China jails ex-chairman of auto giant FAW for bribery

BEIJING (AFP) -

The former chairman of Chinese auto giant FAW was jailed Thursday for taking more than a million dollars in bribes, in the latest penalty meted out to a top executive of a

state-owned firm.

Xu Jianyi was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for taking more than 12 million yuan ($1.75 million) in exchange for assisting "the business operations and promotion and relocation" of others, a Beijing court said.

The graft happened from 2000 to 2013, the First Intermediate People's Court said in a brief statement posted on its official social media account, without providing further details.

FAW, originally known as First Automotive Works, is China's third biggest automaker with sales of more than three million vehicles last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Headquartered in Changchun city in the northeastern province of Jilin, FAW has a passenger car joint venture with Volkswagen that produces the German automaker's Audi brand, among others.

Besides a long career in the auto industry, Xu, now 63, also held government and party posts in Jilin, according to a biography posted on a Chinese government website.

Shi Tao, a former executive of the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture, was jailed for life in 2015 for taking bribes, state media reported at the time.

In January Wang Tianpu, ex-president of state-run energy giant Sinopec, was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison for corruption.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a much-publicised drive against corruption after he came to power five years ago, vowing to target both high-level "tigers" and low-ranking "flies".

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

Furthermore analysts say China has failed to implement institutional safeguards against corruption, including an independent judiciary and free media.

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