The former chairman of China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行), Zhang Enzhao (張恩照), received a 15-year jail term yesterday for corruption, state media said.
Zhang was sentenced at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, Xinhua news agency reported. It gave no further details.
According to a report on the Web site of Caijing magazine, Zhang was convicted of receiving bribes totaling 4.2 million yuan (US$530,000).
A separate media report last week said Zhang had confessed during his graft trial to receiving cash, watches and property totaling that amount, a report said yesterday.
But his lawyer said the property was given by "old friends" and could not be considered graft, the report said.
Other reports said Zhang allegedly also received a US$1 million "commission" from a US company for selling its software to the bank.
Two credit officers from the bank's Hainan branch were also sentenced to one year's imprisonment for dereliction of duty, Xinhua reported.
Their failure to properly assess the credit worthiness for some residential mortgages cost the lender 2.78 million yuan in losses, the agency said.
Separately, China's top banking regulator said 67 cases of bank fraud were uncovered from January to September, a decrease of almost one-third from 97 in the same period a year earlier, state media reported yesterday.
Cases involving more than 1 million yuan dropped to 37 from 63 last year, the Shanghai Securities quoted Liu Mingkang (劉明康), the chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission, as saying.
The figures appeared to be seriously at odds with other statistics reported recently by the state media.
On Wednesday, the China Daily newspaper said a total of 461 cases of bank fraud involving more than 1 million yuan each were discovered last year.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source