China Imprisons Ex-Mayor of Beijing for Corruption

China’s highest Communist official tried for corruption was sentenced to 16 years in prison today, official Chinese media reported.

The Beijing Municipal Higher People’s Court handed down the verdict against former Beijing Mayor and party boss Chen Xitong in a public session this morning, the official New China News Agency said, although no foreign media were notified of the trial in advance.

“The verdict says Chen was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on the charge of corruption and to four years imprisonment on the charge of dereliction of duty. In combination, Chen will serve 16 years imprisonment,” the agency said.

Chen’s case came to light in April 1995 when his associate, Beijing Deputy Mayor Wang Baosen, committed suicide just before he was to be investigated for corruption. Later that year, Chen was forced to resign as mayor and was stripped of his post on the powerful Communist Party Politburo.

Official media later revealed that he had diverted $2.2 billion in official funds. Insiders say Chen took bribes and lined his own pockets with urban development funds, which he used to buy posh villas and apartments and to lavish on friends, children and mistresses.

The bribes Chen accepted will be confiscated and returned to state treasuries, the court verdict was quoted as saying.

Chen has 10 days to appeal the verdict; there was no indication whether he would.

In the early 1990s, Chen and Wang presided over the rapid development of China’s capital. Using foreign investment predominantly from Hong Kong, Chen oversaw the demolition of large swaths of old Beijing, from which sprung canyons of glass-and-steel office buildings, hotels and luxury housing.

The Chen case has widely been seen as a litmus test of the current regime to apply its long-running anti-corruption campaign to its own higher ranks.

Analysts say the role of graft and nepotism in the Asian financial crisis and the recent downfall of former Indonesian President Suharto has alarmed Beijing into stepping up prosecution of corrupt cadres and allowing greater criticism of public officials by the media.