Former governor of Guizhou prosecuted for bribery

Sun Zhigang, former Party secretary of Guizhou province and deputy head of the National People’s Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, has been prosecuted for taking suspected bribery, the country’s top procuratorate said on Wednesday.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate disclosed the information on its official website, noting that it named the second branch of the Tianjin People’s Procuratorate to deal with Sun’s case after China’s top anti-corruption authorities completed the disciplinary and supervisory investigation on him.

The Tianjin prosecutors have recently brought the indictment to the city’s No 2 Intermediate People’s Court, the SPP added.

According to the indictment, Sun was found to have taken advantage of his various work posts, including vice-governor of Anhui province, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission and governor of Guizhou, to seek profits for others, and then accepted huge amounts of bribes in return, so he should be held criminally liable for bribery.

In August, Sun was placed under the investigation on suspicion of seriously violating the Party’s disciplines and the law.

In February this year, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China. Soon after, he was arrested for alleged bribery-taking.

Sun, 70, a native of Henan province, started his first job in 1971 and joined the CPC in 1976. He worked in Hubei province from 1985 to September 2006, and then went to Anhui.

In 2015, he was appointed governor of Guizhou. Two years later, he became the Party secretary of the province, a role he held until the end of 2020. Then, he served as the deputy head of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.