Government and Policy

Vice-mayor investigated for bribery

By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-15 07:34

SHENZHEN: The executive vice-mayor of Maoming, Guangdong province, is under investigation for allegedly taking bribes and using his official position for illegal gains, local media reported yesterday.

Meanwhile, two senior police officials who are suspected of providing protection to criminal gangs from the southwest Guangdong city are also being investigated.

Both investigations were sparked by online reports.

An anonymous netizen alleged that Vice-Mayor Yang Guangliang, 56, bribed Chen Shaoji, former chairman of the Guangdong committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, for 50 million yuan ($7.3 million), Yangcheng Evening News reported.

The netizen also wrote that Yang made a profit of more than 20 million yuan from the sale of land which was forcibly taken from farmers when he was chief of Dianbai county in 1994.

Insiders said he was called to a meeting in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, in mid-October and has been kept there for investigation ever since, according to Guangzhou Daily.

In another case, a businessman in the construction industry reported online using his real name that Cheng Bin, police chief of Maoming Public Security Bureau, and Yang Qiang, director of the city's Maogang district police bureau, provided long-term protection to a local criminal gang.

The businessman said the gang illegally collected more than 10 million yuan from him alone, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

Both Cheng and Yang are now under investigation.

The new probes come shortly after a group of senior officials in connection with prison management in Maoming were dismissed from their posts or arrested for alleged serious violations in August. They were suspected of turning a blind eye to prisoners taking drugs and commuting a sentence in exchange for money.