A former senior Chinese provincial official told a court he took about 13 million yuan (US$2.1 million) in bribes consisting largely of precious stones, state-run media reported yesterday.
Former Anhui Province vice governor Ni Fake (倪發科) had a “craving for jade,” the state-run Shanghai Daily said.
His trial on Monday was the latest case in a corruption crackdown under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who has said the scourge threatens the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Ni told the court he had accepted 49 bribes, including cash, gemstones and artworks, the Shanghai Daily said.
Jade has been used in Chinese art for millennia, and has long been as valued as gold is in the West, but carrying loftier moral connotations, including purity and longevity.
Corrupt officials have in recent years turned to taking bribes in the form of art and precious stones rather than money, according to previous reports in state-run media.
The party’s top anti-graft body said Ni was “obsessed with collecting jade” and had appointed himself honorary chairman of the provincial jewelry industry association, the Shanghai Daily said.
The official wore jade accessories every day and went to jade stores every weekend, the report quoted the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection as saying.
The 60-year-old was expelled from the party last year. Since then, more senior figures have fallen to the anti-corruption campaign, including former security boss Zhou Yongkang (周永康).
However, the CCP has resisted introducing reforms seen as key measures against graft, such as publishing officials’ assets, relaxing controls on media and establishing an independent legal system.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS