Chinese court gives Hangzhou Communist Party chief Zhou Jiangyong suspended death sentence for bribery

The corrupt official’s sentence for taking the equivalent of US$25 million in backhanders is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment

The former head of the e-commerce hub is the most senior official in Zhejiang province to be snared by the fight against corruption

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Zhou Jiangyong, former Hangzhou party chief, had been taking bribes for 20 years before he was caught. Photo: Weibo

Published: 8:49pm, 25 Jul 2023Updated: 9:10pm, 25 Jul 2023

A court in China has handed down a suspended death sentence to the former Communist Party boss of the e-commerce hub Hangzhou in a landmark corruption case, state media reported on Tuesday.

Zhou Jiangyong was convicted of accepting bribes worth 182 million yuan (US$25 million) by the Intermediate People’s Court in Chuzhou, in the eastern province of Anhui, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The death sentence is likely to be commuted to a life sentence after a two-year probationary period, while Zhou, 56, was also deprived of political rights for life and had his personal property confiscated.

The bribes he took, as well as the interest they generated, will be recovered and paid to the state treasury, according to the court judgment.

Zhou’s case has drawn much public attention because he is the most senior official in Zhejiang province to be snared by the fight against corruption.

The province – one of the country’s major economic hubs – is a power base of President Xi Jinping, who was party secretary there two decades ago, and has served as a launch pad for the careers of many other senior officials.

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