Former Top Assets Banker Lai Xiaomin Executed In China

Photo courtesy: The Indian Express

China has executed top former assets banker, Lai Xiaomin. Chinese CCTV media said Xiaomin was executed just weeks after being sentenced to death for taking extremely large bribes as well as for bigamy although it did not state how the banker was executed in the northern city of Tianjin, The Indian Express (TIE) reported.

The crime

As former chairman of Huarong, a state-controlled asset management firm created in the 1990s, he was accused of amassing or seeking to collect 1.79 billion yuan ($260 million, €215 million) over a decade for favours, including promotions.

At a sentencing hearing in early January, CCTV had shown footage of Beijing apartment safes and cabinets stuffed with cash and Lai making a purported confession, saying, “I did not dare to spend it.” He was stripped of his post in 2018 and was also found guilty of bigamy for living with a woman outside his marriage, the report added.

The punishment

Under an anti-corruption drive begun by President Xi Jinping, only one other high-ranking official has been executed in recent times — Zhao Liping, for homicide in 2016.

Three other senior Communist Party members facing death sentences were subsequently given reprieves.

China ‘world’s top executioner’

Amnesty International ranks China “among the world’s top executioners,” saying death sentences, enacted often in secrecy, run each year into the “thousands” “more than all other countries in the world put together.”

Despite claims by China of progress towards judicial transparency, most death penalty information is classified as “state secrets,” the report added quoting Amnesty.

Chinese courts have a conviction rate of over 99%.