Ren Zhiqiang was additionally fined four.2 million yuan ($620,000). (Representational)
Beijing:
A Chinese language actual property tycoon and outspoken critic of President Xi Jinping was jailed for 18 years on Tuesday for corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public funds, a courtroom assertion mentioned.
Ren Zhiqiang — as soon as among the many ruling Communist Celebration’s internal circle — disappeared from the general public eye in March, shortly after penning an essay that lambasted Xi’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
His outspokenness had earned the previous chairman of state-owned property developer the Huayuan Group the nickname “Huge Cannon”.
Tuesday’s verdict mentioned Ren embezzled nearly 50 million yuan ($7.four million) of public funds and accepted bribes value 1.25 million yuan, based on an announcement from the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Individuals’s Courtroom.
It mentioned the 69-year-old “voluntarily and in truth confessed all his crimes”, and wouldn’t enchantment the courtroom’s resolution.
He was additionally fined four.2 million yuan ($620,000).
Rights campaigners accuse Xi and the Communist Celebration of utilizing corruption fees to silence dissent.
Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since Xi took energy in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of speech and detaining lots of of activists and attorneys.
Tuesday’s verdict claimed that Ren additionally “abused his energy” in his function at Huayuan Group, which brought about greater than 116 million yuan of losses to the state-owned holding firm and greater than 53 million yuan value of property losses for the group.
Outspoken
The Communist Celebration’s disciplinary watchdog launched an investigation into Ren in April, and the trial opened at a Beijing courtroom on September 11 with a handful of supporters exterior and a heavy police presence.
One supporter instructed AFP they backed Ren as a result of he “dares to talk the reality”.
Ren’s essay from earlier this yr, which criticised Xi, has been scrubbed from China’s web — which often censors content material that challenges the authorities — however was shared on-line exterior China.
“This epidemic has revealed the truth that the Celebration and authorities officers solely care about defending their very own pursuits, and the monarch solely cares about defending their pursuits and core place,” Ren wrote, with out naming Xi.
His influential weblog on the Twitter-like Weibo platform attracted tens of millions of followers earlier than his account was closed by authorities in 2016 after he repeatedly known as for larger freedom of the press.
The son of a former vice-commerce minister and a Communist Celebration member for many years earlier than he was expelled in July, Ren was properly related with occasion elites.
He wrote in his memoir that he had been mates with vice-president and former anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan since they have been youngsters, when Wang was assigned by their faculty to mentor the youthful Ren.
He’s additionally a controversial determine, notably over his defence of China’s hovering home costs — as soon as telling Chinese language media that individuals who had been unwilling to spend money on actual property earlier than the increase “now should be poor”.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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