Chapter 10 "Henan's No. 1 Corrupt" Selling Officials

On December 20, 2006, Wang Youjie, known as the "No. 1 Corrupt in Henan," appeared in Court No. 1 of Jingzhou Intermediate People's Court, Hubei Province. The 65-year-old Wang Youjie served as a provincial leader in Henan Province for a full ten years. At around 9 a.m. on the day of the trial, 65-year-old Wang Youjie was escorted by two bailiffs and appeared in the dock.According to the Jingzhou People's Procuratorate, Wang Youjie was suspected of accepting 6.34 million yuan in bribes, and another 7.56 million yuan in property was unknown.The span of the incident involved his time as secretary of the Luohe Municipal Party Committee in Henan Province, member of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee, and deputy director of the Provincial People's Congress.

Wang Youjie, from the official to the deputy ministerial level, is the highest official in Henan Province who has been sacked due to economic problems since the founding of the People's Republic of China.Since he was "double-regulated" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection at the end of March 2005, Wang Youjie disappeared from the public for a year and nine months. According to the prosecution's indictment, Wang Youjie was detained by the Beijing police on September 17 on suspicion of accepting bribes. After approval by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Beijing police arrested him on September 28. On April 30, 2006, the Wang Youjie case was designated to be tried in Jingzhou, Hubei.

From March 28 to 31, 2005, the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth Henan Provincial People's Congress was held.As one of the highest-level local meetings, Wang Youjie, then executive deputy director of the Provincial People's Congress, naturally couldn't be absent. The strange thing is that Wang Youjie’s name was included in the list of leaders of the Standing Committee that was published in the newspaper on March 28, after Xu Guangchun, Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, but when the meeting closed on the 31st, the official Wang Youjie's name no longer appears in news reports, and the order of the other deputy directors of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress has not changed.

It was between March 28th and 31st that Wang Youjie was "double-regulated" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. "It was an afternoon, and the cadres above the middle level were notified to hold a meeting in a small conference room. In fact, everyone guessed it in their hearts at the time, and many people knew it. The meeting was very brief. The deputy secretary of the provincial party committee, Zhi Shuping, announced that Wang Youjie Comrades have been 'double-guided' because of their alleged economic problems," said an official of the Henan provincial government.

On the day of the announcement, Wang Youjie was immediately taken away from Zhengzhou and taken to Beijing. Regarding the investigation of Wang Youjie, an official said: "At first I heard it was very sudden, but soon I didn't feel it anymore. The first feeling was 'something happened after all'." It's been a year or two, so I'm mentally prepared.Especially after Wang Youjie's son was controlled by relevant departments at the end of 2004, such rumors became more serious in the society. According to a Zhengzhou political reporter, during the "two sessions" of Henan Province at the time of the incident, Wang Youjie, the executive deputy director of the National People's Congress, kept a gloomy face and said nothing from the beginning to the end. "I thought it was very strange at the time, but it wasn't until he was 'shuanggui' that I realized it."

It is understood that before Wang Youjie was "shuanggui", his son, daughter, son-in-law, and wife were "shuanggui" or investigated by relevant departments successively, which was called "the whole family was wiped out". Wang Youjie was defended by Beijing lawyer Xu Jiutian. According to him, Wang Youjie's case was initiated because of an accident with his son Wang Kai. Wang Kai, who is still in custody in Baoding, Hebei, will be under investigation soon. In the real estate industry in Zhengzhou, Wang Kai's name can be described as thunderous.What he is most proud of is the acquisition of Zhengzhou Yuda International Trade Building, which is known as "the tallest building in Zhengzhou" and "the fourth skyscraper in China".Wang Kai serves as the director of Hong Kong Zhaoze Investment Company. This company with a registered capital of only 50,000 Hong Kong dollars acquired 100% of Henan Yuda Real Estate Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 246 million yuan in November 1999.Henan Yuda Real Estate Co., Ltd. was founded in September 1993. It is the owner of Zhengzhou Yuda International Trade Building. The company claims to have total assets of 2.1 billion yuan.According to the analysis of people familiar with the matter, Wang Youjie may secretly help his son acquire Henan Yuda Real Estate Co., Ltd. and benefit a lot from it.

When Wang Youjie was on trial, the prosecution also explained that Wang Kai used his father's authority to forcefully intervene in the Zhengzhou real estate market.According to the indictment, from the end of 1997 to February 1999, after Wang Youjie helped Henan Qiankun Real Estate Company obtain the right to use 45 acres of state-owned land in the south of Zhengzhou Linke Road and the east of Jingyi Road, Wang Kai took over Henan Qiankun Real Estate’s Li Zhengqian, the chairman of the company, returned 1 million yuan in cash. In Zhengzhou, Henan Qiankun Real Estate Company is a well-known real estate developer, but since June 2006, several real estate projects of this company have been delayed.Chairman Li Zhengqian is also under investigation for the Wang Youjie case.

At the end of 2004, Wang Kai was investigated due to major economic problems.As a high-ranking official, Wang Youjie was ready to help his son.Hu Jianjun, who claimed to be the godson of a certain old general, met Wang Youjie through a man named Zhao Chuan. Hu Jianjun bragged so much that he won Wang Youjie's trust. He gave Hu Jianjun millions of dollars to operate, trying to smooth over the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and other high-level officials. mechanism. But Hu Jianjun's scam failed, and he himself was imprisoned. On March 15, 2006, Hu Jianjun and Zhao Chuan were prosecuted by the Sanmenxia City Procuratorate in Henan Province. Among them, Hu Jianjun was suspected of fraud and Zhao Chuan was suspected of introducing bribes.

According to the truth later found out by the prosecution, Hu Jianjun was just a gangster. He was born in Runan County, Henan Province in 1956. He used to be a farmer, and then went to Beijing to find a job. In 1995, he met some people in the military when he was working in a military magazine. 46 years in the party and 45 years of service, this is a good capital, but Wang Youjie obviously failed to use it well. Wang Youjie was born in May 1941. He spent his youth in Guxian Village, Fengzhuang Township, Huojia County, Xinxiang City, Henan Province.This is a small village more than 20 kilometers away from the county seat. There are more than 2,000 people in the village, 90% of whom are surnamed Wang.

According to the person in charge of the village committee, among the three brothers Wang Youjie, the eldest, Wang Youjun, participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.The younger brother is the director of the People's Congress of Huojia County. 70-year-old Wang Tianyin is a fellow villager of Wang Youjie and an alumni of Huojia No. 1 Middle School.According to him, at that time, only Wang Youjie and him were admitted to Huojia No. 1 Middle School in Guxian Village.In his impression, Wang Youjie was excellent in character and academics in middle school, never fought with classmates, and was a cadre in the class.During high school, Wang Youjie had served as the secretary of the school's Youth League branch and joined the party.

Wang Youjie, who was in high school, was one of the two national advanced militia representatives in Huojia County, and went to Beijing to accept the commendation from the Central Military Commission. In July 1961, Wang Youjie was escorted to Harbin Military Engineering Institute. "What kind of school is Harbin Military Industry? When you come out, you will be an official." Wang Tianyin said.At that time, those recommended were all people with strong ideas, good studies, and good health, and they also had good family backgrounds.As for these things, Wang Youjie, who is rooted in Miaohong, is not bad. In fact, during his studies at the Harbin Military Engineering Institute, Wang Youjie accumulated a lot of military contacts, which became the capital for his continuous promotion. After graduating in 1967, Wang Youjie entered the 26th Group Army of the Army in Shandong for training. So far, he has only studied and worked in Heilongjiang and Shandong in his life. He never left his hometown after returning to Henan in 1969. In Luoyang, Henan Province, 25-year-old Wang Youjie worked as an aviation technician in the 612th Research Institute of the Ministry of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Luoyang, and gradually became an engineer, deputy section chief, and director (division level) of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the institute. It is said that after Wang Youjie took office in Luohe, he continued to respect the old leader who had the kindness of knowing him.One year, Tian Weiliang, the old secretary of the institute, went to visit Nanjie Village. Wang Youjie's police car cleared the way and received the whole process. In May 1983, Wang Youjie became a member of the Standing Committee of the Luoyang Municipal Party Committee and Minister of Propaganda, equivalent to the deputy department level, and was later promoted to deputy secretary of the Luoyang Municipal Party Committee. In June 1990, Wang Youjie was transferred to Luohe as the deputy secretary of the municipal party committee, and was promoted to mayor, secretary of the municipal party committee and director of the National People's Congress all the way.After Wang Youjie came to power for the first time, the sudden power became a demon that he could not control himself. "He's going to have an accident sooner or later." In the view of Luohe people, Wang Youjie's fall just confirmed their long-standing view.The sale of Lantian Hotel, investment in Wangdian Overpass and Cheng Sanchang's escape are the main events that support this view. From June 1990 to December 1995, Wang Youjie successively served as deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, acting mayor, mayor and secretary of the Municipal Party Committee in Luohe.In Luohe for more than five years, the "inland special zone" can be regarded as Wang Youjie's main political capital. During the wave of reforms in 1992, Luohe, a small city located in the Central Plains with a population of only 400,000, was designated by Henan Province as the only "inland special zone".In order to achieve the grand goal of "turning Luohe into Zhuhai after three to five years of hard work", the people in Luohe City were mobilized, and everyone was asked to attract foreign investment. "The city leaders have announced on many occasions that whoever introduces 10 million yuan of funds will give them 1 million yuan. As the main evaluation index of political performance, all units have a share." A Luohe citizen still remembers the scene of that year still fresh. As the founder of "Luohe Inland Special Zone", Wang Youjie is not only a person who shouts slogans and creates an atmosphere, but also a practitioner. "Why do you have weekends? Just to let you do business. The secretary of the municipal party committee like me can also go to the market to do business." The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection verified that Wang Youjie received the first bribe when he was the Secretary of the Luohe Municipal Party Committee in 1994.According to the indictment, from August 1994 to the end of 1995, Wang Youjie received 720,000 yuan in bribes five times from Bao Yijun, chairman of Henan Hongji Housing Co., Ltd., who bought the Blue Sky Hotel owned by the Luohe Municipal Government at a low price. Bao Yijun from Luoyang met Wang Youjie in 1985, and his investment in Luohe was the result of Wang Youjie's "investment".As the reception desk of the city's four major teams, the land and real estate owned by the Blue Sky Hotel are worth nearly 100 million yuan, while Bao Yijun only took over the offer for 27 million yuan. In December 1995, Wang Youjie became the secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee and became a member of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial Party Committee. He is already a deputy ministerial official.It is said that Wang Youjie was promoted because of his bold reforms and outstanding political achievements.But in the eyes of ordinary people in Luohe, the so-called "inland special zone" is nothing but a mess full of holes and a false name. A retired veteran cadre in Luohe recalled that when Wang Youjie was promoted, relevant leaders of the provincial party committee at the time asked for his opinion.Second, Wang Youjie was suspected of prostitution. Although the corruption had been revealed when Wang was secretary of the Luohe Municipal Party Committee, this did not stop Wang Youjie from being promoted. In February 2001, Wang Youjie, then secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee, concurrently served as deputy director of the Henan Provincial People's Congress. In January 2003, he became the executive deputy director of the Provincial People's Congress, presiding over the daily work of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial People's Congress. Since then, the reasons why Wang Youjie accepts bribes have changed a lot.According to the news from the procuratorate, "making profits" and "eliminating disasters" for private business owners became the channel for Wang Youjie to obtain ill-gotten gains during this period. The indictment of the Jingzhou People's Procuratorate shows that Wang Youjie has a deep relationship with Henan Gaoxin Metal Mining Co., Ltd., and their relationship and illegal transactions lasted from January 1996 to November 1999.During this period, through the operation of Wang Youjie, the company successfully obtained a loan of 5 million yuan from the bank, and gained 9.12 million yuan in the reduction of land acquisition and construction costs; 1.5 million yuan was recovered.In return, Gao Fudong, chairman of the company, provided Wang Youjie with a total of 640,000 yuan in cash remuneration several times. Another boss who has a particularly close relationship with Wang Youjie is Li Rongkun, chairman of Henan Yinji Real Estate Company.This relationship lasted from June 1996 to February 2001. During this period, Li Rongkun was wanted by the Public Security Bureau of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province on suspicion of fraud.Because of Wang's outstanding face, Li Rongkun not only survived the danger, but also like a fish in water.Wang Youjie also received a reward of 1,006,780 yuan from Li Rongkun. Another illegal income channel for Wang Youjie comes from "adding officials and promoting titles" for others.Buying and selling officials in officialdom is naturally the biggest political corruption.The indictment of the Jingzhou City Procuratorate stated that from the second half of 1997 to the end of 2003, Wang Youjie helped Jiang Chao, the director of the Dengfeng City Construction Committee, be promoted to the deputy director of the Zhengzhou Public Utilities Bureau. During this period, Jiang Chao bribed Wang Youjie 42 times 10 times. ten thousand yuan. The details related to the Jiang Chao case are that Wang Youjie helped Feng Rongchun and his wife transfer to work in the Zhengzhou Water Supply Corporation, and they worked twice, making Feng Rongchun the executive manager of the two companies.From February 2002 to September 2003, after working closely with Jiang Chao, Wang Youjie undertook a project costing more than 17 million yuan for Feng Rongchun.According to the indictment, Feng Rongchun bribed Wang Youjie 13 times, with a total amount of 1.46 million yuan, making him one of the biggest bribers in the Wang Youjie case. Naturally, Feng Rongchun and Jiang Chao were not spared either.According to the report of the Zhengzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, Jiang Chao and Feng Rongchun were arrested as early as June 2006 for the bribery case.The amount of money involved by the two was as high as 2.62 million yuan. After both were expelled from the party and public office, they have been transferred to the judiciary for criminal responsibility. In the list of bribes in the Wang Youjie case, Li Zhizhou also stands out.According to his personal history, Li Zhizhou successively served as Secretary of the Zhongmu County Party Committee, Deputy Mayor of Nanyang City, Secretary General of the Municipal Party Committee, and Organization Director. This successive promotion lasted from 1998 to 2005, thanks to Wang Youjie’s strong support. Double regulation” review.After verification, a total of 14 bribes of more than 1.08 million yuan were paid to Wang. Except for Wang Youjie himself, almost all his family members were involved in the case.According to the public indictment of the procuratorate, the property of Wang Youjie's family was as high as 21.93 million yuan, 491,800 yuan of which was deducted from the legal income obtained through conversion, including more than 6 million yuan in gifts, all of which have been confiscated. At 8:30 on December 20, the court hearing, it was the Jingzhou Intermediate People's Court's working hours.A number of bailiffs wearing white gloves stood at the gate of the court, watching the police cars rushing in earnestly. At 8:40, a prison car with dark glass among several police cars drove into the court. An employee of the court told reporters: "This is the highest-level official tried by our Jingzhou Intermediate People's Court." More than 100 observers from the procuratorate and the Hubei political and legal system. 65-year-old Wang Youjie is slightly bald, dressed in a blue-gray padded jacket, with a calm demeanor and a loud voice when speaking.He has served as a provincial leader in Henan for ten years, and he still retains his usual leadership style during the trial. During the trial, when the first lawyer ended his defense for the defendant, Wang Youjie suddenly said: "I admire your judicial education and thank you for your defense." Then he asked the lawyer to stop defending him and complained to the court He said that he accepted all the charges of the prosecution and listened to the court's judgment. According to Wang Youjie's self-report in court, a lot of money he received belonged to "no way".For the money he received, he also tried to use the three methods of refusing, turning in, and donating, but they were all unsuccessful.For example, the source of the handover must be explained, which is tantamount to betraying a friend; the donation must also be accounted for, and it cannot solve the problem of his personal identity. For example, Wang Youjie said that Zhou Jianqiu, the former deputy mayor of Zhengzhou City who was in charge of urban construction, once bribed him with 350,000 yuan. When Wang failed to refund the money in person, he put the money in Zhou Jianqiu's driver's car.But since then, Wang Youjie and Zhou Jianqiu have become political rivals. According to the prosecution's allegations, Wang Youjie received a total of 54 bribes from business owners and subordinate officials, of which 45 occurred during the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, and 12 were collected through his wife Li Fengying.Li Fengying was a doctor in Luoyang Central Hospital (now Luoyang Second Hospital) in the early days. Since Wang Youjie entered the official career as Luoyang Propaganda Minister, he has been "promoted" step by step, and finally retired as secretary of the postgraduate office of Henan Medical University. . But Li Fengying was not prosecuted. On the day of the trial, she and four other relatives appeared in the auditorium of the trial.During the nearly four-hour trial, Wang Youjie never looked back at his family members, but said many times: "I'm sorry for my wife, I'm sorry for my family." What deserves people's attention is that in less than a month at the end of 2006, two senior officials at the vice-ministerial level, Wang Youjie and Wang Zhaoyao (former deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee), were tried in Jingzhou, Hubei, and Jinan, Shandong, respectively.In the face of high-level official corruption, the Supreme Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have already established a set of institutionalized response models - the remote trial system. This mode of trial is: First, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection will investigate and deal with it, and then hand it over to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.The two city-level procuratorates of Jingzhou City and Jinan City only cooperated, and the intermediate people's courts participating in the trial were all appointed by the Supreme People's Court. "In order to eliminate interference, higher courts can designate lower courts to have jurisdiction over cases," said Hu Yunteng, deputy director of the Supreme Court Research Office.Both the Criminal Procedure Law and the judicial interpretations of the Supreme Law have provisions on designated jurisdiction. Shao Daosheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a special researcher at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, believes: "The local government used to listen to the central government and implement orders and prohibitions. But now that the power of the local government has increased and the autonomy has increased, the central government's orders are sometimes difficult to implement. Local protectionism Prevailing. Trials in different places cost a lot of money, but it is a last resort.” Although there are still some practical difficulties, and some areas and links still need to be continuously coordinated and improved, judges, prosecutors, and lawyers all believe that trial in different places is currently an effective judicial model for dealing with high-level official corruption. (Text/Cui Xinyang) On January 19, 2007, the Intermediate People's Court of Jingzhou City, Hubei Province sentenced Wang Youjie to death for accepting bribes, with a two-year reprieve, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property; In 1999, he was punished for several crimes and decided to execute the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property. During Wang Youjie's tenure as a member of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee, he had no scruples about selling officials and accepting money by any means.His tetralogy of selling officials is widely circulated: if you give 300,000 yuan, he will say "hmm", which means that your request will be considered; if you give 500,000 yuan, he will say "oh", which means that you will definitely get the official you want; If you get 800,000 yuan, he will say "Hey", which means that the result is better than you expected; if you send 1 million yuan, he will say "Yo" in amazement, and take the initiative to take a look at you, which means that you can choose whatever you want within the scope of my authority. Wanted officer. Wang Youjie endowed these modal particles without actual content with new connotations. He judged and awarded officials by price, vividly showing his demeanor and greedy face.