A former senior regional land official in northwest China has
been officially charged with taking millions of yuan in bribes and
holding a large amount of suspect property.
Wang Yingfu, 55, former deputy director of the Land and
Resources Administration of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is accused of
taking bribes when approving land deals and distributing
construction projects, according to the People's Procuratorate of
Zhongwei City, Ningxia.
Wang is also alleged to possess property worth millions of yuan
that he cannot account for, said prosecutors.
Wang allegedly took the bribes from 1999 to 2003, when he worked
as director of Ningxia Land Resources Bureau, deputy director of
Ningxia Land and Resources Administration and chairman of Ningxia
Disabled Persons Association.
Wang disappeared on Jan. 23 after prosecutors began their
investigation into him. He was arrested in Beijing on Feb. 3 and
officially detained by police on Feb. 14.
He is to stand on trial early next year.
China has been strengthening supervision on land development, an
area regarded by experts "power and capital intensive" and a
breeding ground for corruption, given land transactions are the
most effective way for local governments to boost economic
returns.
In September, the central authorities gave serious warnings to
two senior Henan officials, Li Xinmin, secretary of the Provincial
Political and Judiciary Committee of the CPC, and Wang Wenchao,
party chief of the CPC Zhengzhou city committee, for illegal
expansion of a post secondary school campus on to farmland.
In August, the central government criticized the Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Regional Government for failing to stop an unauthorized
power station project.
(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2006)