A Case of Mistaken Identity

Ma Jian, the former spymaster was jailed for life today for corruption

Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption continues with a vengeance. Today a former top spy chief was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of accepting 109 million yuan (US$15.8 million) in bribes, and crimes related to insider trading and forced share transfers.

Ma Jian was appointed deputy head of China's Ministry of State Security in 2006, in charge of counter-espionage operations. However, the crimes he was convicted of spanned a 15-year period, between 1999 and 2004.

Ma accepted bribes from Guo Wengui

After four years of detention was tried at Dalian Intermediate Court in northeast China, where he was also fined 50.5 million yuan.
The court ordered all of Ma's personal property confiscated and demanded the return of his ill-gotten gains.

During the trial, Ma confessed to the charges and said he would not appeal.

He received bribes totaling 109 million yuan to benefit several associates, including the brash tycoon Miles Guo Wengui, who is in self-imposed exile in New York City.

Ma is the highest ranking security official to be jailed since Zhou Yongkang, a former Politburo member who once oversaw the government's security operations but was jailed for life in 2015.

The ex-spy has the same name as novelist, Ma Jian (above)

One would think this story is straight forward, except that some media outlets have used the wrong picture of Ma and used the one of novelist Ma Jian -- who had trouble presenting his novel China Dream in Hong Kong in early November.

Both the former spy chief and the novelist have the same Chinese characters in their names (马建) which makes it all the more amusing and the latter has joked about it on Twitter:

"My children are puzzled to learn that I am not the author of China Dream, who has just made them seaweed dumplings for supper, but am instead a former spymaster who has just been jailed for life for accepting 'extremely large bribes'," he wrote.

Ma tweeted his amusement at being "jailed for life"

"This is a strange China Dream. Am I a banned novelist dreaming that I'm a corrupt spy chief, or am I a corrupt spy chief dreaming that I'm a banned novelist?"

Perhaps this is potential fodder for Ma -- the novelist's -- next story.

How Much did He Know?

Ling Wancheng (left) is the youngest brother of Ling Jihua (right)

There are conflicting reports on Ling Wancheng, younger brother of Ling Jihua, who was the former top aide to then Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Ling Jihua was expelled from the Communist Party of China last year and is expected to be tried for corruption and illegally obtaining state secrets. His career unraveled after his son was killed in a Ferrari crash in March 2012.

At the time it was strange that the crash was covered up almost immediately after it was initially reported because Ling Jihua reportedly mobilized staff from the Central Security Bureau to suppress reports of it and words like "Ferrari", "Little Ling" and "Prince Ling" were blocked.

Ling Jihua's son died in this fiery Ferrari crash in 2012

However eventually it was revealed that the 23-year-old man who died in the crash was Ling's son and questions arose as to how he was able to acquire such an expensive sports car. Even though Ling sough assistance from then powerful security czar Zhou Yongkang, both have lost politically, and the latter is now languishing in prison for the rest of his life.

Because Ling Jihua was so close to Hu, there were allegations that businessman Ling Wencheng defected to the United States and revealed state secrets to American intelligence officials. It is unclear how much information he would have known, but it is believed he profited handsomely from his family connections.

However, Ling Wancheng's lawyer has come out to deny revealing secrets like nuclear weapons codes and details about the Chinese leadership.

Ling Wancheng reportedly lives in this home in Sacramento

"My client frankly would like to be left alone so he can play more golf," said Washington lawyer Gregory Smith. "He is presently working on writing a book about golfing, and he hopes to share with others his golf secrets that literally can add 10-15 yards to anyone's drive off the tee."

Smith did not answer questions about whether Ling Wancheng was seeking asylum in the US.

There are also reports that top security official Meng Jianzhu had tried to negotiate Ling's return to China when he visited the US last September.

A book about golf, huh? We expect this upcoming tome to be a best seller...

Bagging the Big Tiger

Zhou Yongkang in court saying he will not appeal the verdict

Former security chief Zhou Yongkang's trial apparently came and went because a few hours ago it was announced he was handed a suspended life sentence -- ie life in prison.

The closed-door trial apparently began on May 22 at Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, and only now was it explained that the trial was not open to the public because "some evidence of his crimes involved state secrets".

It wasn't really surprising Zhou would be jailed for life, but seeing him with completely white hair was a shock. Depriving him and other arrested leaders of black hair dye really transforms them into remorseful looking creatures, unlike their power-trip days.

Zhou is the highest official to be arrested, put on trial and now in prison, and was convicted on many charges, including graft abuse of power, and intentionally leaking state secrets.

For abuse of power, he was given a seven-year sentence, and four for leaking state secrets.

When it came to taking bribes, the court revealed he and his family had taken 129.7 million yuan worth of bribes from Zhou's close allies.

There was the 731,100 yuan from Jiang Jiemin, former head of the state owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and former chairman of the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), where Zhou was the top official for a decade.

Then his son Zhou Bin and wife Jia Xiaoye also benefited handsomely, receiving 129 million yuan from other people, including a Sichuan businessman, a former mayor, and former party chief of a subsidiary of CNPC.

The court said Zhou had abused his power by asking Jiang and former Sichuan deputy party chief Li Chuncheng to funnel more than 2.13 billion yuan to his son and other businessmen. This was somehow calculated as a loss of 1.48 billion yuan to the Chinese economy.

Zhou also apparently had six classified documents, and gave five of them to a "qigong master", according to mainland media. Sounds like there will be more about this supposed master by the name of Cao Yongzheng.

The court spared Zhou the death penalty because it said he confessed to his crimes, pleaded guilty and apparently all the money taken has been accounted for and confiscated.

Really? Every single mao and fen were accounted for? Everyone must have squirreled it away and not spent it on anything, or perhaps they made so much money from that capital that it was easy to return the original amount...

Nevertheless, it's interesting how long Zhou has been in detention (since two years ago) and last July there was a formal announcement of an investigation into alleged abuse of power and corruption.

Now that the big tiger has been bagged, his associates are next. The chances of them being let go are very slim mainly because of their links with Zhou...

Catching a Tiger

Zhou Yongkang was finally formally criminally charged today in Tianjin

After waiting for months, the big news out of China today was former security czar Zhou Yongkang being formally charged with corruption, abuse of power, and intentionally leaking state secrets.

The charges were laid by prosecutors in Tianjin, signally the Supreme People's Procuratorate has finished its investigation and that the case will be heard there.

Zhou has been accused of taking bribes during his tenures as the vice general manager of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, provincial Communist Party chief in Sichuan, head of the Ministry of Public Security, and as chief of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

"[Zhou's] abuse of power has led to great losses of public funds and has done severe damage to national and public interests, causing adverse social impact," the Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement.

There were no further details about the allegations Zhou had intentionally leaked state secrets.

It was last July that the authorities announced Zhou was under investigation for alleged abuse of power and corruption which was a big bombshell, and ever since, China watchers have been waiting for the next phase.

Ling Jihua tried to protect himself by covering up son's death

This is the first time in decades that the Communist Party of China has broken its convention of not prosecuting retired leaders for alleged wrongdoing.

He was a former member of the then nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the group of top leaders who run China, and he oversaw the state's security system, including police and courts. Zhou retired in 2012.

Since he was expelled from the CPC in December, state media began piling on hints of his criminal prosecution, that he was also alleged to have "exchanged power and money for sex", and even People's Daily described Zhou as a "traitor" to the party.

The Supreme People's Court's annual work report released last month said Zhou had "undermined the party's solidarity and engaged in political activities [not approved by the authorities]", a rare accusation that some analysts suggest indicates that Zhou might also face charges for political offenses.

Bo Xilai was an ally of Zhou's and is now in prison for life

There has been a tightening of the circle around Zhou for a while, with many of his associates detained for alleged graft. One of them is probably Ling Jihua, who tried to cover up his 23-year-old son's death when his Ferrari crashed into a pillar on Beijing's 4th Ring Road back in 2012. Zhou was the one who tried to help Ling senior stop local police from investigating the incident.

Another Zhou associate, Jiang Jiemin, who was then chief executive of China National Petroleum Corporation, was also involved in the cover up, paying millions of dollars to the two victims' families to keep quiet about the crash.

Fallen leader Bo Xilai was also affiliated with Zhou, who tried to support the former party chief of Chongqing to the end. But it was too late and Bo is now serving a life sentence. There were also allegations that Zhou attempted a "coup d'etat" which may be brought up later in the trial.

There is no court date set yet, but at least for now the stage is set for a showdown between the state and Zhou in the court room.

The BBC tried to ask people on the street in Shanghai what they thought of the motivations behind Zhou being charged, but no one would dare speculate. They probably know, but don't want to tell a western reporter what appears to be a political system that's rotten to the core.

Will Zhou's legal charges result in the end of the purges in the senior ranks of the party? It's hard to say but it demonstrates how much rot there is in the system, but also how determined the party is to get rid of it...

Another Uyghur Setback

What are the chances of Ilham Tohti getting a fair trial on separatism charges?

On the same day it was announced there was an investigation into Zhou Yongkang, there was also news that Uyghur academic and rights activist Ilham Tohti was formally charged with separatism and that his trial could start within weeks.

The prosecutor's office in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi made a brief online statement yesterday.

Tohti has been detained since January and through his lawyer Li Fangping, has vigorously denied accusations of instigating separatism, a charge that if convicted could lead to several years in prison or even the death penalty.

His wife Guzaili Nuer is upset hearing about the charges. "He only did research and wrote articles about the people of Xinjiang," she said. "I'm feeling ill and sad now."

Li wrote on his weibo account last night, criticizing government prosecutors for not notifying him about the indictment. He also said prosecutors had yet to accede his repeated requests for copies of the evidence against Tohti.

"I am shocked by how the Urumqi procuratorate has trampled on lawyers' right of defense," he wrote.

The formal charges against Tohti come as the authorities further crackdown on violent attacks in the region and a pro-Beijing imam named Jume Tahir was stabbed on Wednesday. It is believed the killing was a targeted attack.

The charges against Tohti will be another blow for for Uyghurs who was their moderate spokesperson, trying to explain to the Chinese government and the world what the ethnic minority wants -- respect of their Muslim religion, language, and way of life.

They feel they are being repressed and losing their identity as more of the younger generation speaks Putonghua than the Uyghur language. They are also being sidelined for jobs because of their ethnicity, limiting their job prospects which leads to them being marginalized financially.

Does the Chinese government realize its policies are provoking Uyghurs to resort to violence?

Tohti was their moderate voice, but now that he's been incommunicado, radical Uyghurs don't seem to see any way out except through brandishing knives and setting off homemade explosive devices.

His daughter Jewher is studying in Bloomington, Indiana -- her father was supposed to go with her on a one-year visiting scholar position at Indiana University, but was detained at Beijing International Airport in February 2013.

"I am angry about this, they have not followed the legal path," she said. "My father was only trying to foster a dialogue. What they have charged him with is untrue."

Now that Tohti will be tried for separatism, Jewher and her family need to step up the campaign to rally the rest of the world to protest her father's innocence. International pressure is needed now to show Uyghurs they have not been forgotten.

He was the winner of the 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. More information about Tohti here.

Xi Bags a Tiger

Xi Jinping rises further to the top with the formal arrest of Zhou Yongkang

If you've been counting, Chinese President Xi Jinping's name has been mentioned in 4,186 articles in the first eight pages of the People's Daily for the past 18 months.

This compares to former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao mentioned in less than 2,000 reports each. The statistics are collected by Qian Gang, a former journalist who is the director of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong.

He compared the coverage of eight party leaders of their first 18 months in office. The leaders were: Xi, Jiang, Hu, Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.

Of course Mao and Hua were mentioned most frequently because of their cult-like status at the time.

But with Xi's numerous mentions, does this mean he is trying to elevate himself to the status of the Great Helmsman Mao?

There has been a two-year wait for today's announcement

Qian says no, but with the current anti-corruption campaign and today's official announcement of former security chief Zhou Yongkang being investigated for "serious disciplinary violations", Xi seems to be further consolidating his power (and mentions in the paper).

Zhou's case, which will be handled by the Commission for Discipline Inspection, ends the unspoken rule among party elders that Politburo Standing Committee members would not be prosecuted on economic or social crimes for the sake of party unity.

The announcement also signals that all party leaders are finally behind the decision, including Zhou's former patron Jiang, and now they can move forward on the main policy issues to be discussed in October during the fourth plenary of the 18th Party Congress.

It was only a matter of time before Zhou would be formally investigated. He was a strong ally of Bo Xilai and we know what happened to him. Zhou seemed to be the only person publicly defending Bo before his formal arrest, and at one point they allegedly conspired to grab power from Hu.

On the outside many ordinary people are pleased Xi has bagged himself a "tiger", taking down corrupt senior officials, but deep down, is this Xi's strategy to further build his power base by eliminating his enemies?

Or is this his way of uniting the Party?

Either way Zhou is going down... crashing and burning big time...

Encircling the Tiger

When tycoon Liu Han is handed the death sentence he claims he was framed

The circle around former security czar Zhou Yongkang is tightening after a mainland mining tycoon with links to him was sentenced to death today for leading a mafia-style gang.

At the brief hearing in Xianning, Hubei province, Liu Han, 48, erupted into anger, yelling, "I've been framed" and "I've been wronged" to the court before being taken away.

Liu was found guilty of 13 charges, including murder, running casinos, and illegally selling firearms. His younger brother Liu Wei, also known as Liu Yong, was also given the death sentence.

Zhou Yongkang has not been seen for many months

Zhou allegedly used to ask Liu Han to look after his son, Zhou Bin, who had at least two business dealings with Liu.

Seems Liu and his brother did really well in amassing his wealth, as the court ordered the two brothers' personal assets to be confiscated. Liu's company, Hanlong, was a conglomerate that had interests in sectors ranging from energy to real estate.

The company was fined 300 million yuan in 1997 for financial crimes, including using fake information to obtain bank loans.

Liu Han denied the charges against him during the 17-day trial. His brother claimed police tortured him to extract a confession.

"The police beat me every day when I was detained in Beijing," Liu Wei was quoted as saying. "They said if I don't make the confessions, then they will arrest my wife and child."

Liu Han said he would forgive his brother for anything wrong he had done. "We will still be brothers for the next life," he said.

Liu Han in happier days in control of a conglomerate

Doesn't that sound like the perfect line for a movie about these brothers? Who wouldn't want to know how they amassed their riches and allegedly mixed with a powerful official and then was screwed in the end?

Meanwhile some following the case believe that because Liu received so much attention, it will be difficult for Zhou to have a fair trial. Did Liu even have a fair hearing?

The verdict shows Chinese President Xi Jinping is making sure anyone related to Zhou will be punished one way or another. Is it a legitimate anti-corruption campaign or a political axe to grind?

Pictures of the Day: Zhou's House

The dragnet keeps continues to circle tighter around Zhou Yongkang

China watchers are waiting for the announcement on the fate of former security czar Zhou Yongkang, 71, but the climax keeps building with more news about him or his family and associates.

The latest are images of a large mansion in Jiangsu province owned by Zhou's son that were taken with a drone helicopter and then gone viral on the phone app WeChat but was quickly censored on the mainland.

The two-storey home on the site of Zhou's childhood home

The home is owned by Zhou Bin, a 42-year-old businessman who has been formally detained since December and faces possible bribery allegations, and may have been involved in illegal dealings in Sichuan, and the oil industry, both which is father built up as power bases.

From the images, viewers can see the two-storey home with white walls and surrounded by a classical Chinese garden. It is situated in the village of Xiqiantou, Zhou Yongkang's ancestral village.

An article posted with the picture claims Zhou's two brothers used to live there and the home was built in 2010 on the site of his childhood home.

Another report by Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post quoted residents who said they used to see officials and businessmen visit the building, but haven't seen any come by recently. They also added surveillance cameras were installed around the home.

The home in Xiqiantou village has a classical Chinese garden

The Oriental Post added the last time the villagers saw Zhou was last April when he said: "This might be the last time I visit you."

We're all now waiting to see what happens to Zhou and his home...

Corruption Crackdown Continues

Jiang Jiemin is being investigated for corruption related to his time at CNPC

After the shocking announcement that former security czar Zhou Yongkang was being investigated, one of his proteges Jiang Jiemin is is being probed for "serious discipline violations", in other words, corruption.

Jiang is a director of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and former chairman of the country's largest oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The 58-year-old was just appointed to the cabinet-level position in March.

It is believed the investigation into Jiang is to mine for information to be used against Zhou.

There are questions of why Jiang was elevated to the SASAC post when there were concerns about CNPC's role in trying to cover up the crash of a Ferrari on March 18 last year.

A $1million black Ferrari lost control on Beijing's North Third Ring Road and slammed into a wall. The driver, who died instantly, was Ling Gu, the only son of Ling Jihua, then chief of staff to then President Hu Jintao. He was in the car half naked, while two other women, one naked, the other half clothed succumbed to their injuries.

Ling Gu's Ferrari split into two after a crash in Beijing

Jiang raised eyebrows when he transferred tens of millions of yuan from CNPC to the families of the two women who were subsequently killed in the crash. Last year Jiang was questioned about this, why money from a state-owned company was funneled to two families, which he (as far as we know) had no relationship with.

But in the coming weeks and months, we will get to know more, as the infighting within the Party continues revealing more dirty details.

Bo Xilai's trial and now the investigations into Zhou Yongkang and Jiang Jiemin reveal how the patronage of senior officials is crucial in fast-tracking one's career, but if your mentor falls politically on the wrong side of the tracks, you can be eternally doomed with them.