Former minister of justice prosecuted for bribery

Tang Yijun, former minister of justice, has been prosecuted for suspected bribery, China's top procuratorate announced on Saturday.

Prosecutors in Xiamen, Fujian province, filed the prosecution with the city's intermediate people's court, according to an announcement released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate on its official website.

In reviewing the case, Xiamen prosecutors interrogated Tang, informed him of his litigation rights and heard the opinions of his defense lawyer, the SPP said.

The indictment revealed that Tang used his various official positions, including governor of Liaoning province and Party chief of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, to seek benefits for others and accepted huge amounts of bribes in return. The prosecutors concluded that Tang should be held criminally liable for bribery.

Tang, 63, a native of Shandong province, began his career in July 1977 and joined the Communist Party of China in October 1985.

He held several positions in Zhejiang province before moving to Liaoning in 2017 to serve as acting governor. In early 2023, he was elected chairman of the CPPCC's Jiangxi Provincial Committee. Before taking up his position in Jiangxi, he served as minister of justice.

Tang was placed under disciplinary and supervisory investigation in April and was expelled from the Party and removed from his public office six months later.

An anti-corruption documentary aired early this year exposed that Tang used companies controlled by his wife to cover up his corrupt activities, presenting them as legitimate market operations.