Ex-official in Sichuan pleads guilty to taking bribes

An ex-official in Southwest China's Sichuan province on Thursday pleaded guilty of taking bribes of more than 5.7 million yuan ($850,000).

Yan Chunfeng, ex-deputy secretary of the Guang'an municipal committee of the Communist Party of China in Sichuan, was charged with taking bribes when he led the urban planning bureau in Yibin city, according to the Deyang municipal intermediate people's court on Thursday.

From 2001 to 2018 Yan extorted or illegally accepted money and other property of a total value of nearly 5.73 million yuan, trading his power to help others profit in project contracting and dispute resolution, according to the procuratorate. 

Yan abused his power when he worked as head of the Urban Planning Bureau in Yibin, Sichuan, head of the Cuiping district government in Yibin, chief engineer of the Chengdu Planning Management Bureau, executive mayor of Guang'an, and deputy secretary of the Guang'an municipal committee of the Communist Party of China, the procuratorate's indictment said. 

After the legal procedures Yan made a final statement in court, pleading guilty and showing penitence. 

When the trial concluded the court announced that judgment would be passed on a to-be-confirmed date, according to the Deyang municipal government information office.

Meanwhile netizens mocked Yan's ex-wife, ironically praising her as a role model for outing a corrupt official.

Yan, 51, came under the spotlight on May 10 last year after details of an argument involving his daughter's kindergarten teacher in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, went viral online.

After his daughter was made sit alone in class after beating a classmate, the girl's mother, Li Xiangyang, asked Chen Shu, the teacher, to publicly apologize to her daughter. 

If Chen refused to apologize, Li threatened the teacher would be punished, as the girl's father was a high-ranking official.  

This annoyed other parents and netizens, who questioned the identity of the girl's father, which  brought Yan Chunfeng to the attention of both the public and regulatory authorities in the province.