One of China’s former top judges will be tried for taking up to 4 million yuan (US$588,000) in bribes, in one of the nation’s most high-profile graft cases, state media said yesterday.
Huang Songyou (黃松有), former deputy head of the Supreme People’s Court, will go on trial by the first week of March, making him the highest judicial official to be tried since the establishment of new China in 1949, the Chongqing Evening News said.
Huang, 52, is being accused of abusing power, enabling profit for others, taking bribes and living a “corrupt and lavish” life, the report said.
He allegedly accepted a massive bribe to arrange a favorable ruling in a huge real estate case in Guangdong Province in 2008 that benefited friends and cronies, the report said.
Yang Xiancai, a former chief judge at the Guangdong provincial high court, has also been linked to the case, along with 36 other officials in the Guangzhou intermediate court in Guangdong’s provincial capital, the Southern Metropolitan Daily said.
A native of Guangdong, Huang once served as a judge on the provincial high court.
As one of China’s best educated judges, Huang was seen as a leading figure pushing China down the path toward a constitutional legal system when he was appointed vice head of the nation’s Supreme People’s Court in late 2008.
His trial is expected to come ahead of China’s annual parliamentary session in the first week of March, the reports said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was