China is to prosecute a former senior judge from its highest court on suspicion of corruption after accusing him of crimes, including illegally accepting public funds, Beijing’s anti-graft watchdog said yesterday.
Former Chinese Supreme People’s Court vice president Xi Xiaoming (奚曉明) came under investigation in July for “serious violations of discipline and laws,” terminology China usually uses for corruption.
He is one of the most senior judicial officials to be ousted by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) anti-corruption campaign since the downfall of former head of domestic security Zhou Yongkang (周永康), whose brief included law enforcement and courts.
Xi Xiaoming was a member of the Chinese Communist Party for 40 years, but has been accused of abusing his position to help relatives obtain benefits for their business activities, the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in statements on its Web site.
Other charges include illegally accepting public funds, breaching confidentiality rules and leaking secrets related to judicial work.
His case has been transferred to legal authorities, the watchdog said, meaning that he will face prosecution and he has been expelled from the party.
It was not possible to reach Xi Xiaoming for comment and it was not clear if he has a lawyer.
Xi Xiaoming, 61, was the No. 4 official in the Supreme People’s Court, where he specialized in economic law cases.
A native of Jiangsu Province, he rose from working as a policeman in Shenyang in the 1970s to the highest echelons of China’s judiciary, where he was also a member of the court’s leading party members’ group.
Separately, China’s foreign exchange regulator is stepping up its risk controls against corruption, it said in a statement released yesterday via the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The graft-fighting division of the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange said that its risk control system was a vital part of battling corruption.
Putting this system into full effect would be one of the tasks the foreign exchange regulator has to achieve this year, it said.
That would include looking closely at projects that “involve power or risk,” it added, without elaborating.
China’s financial regulators have been under heavy pressure since stock markets collapsed in mid-June following a long bull run, although the statement made no mention of the markets.
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