Former adviser and Party chief found guilty of graft

Liu Yuejin, a former national political adviser, pleaded guilty to taking bribes while standing trial in Fuzhou, Fujian province, on Thursday.

Liu was a vice-ministerial level member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, and had previously served as head of the narcotics control bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

According to the Fuzhou prosecutors, from 1992 to 2020, Liu took advantage of his various positions, including as the deputy head of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau's Tanggu branch and head of the ministry's narcotics control bureau, to seek benefits for other individuals and departments in various matters such as business operations and financing, and accepted bribes worth more 121 million yuan ($16.66 million) in return.

With evidence provided during the trial, the prosecutors said that Liu should be held criminally liable for accepting bribes. Liu and his lawyer also shared their opinions on the evidence, and Liu confessed to the crime in his final statement.

The Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court said that the verdict will be announced at a later date.

More than 20 people from various walks of life attended the hearing.

Liu, 66, began his career in 1974 and joined the Communist Party of China in 1977. He had a long tenure in the anti-drug sector and became head of the Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission in May 2015.

He also served as the ministry's commissioner for counter-terrorism from December 2015 to June 2020.

Liu led a special task force to investigate the Mekong River incident in October 2011, in which 13 Chinese crew members aboard two cargo ships were killed by the "Naw Kham Group" in the border area between Myanmar and Thailand.

In March last year, he was investigated on suspicion of seriously violating Party disciplines and national laws.

Separately, Mo Hua, former Party chief of Yulin, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes of over 117 million yuan, a regional court announced on Thursday.

Mo was also deprived of his political rights for life, with all his personal assets confiscated, according to the ruling made by the Hezhou Intermediate People's Court in Guangxi.

The court ordered that his illicit gains and any interest earned from them be turned over to the national treasury.

From 2011 to 2023, Mo was found to have taken advantage of his positions, including as deputy mayor of Laibin and deputy head of the Guangxi regional development and reform commission, to seek benefits for individuals and departments in matters such as project contracting and mining license application approvals, the court said.

In return, he accepted bribes worth more than 117 million yuan, it noted, adding that some of the bribes were not obtained.

"Mo's behavior has constituted the crime of bribe-taking and should be harshly punished, as the amount of the bribes he took was extremely huge," it said.

As he confessed and voluntarily disclosed some acts of bribery that the investigating authorities were not yet aware of, and because some of the bribes were not actually obtained, he avoided a death sentence, it added.

Mo, a 60-year-old native of Guangxi, began his career in 1984 and joined the Communist Party of China in 1989. He spent decades working at various regional departments in Guangxi. In August 2021, he became Party secretary of Yulin city.

Mo was placed under disciplinary and supervisory investigation in March 2023. In January last year, he was expelled from the CPC and removed from public office.

The court heard the public case in April.