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DATE=7/31/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-CORRUPTION (L)
NUMBER=2-264961
BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  China has sentenced a senior official to death 
for taking bribes.  If the sentence is upheld, Cheng 
Kejie will be the highest-level Chinese Communist 
Party official ever to be executed for corruption.  
VOA's Leta Hong Fincher has this report from Beijing.
TEXT:  China's state-run Xinhua news agency says the 
senior official, Cheng Kejie, has been sentenced to 
death for taking almost five million dollars in 
bribes.  Mr. Cheng was the former Vice Chairman of the 
Standing Committee of China's parliament, the National 
People's Congress.  A Beijing court convicted him on 
Monday of accepting the bribes with his mistress, when 
he was chairman of the government of Guangxi province 
in southwest China, an area teeming with smuggling and 
drug activity.  
Mr. Cheng has 10 days to appeal the sentence, but the 
Xinhua news agency did not say if he would do so.  
China's Communist Party has been leading a campaign 
against corruption within its ranks for the last 
several years. Mr. Cheng is the 
highest level target since Beijing's top leader Chen 
Xitong was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 1998.  
The government hopes that prosecuting such powerful 
officials will send a message to its people that no 
one is above the law when it comes to corruption.
Cheng Kejie headed the government of Guangxi from 1990 
to 1998, when he left the region to take up his 
position in the National People's Congress. 
The Chinese government first revealed that Mr. Cheng 
was under investigation in March, when officials said 
he would not be taking part in
the annual legislative session.(signed)
NEB/HK/LHF/JO
31-Jul-2000 00:50 AM EDT (31-Jul-2000 0450 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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