A Hong Kong businesswoman charged with offering bribes to a Yunnan provincial governor has told a court she only gave him money so he could afford to tip waiters when he came to Hong Kong.
Zou Lijia, owner of Kunming Jiada Real Estate, appeared in the People's Intermediate Court in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, on Wednesday charged with giving the disgraced governor bribes totalling more than 240,000 yuan from 1996 to 2000.
The prosecutors said Zou bribed Li Jiating, who has since been jailed for graft, to help her get government contracts and resolve business disputes with another firm, according to Senhe Xinbao, a Kunming-based newspaper.
Zou admitted she had offered money to the former governor, but said she had acted in good faith. She told the court that Li visited Hong Kong in 1996 but found he could not afford to tip hotel waiters because he did not earn enough on the mainland.
Zou, from Kunming, said she had lost face when she heard of his predicament and offered Li money so he could afford to tip waiters when he visited Hong Kong.
She also later gave Li's wife 100,000 yuan after her father died.
