A FINANCIAL scandal that sent the vice-mayor of Harbin to prison for life has cast a cloud over the city's ninth annual trade fair.
More than 40,000 Chinese visitors and 5,000 foreigners are expected at the six-day China Harbin Economic and Trade Fair which opens tomorrow, with 1,000 small and medium-sized state companies being put up for sale at the same time.
Vice-mayor Zhu Shengwen was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption and embezzlement last month in a case which has damaged the reputation of Heilongjiang.
During his five years as vice-mayor, he took 330,000 yuan (HK$309,000) in bribes and accumulated assets worth 600,000 yuan from what he called 'grey' income, whose source he could not properly explain.
The Zhu affair involves 360 people, 68 criminal cases and 150 top officials. So far, 21 people have been sentenced.
When anti-corruption investigators swooped on Zhu's house, they found 1.8 million yuan, 200,000 yuan worth of foreign currency, 19 cameras, four notebook computers, 29 colour televisions and VCD-players, 77 watches, 33 diamond bracelets, 85 bottles of expensive liquor and more than 100 expensive shirts.