CHINA: Father of China's high-speed rail network handed suspended death sentence for corruption

Record ID: 559582

  • Title: CHINA: Father of China's high-speed rail network handed suspended death sentence for corruption
  • Date: 17th October 2014
  • Summary: WENZHOU, ZHEJIANG, CHINA (JULY 24, 2011) (REUTERS) WRECKAGE OF HIGH SPEED TRAIN PARTIALLY HANGING OFF BRIDGE PEOPLE STANDING IN FRONT OF SMASHED CARRIAGE ON GROUND RESCUE WORKERS WALKING TOWARDS TRAIN TRAIN HANGING OFF BRIDGE TRAIN WRECKAGE ON BRIDGE
  • Embargoed: 1st November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA9HEZFN2P4BJ3J5VEE0BKCNUTH
  • Story Text: The engineer credited with designing China's high-speed rail network received a suspended death sentence on Friday (October 17) after a Beijing court found him guilty of taking 47.6 million yuan ($7.8 million) in bribes.
    Zhang Shuguang, former deputy chief engineer and transportation bureau head of China's now-defunct Ministry of Railways, was charged in September last year with accepting bribes mostly from private Chinese firms vying to win contracts over an eleven-year period.
    State broadcaster CCTV showed Zhang standing in court flanked by two police officers, listening as the judge read out a statement.
    Zhang was given a death sentence suspended for two years, the official Xinhua news agency said. Suspended death sentences are typically commuted to life sentences after a period of good behaviour.
    Most of the money which Zhang took in bribes had been recovered, Xinhua said.
    According to a transcript of the court proceedings, Zhang, who apologised for his actions, said in his defence that he also negotiated hard with Chinese firms in the national interest to lower the costs of building the network.
    His deputy at the transport bureau, Su Shunhu, was sentenced separately on Friday by a Beijing court to life in prison for taking 24 million yuan in bribes, CCTV reported.
    China's railway ministry was dismantled two years after two high-speed trains crashed in 2011, killing 40 people. The incident prompted further anti-corruption investigations of the ministry and several officials were charged with abuse of power.
    China, whose high speed rail network of more than 10, 000 kilometres (6,200 miles) is the world's longest, has striven to repair the sector's reputation in the wake of the crash, as it aims to promote and sell its high-speed technology abroad. It has also promised to open up the sector to private-sector investment.
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