Former top graft-buster at Chinese spy agency to face court on bribery charges

Liu Yanping accused of accepting ‘particularly huge’ amounts of property from others in return for favours
Separately, former top judge Shen Deyong has been placed under formal arrest ‘on suspicion of taking bribes’

China’s 20th Party Congress

William Zheng

Published: 8:47pm, 28 Sep 2022

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A former anti-corruption chief at China’s spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, was indicted for bribery on Wednesday, the top prosecutor’s office said.

The National Supervisory Commission has finished its investigation of Liu Yanping, 67, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) statement. Liu, who was detained in March, was a committee director under the ministry’s branch of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Separately, the top prosecutor’s office also announced that a corruption investigation into Shen Deyong, 68, had concluded. It said the former executive vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court had been placed under formal arrest “on suspicion of taking bribes”.

Former top judge Shen Deyong has been placed under formal arrest. Photo: Weibo

The announcements come just weeks before the ruling Communist Party holds its national congress, when President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third term.

Xi has pushed a sweeping anti-corruption campaign since he came to power in 2012, with law enforcement a key focus. Many disgraced former security chiefs have been accused of disloyalty to Xi – including Liu and Shen – and convicted on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

The top prosecutor’s office said Liu had accepted “particularly huge” amounts of property from others in return for favours. It said his corruption began when he was deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Central Guard Bureau – a unit tasked with protecting the party’s top leaders – and that it continued until he was removed as head of the graft-buster at the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

It said the case had been transferred to prosecutors in Changchun, Jilin province, for review and prosecution and they had filed the case with the city’s Intermediate People’s Court.

According to Liu’s official profile, he was appointed as head of the Central Guard Bureau in 2009, then promoted to public security vice-minister in 2013. Two years later he took over as the anti-corruption chief of the MSS.

He will be the last of the officials implicated in the corruption case of former public security vice-minister Sun Lijun to face trial. Others accused by the CCDI of being part of Sun’s “political clique” include former justice minister and deputy public security minister Fu Zhenghua, former Jiangsu security chief Wang Like, former Shanghai police chief Gong Daoan, former Chongqing police chief Deng Huilin, and former Shanxi police chief Liu Xinyun.

Last week, Sun, Fu, Wang and Gong were all jailed for life for taking bribes. Deng was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Liu Xinyun was jailed for 14 years, also for accepting bribes.

Shen, the former top judge, was detained by the CCDI in March on suspicion of “serious violation of law and discipline” – a euphemism for corruption. He was expelled from the party and stripped of his official titles earlier this month. The corruption watchdog said Shen had allowed his relatives and staff to act as “judicial brokers” and used his power for personal gain.

Shen became vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court in 1998. He made a name for himself in Shanghai as the city’s disciplinary chief where he was in charge of the high-profile corruption case of former mayor Chen Liangyu in 2006. He became executive vice-president of the supreme court in 2008.

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