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Top official of Guangxi faces graft charges

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-10 09:04

Sun Yu, former vice-chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was kicked out of the Party and removed from government posts before being handed over to face corruption charges, the Guangxi Daily reported Thursday.

The newspaper said the Party's Central Committee for Discipline Inspection found Sun had accepted massive bribes.

Sun, 51, is one of four chairman-level officials in the region sacked for corruption. The other three are former chairman Cheng Kejie and two vice-chairmen.

Cheng, one of the highest-ranking officials guilty of corruption in China, was given a death sentence in 2000 for taking bribes worth more than 40 million yuan ($5.87 million). The other two vice-chairmen were sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1999 and 2006, respectively.

Sun, who became vice-chairman in 1998 at the age of 41 and was viewed as a rising political star, was removed from his post last November.

The Caijing magazine reported last December that Sun was suspected of accepting more than 40 million yuan in bribes related to a water project to help the scenic Lijiang river near Guilin, which was troubled by water shortages.

At the time, Guangxi decided to build reservoirs to funnel water into the river, and Sun, personally active in the projects, found an investor in 2004.

But the project cost more than 577 million yuan, and the investor requested government financing.

In 2006, the country allocated more than 10 billion yuan to Guangxi to aid its infrastructure development. Sun promised the investor around 400 million yuan for the reservoir's construction, but it never came.

This angered the investor, which led to the scandal's disclosure.