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China jails ex-chairman of FAW auto giant for bribery

Xu Jianyi, former head of the China FAW Group Corp

A Chinese court has handed down a hefty prison sentence to the former head of a state-owned automotive manufacturing company convicted of graft.

Xu Jianyi, former head of the China FAW Group Corp, was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for taking more than 1.75 million dollars in bribes from 2000 to 2013, the First Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing said in a brief statement on Thursday.

FAW, headquartered in Changchun City in the northeastern province of Jilin, was originally known as the First Automotive Works.

The firm is one of China’s largest automakers with sales of more than three million vehicles last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

FAW also has a passenger car joint venture with Volkswagen that produces the German automaker’s Audi brand, among others.

Xu Jianyi, ex-president of China’s FAW group (L), and Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn (R) shake hands after signing an agreement as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao look on at the Volkswagen factory on April 23, 2012 in Wolfsburg. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is the secretary general of the ruling Communist Party, has launched a campaign against corruption in state institutions since he rose to power five years ago, vowing to target both high-level “tigers” and low-ranking “flies.”

The Communist Party’s anti-graft committee said in 2015 that it planned to probe all major state-owned enterprises to root out corruption, but critics say a lack of transparency on the purge raises concerns that it could be used by Xi to eliminate political enemies.

On March 15, 2015, Xu Jianyi, who’s also a former politician and entrepreneur, was placed under investigation by the Communist Party’s anti-corruption agency.

Another former executive of the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture, Shi Tao, was jailed for life in 2015 for taking bribes.


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