unidentified companies and took “an enormous amount of bribes,” the commission said in a statement.

He “abused his power and caused great losses to state assets”, it said, without providing details.

“Su wantonly sold ranks and titles, led the official ranks astray and damaged the atmosphere in society,” the statement said.

Evidence of his corruption had been handed to judicial departments for a criminal investigation, the commission said.

According to China Newsweek, Su was known to have profited from manipulating the selection of officials, charging them 5 million yuan (US$799,500) for department-level posts.

Su said he had boosted Jiangxi’s economy and protected the environment, but his efforts proved to be vanity projects, the magazine said.

Su promoted a plan to build an ecological economics zone in Jiangxi. However, until he left the province, there was little progress, according to the magazine.

Another achievement claimed by Su was a tree-planting program across the province, but the magazine said this involved the expropriation of fertile farmland despite farmers’ complaints.

Su made a fortune from the real estate market, the magazine alleged, with his wife Yu Lifang said to be involved in a number of projects.

It said that when Zhou Jianhua, former chairman of the standing committee of the People’s Congress in Xinyu City, told investigators Yu meddled in one land bidding process, causing state losses of nearly 1 billion yuan, Zhou was then investigated himself.

In July 2013, he was sentenced to death with two-year reprieve for taking bribes of 10 million yuan.

Yu was also named during an appeal in June last year involving Jiangxi entrepreneur Gui Song who had been sentenced to five years in prison on bribery charges in 2012, the magazine said.

The court was told Yu brokered a deal in 2009 in which a businessman acquired land owned by Gui at well below market value after he allegedly paying her tens of millions of yuan.

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