August
9 , 2000
AP
News
Beijing
-- The mistress of a senior Chinese official was sentenced
Wednesday to life in prison in a highly publicized corruption
case that already has brought a death sentence for the
official, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Li Ping was convicted by a Beijing court of smuggling and
helping to collect bribes totaling $4.9 million, Xinhua said.
The
agency said she was the mistress of Cheng Kejie, former deputy
chairman of China's national legislature. Cheng, 66, is the
highest-ranking official sentenced to death so far in an
antigraft crackdown meant to restore the Communist Party's
battered public image.
He was sentenced July 31 on
charges that he abused his former position as head of the
southern region of Guangxi in 1990-98 to amass a fortune
intended to finance his hoped-for marriage to Li.
According to state media,
Cheng pressured state banks to approve loans and took
kickbacks on a range of projects. Guangxi, a poor, coastal
region, is a haven for smugglers.
Li also was fined $48,000 and
the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court stripped her of
assets totaling $3.4 million, according to Xinhua.
Li, described as a
businesswoman, was shown on state-run television sitting in
court with eyes downcast as a judge read her sentence.
Beside her was Zhang Jinghai,
a Hong Kong businessman who helped the couple deposit their
illegal earnings in Hong Kong. Zhang was sentenced to five
years in prison for his role, the television report said.
Li and Cheng struck a deal in
which they would divorce their spouses and get married,
meanwhile making money using Cheng's political connections,
Xinhua reported.
Thousands of officials accused
of abuses have been fired, fined, imprisoned, expelled from
the party and in some cases executed. When Cheng's arrest was
announced in April, a party spokesman blamed the
"temptations of women and money.''
Cheng's former deputy in
Guangxi was sentenced last August to life in prison for taking
bribes.
