Canadian singer Wanting Qu shares claim that US$54 million Chinese corruption charge against mother is withdrawn
- Weibo post written in the name of Qu’s aunt demanded justice for Zhang Mingjie, a former Harbin official who has spent more than six years in Chinese detention
- Another post said interrogators made Zhang confess by threatening the reputation of Qu, ex-girlfriend of long-time Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson
But Zhang Mingjie, 65, remains in detention with her fate unclear more than six years after the accusations emerged. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty at Zhang’s original 2016 trial, but she has not been convicted.
Qu, 36, who first found fame as a pop singer, then as the de facto first lady of Vancouver when she was the girlfriend of then-mayor Gregor Robertson, expressed confidence in the handling of the case by the “perfect and righteous” Chinese justice system in 2018.
But last September, she decried on Weibo that there was “still no result” on the anniversary of her mother’s arrest, and she was “trying to keep faith in justice”. That prompted a fierce backlash on Chinese social media, and a rebuke for Qu in a commentary by China’s anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Last Wednesday, Qu shared a Weibo post written in the name of her 78-year-old aunt, Zhang Mingkun, that claimed her sister’s embezzlement charge had been withdrawn at a second hearing on March 12, 2019.