Graft Casts Cloud Over China’s Legislature

A leader of China’s national legislature is under investigation for alleged economic crimes, the government said Saturday.

The announcement came a day before the National People’s Congress--China’s supreme legislative body--was to convene its annual session.

Congress Vice Chairman Cheng Kejie was not reelected to the presidium of the legislature this year because he is suspected of having broken the law, legislative spokesman Zeng Jianhui said. Cheng had asked for a leave from the congress, Zeng said.

Cheng’s case and that of Hu Changqing, a former deputy governor of Jiangxi province, are just two of a slew of high-level corruption cases that have undermined support for the Communist Party.

Hu was deputy director of the governing State Council’s Religious Affairs Commission before he became deputy governor of Jiangxi province. He was sentenced to death last month for taking bribes worth $658,000.

As part of the battle against corruption, Hu is due to be executed sometime around the congress session, party officials said. London-based Amnesty International issued an alert Friday that the execution is imminent.

The communist leadership has acknowledged that investigators uncovered 17 corruption cases last year. It has not disclosed details of those involving the most prominent officials, such as Cheng.

As Communist Party chairman of the impoverished southwestern region of Guangxi from 1990 until he moved to Beijing in 1998, Cheng, 67, was the boss of former Guangxi Vice Chairman Xu Bingsong. Xu was sentenced to life in prison in late August for taking bribes and influence-peddling.

The corruption scandals threaten to eclipse key items on the congress agenda, which includes reforming state-run enterprises.

Authorities have intensified security in Beijing to prevent demonstrations by the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and protests over unemployment stemming from state layoffs. Police detained at least 10 Falun Gong members Saturday in Tiananmen Square, next to the Great Hall of the People, where the legislature will meet.