China: Ex-Justice Minister Bags Life Imprisonment Over $20 Million Bribery Scandal

A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a former Minister of Justice, Tang Yijun, to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of accepting bribes totalling nearly $20 million over a period spanning more than a decade.

Naija News understands that Tang, 64, served as China’s justice minister between 2020 and 2023 and previously held several influential positions, including Governor of Liaoning Province and Chinese Communist Party secretary of Ningbo city.

In a statement, the Xiamen Intermediate People’s Court in eastern China said Tang abused the authority attached to the offices he occupied to unlawfully enrich himself between 2006 and 2022.

According to the court, the former minister exploited “the advantages associated with the positions he successively held” to obtain benefits for “various entities and individuals.”

The court said that in exchange for illicit payments, Tang assisted individuals and companies in securing initial public offerings, obtaining bank loans, acquiring land, and facilitating other business-related matters.

It disclosed that Tang received a total of 137 million yuan, equivalent to $19.7 million, from the illegal transactions.

Describing the scale of the crime, the court said the amount of bribes involved was “particularly high” and had caused “extremely serious damage to the interests of the state and the people.”

Despite the severity of the offence, the court noted that Tang was granted leniency due to several mitigating factors.

The court said it considered the fact that Tang confessed after his arrest, showed remorse, pleaded guilty, and cooperated fully with investigators before handing down the life sentence.

Naija News reports that Tang’s conviction is the latest in a series of high-profile cases linked to President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which has been ongoing since he assumed power in 2012.

While Chinese authorities describe the crackdown as a necessary effort to clean up governance, critics argue that it also serves as a tool to eliminate potential political rivals.

The development comes after another former justice minister, Fu Zhenghua, was convicted of corruption in 2022. Fu was initially sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a punishment that was later commuted to life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities announced last month that they had launched an anti-corruption investigation into Zhang Youxia, one of the country’s most powerful generals. Zhang is the highest-ranking military figure to be targeted by anti-graft investigators in recent decades.