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Zhou Yongkang, Former Chinese Official, Faces Corruption Trial Zhou Yongkang, Former Security Chief in China, Faces Corruption Trial
(about 3 hours later)
HONG KONG — The former head of China’s law-and-order apparatus, Zhou Yongkang, will stand trial on charges of bribery, abusing power and disclosing state secrets, the country’s top prosecution office announced on Friday, describing Mr. Zhou’s misdeeds as “particularly grave.” HONG KONG — The former head of China’s law-and-order apparatus, Zhou Yongkang, will stand trial on charges of bribery, abusing power and disclosing state secrets, the country’s top prosecution office announced on Friday, making Mr. Zhou the highest-ranked Communist Party official to be indicted on graft charges.
Mr. Zhou will be the most senior Chinese Communist Party official to face trial on corruption charges, and is the most powerful figure yet singled out by President Xi Jinping’s campaign to eradicate graft. The statement from the prosecution office, which oversees major corruption inquiries, indicated that Mr. Zhou had scant hope of clemency. The statement from the prosecution office, which oversees major corruption inquiries, indicated that Mr. Zhou had little hope of clemency, noting that his misdeeds were “particularly grave.”
Mr. Zhou will stand trial in Tianjin, a northern port city near Beijing. The prosecution office said Mr. Zhou’s crimes spanned much of his career as a party official, from his time as an oil executive to his final post in the Politburo Standing Committee, when he wielded immense power overseeing the courts, the police, domestic security forces, and intelligence apparatus. The announcement did not give a date for the trial. Mr. Zhou is the most powerful figure yet to have been singled out by President Xi Jinping’s campaign to eradicate corruption. The prosecution office said his crimes spanned much of his career as a party official, from his time as an oil executive to his five-year tenure on the Politburo Standing Committee, when he wielded immense power through overseeing the courts, the police, domestic security forces and the state intelligence apparatus.
The announcement Friday did not give a date for Mr. Zhou’s trial, which will be in Tianjin, a northern port city near Beijing.
Mr. Zhou, 72, retired from office in November 2012, at the same party congress that appointed Mr. Xi as the top leader. In the months that followed, party investigators started corruption inquiries into officials who had worked under Mr. Zhou in the nation’s biggest oil and gas conglomerate, the China National Petroleum Corporation; in Sichuan Province in China’s southwest; and in the country’s police and state intelligence services. Like many of those fallen officials, Mr. Zhou is accused of bribetaking and illicit deals.
Mr. Zhou “took advantage of his positions to seek gain for others, illegally accepted massive amounts of wealth from others, abused his powers, leading to major losses to public assets and to the interests of the state and people,” the office said.Mr. Zhou “took advantage of his positions to seek gain for others, illegally accepted massive amounts of wealth from others, abused his powers, leading to major losses to public assets and to the interests of the state and people,” the office said.
Much of the interest in the trial will likely focus on the allegation that Mr. Zhou illegally disclosed state secrets, a charge that has fed speculation that Mr. Zhou was involved in factional intrigue within the party elite. Mr. Zhou “violated the stipulations of the State Secrets Law and deliberately disclosed state secrets, and the circumstances were particularly serious,” said the prosecution office, without providing details. But much of the interest in the trial will probably focus on the allegation that Mr. Zhou illegally disclosed state secrets. Mr. Zhou “violated the stipulations of the State Secrets Law and deliberately disclosed state secrets, and the circumstances were particularly serious,” the prosecution office said, without providing details.
Mr. Zhou, 72, retired from office in November 2012, at the same party congress that appointed Mr. Xi as the top leader. In the months that followed, party investigators began removing officials who had been associated with Mr. Zhou, who rose through the party ranks in a state oil conglomerate. From 2007, Mr. Zhou held a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, and at the same time ran a committee overseeing the police and domestic security forces, as well as courts, prosecutors and prisons. The secrets charge has fed speculation that Mr. Zhou used his power over the police and the Ministry of State Security to engage in intrigue among members of the party elite.
Last July, the Communist Party announced it was investigating Mr. Zhou, making him the first member, sitting or retired, of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s inner ring of power, to face formal investigation on corruption allegations. He was arrested in December. In March, the Supreme People’s Court, China’s highest court, said in a report on judicial work that Mr. Zhou and Bo Xilai — a disgraced former Politburo member who was tried and convicted in 2013 — had both “trampled on rule of law, sabotaged party unity and engaged in nonorganization political activities.” The wording suggested that Mr. Zhou and Mr. Bo had, together or separately, engaged in political conspiracy.
Party investigators and prosecutors have not provided details of the accusations against Mr. Zhou. But an investigation by The New York Times found that his relatives had accumulated assets worth at least one billion renminbi, or about $160 million. Last July, the Communist Party announced that it was investigating Mr. Zhou, making him the first member, sitting or retired, of the Politburo Standing Committee to face formal investigation on corruption allegations. He was arrested in December.
Party investigators and prosecutors have not provided details of the accusations against Mr. Zhou. But an investigation by The New York Times found that his relatives had accumulated assets worth at least 1 billion renminbi, or about $160 million.
China’s courts are closely controlled by the Communist Party, and Mr. Zhou has no realistic chance of escaping conviction and a long prison sentence. In March, Zhou Qiang, the president of the Supreme People’s Court, said Mr. Zhou’s trial would be “open in accordance with the law.”
In practice, however, trials of fallen senior Chinese officials have usually been tightly choreographed rituals of denunciation and repentance. But Mr. Bo, the former Politburo member who was tried in August 2013, used the courtroom to mount a combative defense against charges of accepting bribes and abusing power. The announcement about Mr. Zhou’s trial did not say whether he accepted the charges or would fight them.