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Jun Mai

In a shocking televised confession a Chinese Supreme Court judge has appeared on state television and said that he was behind the mysterious loss of legal documents in a long-running contract dispute.
An official investigation into the missing documents named Wang Linqing – who was first to blow the whistle on their disappearance – as the culprit.
Wang, who wore a white shirt and coat in his appearance on CCTV, said he had taken the documents in anger.
“The reason I took them home was to stop other [judges] working on [the case],” Wang said, adding that he did not want other judges to share the credit of the case, which he thought was a significant one.

“I took them away to vent my anger, and also to stop others working on it,” he said.
Wang, 45, made national headlines as the whistle-blower who exposed the disappearance of the legal documents from his office inside the walled compound of the court.
The papers, which vanished in late 2016, detailed a contract dispute between private firm Kechley Energy Investment, headed by businessman Zhao Faqi, and the state-owned Xian Institute of Geological and Mineral Exploration.
Zhao launched legal action over ownership of a mine in Shaanxi province in northwest China in 2006, eventually winning his case in the Supreme People’s Court in 2017.
But one year after the final ruling, it has not been implemented.
China’s supreme court forced to admit it lost documents in long-running contract dispute
The case only came to light in late December after a series of posts on microblogging platform Weibo by prominent former television host Cui Yongyuan and a leaked video of Wang.
In the video, Wang claimed two closed-circuit TV cameras in his office were sabotaged, at around the time the documents had gone.
The case caused a huge outcry in China, at a time when the country’s top state leaders, including President Xi Jinping, were repeatedly trying to shore up confidence in the hard-hit private sector.
Questions were raised among the online community whether the loss of the documents was a result of corruption and interference in the case.
Last month Chinese authorities set up a top level joint task force to look into the case.

In an open letter filed on Monday, and confirmed by the ﻿South China Morning Post, Zhao Faqi, the businessman involved in the case, accused the court’s top judge, Zhou Qiang, of putting pressure on the case against Zhao.
But the top level investigation disagreed, concluding that Zhou’s supervision of the case had been correct. The investigation found Wang had hidden the documents.
The TV host taking on the rich, famous and powerful in China
According to the CCTV report on Friday, Wang will face charges of illegally obtaining and leaking state secrets. The news broadcast did not specify which parts of Wang’s accusation and public statements were state secrets, a charge which can often be presented in vague terms.
During the investigation Wang had heavily limited access to the outside world for the past few weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter.


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Shock confession of China’s whistle-blower judge Wang Linqing: It was me

Chinese Supreme Court Judge Wang Linqing during his shock appearance state-run television CCTV where he confessed to being behind the disappearance of court documents. Photo: CCTV

Screen grab from CCTV program on Zhao Faqi. Undated. Source: CCTV

This photo taken on March 7, 2017 shows Chinese television host and producer Cui Yongyuan posing at his workshop in Beijing. Empty talk, self-censorship, brain-dead conformity -- that's outspoken delegate Cui Yongyuan's assessment of China's national parliament, celebrated by the Communist Party as empowering the people but which he calls a big waste of time. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR

China’s supreme court forced to admit it lost documents in long-running contract dispute

Cui Yongyuan reported the disappearance of the documents in a series of blog posts last week. Photo: AFP

The Chinese Supreme People's Court building in Beijing, 30 March 2006. China's courts sentenced 10 percent more people to prison in 2005 compared to the previous year, locking up a total of 844,717 people, while nearly 40 percent of the defendants were convicted of serious crimes, including setting off explosions, committing murder, armed robbery, rape and kidnapping. AFP PHOTO (Photo by STR / AFP)

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Investigation into missing Supreme Court documents finds judge who exposed their disappearance to blame
Wang takes responsibility in state television appearance


Investigation into missing Supreme Court documents finds judge who exposed their disappearance to blame.


Shock confession of China’s whistle-blower judge Wang Linqing: It was me

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Investigation into missing Supreme Court documents finds judge who exposed their disappearance to blame Wang takes responsibility in state television appearance

Investigation into missing Supreme Court documents finds judge who exposed their disappearance to blame

Wang takes responsibility in state television appearance