ALMOST NOWHERE DO THEY PUNISH BRIBE-TAKERS MORE HARSHLY THAN IN THIS COUNTRY V. V. OVCHINNIKOV Keywords: China, fight against corruption Kang Zhixin, the former CEO of the China Nuclear Industry Corporation, was recently sentenced to life imprisonment and political rights with confiscation of property for bribery. The verdict emphasizes that the court showed leniency to him for cooperating with the investigation, because for bribes and embezzlement amounting to more than a million yuan*, capital punishment is imposed. Since 2000, about 10 thousand entrepreneurs and officials have been executed for corruption in China, and another 120 thousand received 10 to 20 years in prison. FROM VICE MAYOR TO DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC SECURITY There is a lot of talk in China about the shooting of Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Zhihua. For 7 years, he headed the management of China's Silicon Valley-the Zhongguangcun science city in the northwestern university suburb of Beijing. And he was able to use for his own personal benefit the strategic turn of the Chinese leadership to create an innovative economy. In addition, the enterprising official profited from the Beijing Olympics. Having made his mistress the owner of one of the construction companies, he gave her lucrative contracts for the construction of Olympic facilities and also took bribes for the allocation of land. Liu Zhihua is not the largest of the capital's superiors who found themselves in the dock. At the beginning of the reforms, the first secretary of the Beijing City Committee, Chen Xitong, was removed from the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and put on trial. He was expected to become general secretary of the Central Committee, the successors of Deng Xiaoping, and was sentenced for usury to 16 years in prison. Corrupt officials are now being sought and found not only among city mayors, provincial governors and their deputies, but also within the walls of the Chinese parliament. Deputy Chairman of the Standing Commi ... Read more