Zhang Zhongsheng (centre) can still appeal the sentence, and the death penalty must be approved by the supreme court in Beijing. Photo: Weibo</s>A former vice-mayor of a poverty-stricken city in the coal-rich province of Shanxi was on Wednesday sentenced to death, without reprieve, for accepting over one billion yuan in bribes (US$160 million).

The sentencing of Zhang Zhongsheng – known for his splendid hilltop mansions and dubbed the “godfather” because of his influence and power in the city of Luliang – was an unusually harsh punishment for economic crimes, even since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and started an unprecedented crackdown on corruption.

Zhang can still appeal the sentence handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court of Linfen, and the death penalty must be approved by the supreme court in Beijing.

In sentencing, the court said Zhang had shown “extreme” greed in taking bribes, according to Xinhua.

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Shanxi, in the north, was targeted by Xi’s anti-graft campaign in 2013, described as one of the country’s “disaster zones” that was suffering from a “landslide of corruption” among local officials, leading to a flurry of arrests of its political and business elite.

Zhang, 65, a short, bullish man, worked in local government for about 40 years before he came under investigation by the party’s graft-busters in 2014.

The court found Zhang accepted more than 1.04 billion yuan in bribes from 1997 to 2013, and in return he eased the way for entrepreneurs in the city, approving and granting licences for coal mine mergers and other projects, Xinhua reported.

Zhang was also unable to explain the source of over 130 million yuan of personal assets, according to the ruling.

The court said the amounts involved were “extremely large”, particularly in two cases.

“Two out of the 18 bribery cases concerned over 200 million yuan, and he asked for bribes of 88.68 million yuan,” the court said.

Zhang had not returned over 300 million yuan of these bribes, the court said.

It described Zhang as “contemptuous of rules and laws” and “extremely greedy”, saying he did not restrain himself even amid the nationwide anti-graft drive, concluding that he deserved the most severe punishment for “the big losses he caused to the nation and the people”.

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Nestled in the mountains of the dusty Loess Plateau, Luliang is best known for having served as a base for the Red Army during the second world war. Nearly 70 years since the Communist Party took power in China, Luliang still lags behind the rest of the country, with one-fifth of its population of 3.7 million living in poverty. Yet its rich deposits of coal have fuelled frenetic investment over the past decade, turning some mine owners into millionaires.

According to a three-month investigation into corruption in Luliang in 2014 by financial magazine , some of the area’s businessmen claim to have spent US$150,000 a year bribing officials who, like Zhang, controlled the mines and could close them down if they were deemed unsafe.

Anbang’s ex-chairman goes on trial as China cracks down on freewheeling deal makers

“This is a typical case showing how officials, even the low-ranking ones, can easily amass a huge amount of wealth by wielding their influence to allocate resources,” said Hu Xingdou, an independent political economist.

“This is a heavy price to pay for using your administrative power to manipulate the system,” he said.</s>Zhang Zhongsheng, the former vice mayor of Luliang City in north China’s Shanxi Province, was sentenced to death on Wednesday for taking bribes of more than 1 billion yuan (US$159 million), a court said today, according to Xinhua news agency.

Zhang’s personal assets will be confiscated, according to the Intermediate People’s Court of Linfen City in Shanxi.

The former official offered help in the approval of projects and the obtaining of coal resources from 1997 to 2013, when he served as the Zhongyang County chief and later the vice mayor of Luliang City. In exchange he received cash and property worth a total of 1.04 billion yuan, Xinhua reported

He couldn’t name the source of assets valuing 130 million yuan, blatantly ignored laws and was “extremely greedy.” His crimes caused “huge losses to the country and its people,” the court said, according to Xinhua.</s>An 'extremely greedy' former Chinese official has been given a death sentence after accepting massive bribes, according to China's state media.

Zhang Zhongsheng, 66, is said to have taken bribes amounting to 1.04 billion (£116.8 million) in the space of 16 years - the equivalent of being bribed 178,000 yuan (£20,000) a day.

The disgraced officials received the economic benefits while working senior roles in Lvliang, one of China's poorest regions, said the court.

The news has grabbed much attention in China because few corrupt officials have been given a death penalty - even after Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a tough anti-graft campaign while assuming the office in 2013.

Mr Zhang was sentenced today by the Intermediate People's Court of Linfen City in Shanxi, according to People's Daily Online.

The disgraced official received the astronomical bribes between 1997 and 2003 when he worked for the regional governments in Lvliang, Shanxi Province.

He was investigated in 2015 while working as the deputy mayor of Lvliang City. His other positions included the head of Zhongyang County in Lvliang.

Lvliang is a poverty-stricken area. According to China News, 1,346 villages and 480,000 residents of the area are classified as 'impoverished' by the central government.

According to the court, Mr Zhang accepted a total of 18 bribes in the forms of cash and property. Among them, two cases exceeded 200 million yuan (£22.5 million) in value; and over 88 million yuan (£10 million) had been requested by Mr Zhang from his contacts.

In return, the former powerful regional leader offered the other party help in the approval of projects and the obtaining of coal resources, which Shanxi is famous for, reported Xinhua News Agency.

The court said Mr Zhang is 'extremely greedy' and his crimes had caused 'huge losses to the country and its people'. All of his personal assets will be confiscated.

Mr Zhang's sentence came after China's ruling Communist Party vowed to further crack down on corruption with a proposed anti-graft agency.

Earlier this month, China's National People's Congress began a third and final reading of a draft supervision law that would extend the newly formed anti-graft body's authority, led by the party, over vast numbers of workers in the public sector.

This means the Communist Party-led anti-corruption agency would police not only the party's cadres, but also doctors, teachers, entertainers and other state employees.

Chinese University of Hong Kong law professor Ryan Mitchell told Associate Press that expanding the scope of the anti-graft agency's powers to include government workers may have been 'calculated as a way to intimidate the bureaucracy into more closely following the party line.'

In the past five years, roughly 1.34 million lower-ranking officials have been punished under President Xi anti-corruption drive.</s>A Chinese court handed down a death sentence on Wednesday for Zhang Zhongsheng, former vice-mayor of the city of Luliang, who has been convicted on corruption charges.

The court cited Zhang’s “extreme greed” to explain the harsh sentence, which China’s state-run Global Times hailed as the “ultimate deterrent” and a powerful signal to other corrupt officials.

Zhang, 65, was convicted of taking over a billion yuan in bribes from 1997 to 2013, which works out to about $160 million in U.S. dollars. Two of the individual bribery cases against him involved amounts of over 200 million yuan. About a third of his illicit fortune remains unaccounted for, according to prosecutors.

Zhang was known as the “godfather” of Luliang for cutting himself a piece of just about every venture in the city, especially its increasingly lucrative coal projects, and he was far from the only official who needed to have his palm greased before deals could be consummated. The vice-mayor’s lavish lifestyle was especially galling given the general poverty of the province surrounding his city.

The court breathlessly charged that Zhang “crazily took bribes from 1997 to 2013 and did not restrain himself after the 18th National Party Congress and caused extraordinarily great losses to the nation and its people and should be punished severely by law.”

In other words, he kept taking bribes after Chinese President Xi Jinping launched his much-ballyhooed war on corruption, which was very bad form on his part. The court mentioned concerns about Zhang setting an especially bad example for other officials that could best be corrected by giving him the most severe sentence.

The Global Times notes that death sentences are rare for corruption in China, citing a previous example in which a senior lawmaker was given a capital sentence for poaching a considerably smaller sum than Zhang did, although the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

Two other vice-mayors who were convicted of corruption were put to death in 2011. The amounts in their cases were much smaller than Zhang’s billion-yuan haul. Their harsh sentences were based in part on the notion that they were holding up projects important to the Chinese people in order to extract bribes, which is also one of the allegations leveled against Zhang.

“According to the court, Zhang used his position to seek benefits for bribe payers through intervening in Lüliang’s economic development, severely infringed the integrity of Chinese officials, damaged their reputation, caused grave social impacts in not only Shanxi Province but the entire nation and inflicted particularly heavy losses on the State and people. Therefore the court handed down the ultimate punishment,” the Global Times explained.

Zhang’s impending date with the executioner is seen by the Global Times as firm evidence that China has achieved “law-based governance” and that “the fight against corruption is gaining unstoppable momentum,” as officials at all levels gain a healthy “respect for the law” and “fear of discipline.”

It will not just be administrative officials getting that message, as the UK Daily Mail points out the National People’s Congress is in the process of creating an anti-graft agency with power over just about everyone in the public sector, which means just about everyone in China.

“This means the Communist Party-led anti-corruption agency would police not only the party’s cadres, but also doctors, teachers, entertainers and other state employees,” the Daily Mail muses.

Under Chinese law, Zhang still has the option of appealing his death sentence, and it must be approved by the Supreme Court in Beijing before it can be carried out. Given how often the Global Times chirps about his “immediate execution,” it doesn’t seem like the editors think much of his chances.</s>THE Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, opened its first cultural innovation center outside Beijing in the old town of Pingyao in north China’s Shanxi Province.

The Palace Museum, boasting nearly 1.87 million items, is China’s largest museum of Chinese antiques. Its annual sales of souvenirs exceeded 1 billion yuan (US$158 million) in 2017, and by the end of the year it had developed more than 9,600 cultural products, such as bookmarks and notebooks, inspired by the museum’s antiques and artifacts.

Pingyao is a tourist attraction located about 600 kilometers southwest of Beijing with a history dating back some 2,700 years. Its old town is famous for its well-preserved city walls and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 1997.

“We hope to share our experience with Pingyao in the research and development of cultural products,” said Shan Jixiang, curator of the Palace Museum. “The center in Pingyao is expected to bring more innovative products to customers,” said Shan.</s>March 28 (Reuters) - China Construction Bank Corp said in a statement on Wednesday:

* CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK SAYS SIGNED 589.7 BILLION YUAN ($93.79 billion) IN DEBT-FOR-EQUITY SWAPS BY END-2017

* CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK SAYS 100.8 BILLION YUAN WORTH OF SIGNED DEBT-FOR-EQUITY SWAPS HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED SO FAR Further company coverage: ($1 = 6.2875 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting By Shu Zhang and Se Young Lee)</s>* Says to open 3,000 county stores in next 3 years

HONG KONG, March 27 (Reuters) - GOME Retail Holdings Ltd , one of China’s biggest home appliances retailer, booked its first annual loss in five years on Tuesday, blaming higher debt costs and a drop in the value of some assets.

Interest on bonds payable increased to 597 million yuan in 2017 from 207 million yuan in 2016 as its debt increased, it said.

The debt to total equity ratio, which was expressed as a percentage of total borrowings amounting to 16.9 billion yuan over total equity amounting to 17.5 billion yuan, increased to 96.45 percent as end of 2017, from 51.68 percent as end of 2016.

GOME, which has a market value of $2.4 billion, earlier this month said it expected to report a loss of as much as 500 million yuan.

However, it said profit would represent an improvement over 2016 if excluding non-operating items, such as impairment of goodwill for underperforming businesses and of long-term assets relating to e-commerce.

“Looking forward, GOME will continue to invest in internet technology, merge the offline experiences with online resources, open digital stores in all tiers of the market,” Chairman Zhang Da Zhong said in an earnings statement.

Revenue fell 6.7 percent to 71.58 billion yuan. Comparable stores sales rose 2.33 percent and consolidated gross profit margin rose to 18.26 percent from 16.09 percent a year earlier.

Zhang also said GOME will develop “smart community stores” and unstaffed stores equipped with cutting-edge technology, and develop various virtual stores covering both online and offline channels.

“In the next three years, GOME plans to open 3,000 county stores, to fully cover the top 100 counties and other areas in China,” Zhang said.

“With the consumption upgrade in China, GOME will proactively adjust its presence nationwide,” he added.

GOME said it will take advantage of opportunities to extend its network of stores in lower tier Chinese cities.

Last month, bigger rival Suning.Com Co Ltd said 2017 sales surged 30 percent to 243.2 billion yuan, with profit up nearly 500 percent at 4.21 billion yuan amid rapid growth in revenue and net profit margin both online and offline.

GOME shares closed up 2.3 percent prior to the results statement, compared with a 0.8 percent rise in the benchmark stock price index. ($1 = 6.3306 Chinese yuan renminbi)</s>HONG KONG, March 27 (Reuters) - GOME Retail Holdings Ltd , one of China’s biggest home appliances retailer, booked its first annual loss in five years on Tuesday, blaming higher debt costs and a drop in the value of some assets.

Interest on bonds payable increased to 597 million yuan in 2017 from 207 million yuan in 2016 as its debt increased, it said.

GOME, which has a market value of $2.4 billion, earlier this month said it expected to report a loss of as much as 500 million yuan.

However, it said profit would represent an improvement over 2016 if excluding non-operating items, such as impairment of goodwill for underperforming businesses and of long-term assets relating to e-commerce.

“Looking forward, GOME will continue to invest in internet technology, merge the offline experiences with online resources, open digital stores in all tiers of the market,” Chairman Zhang Da Zhong said in an earnings statement.

Revenue fell 6.7 percent to 71.58 billion yuan. Comparable stores sales rose 2.33 percent and consolidated gross profit margin rose to 18.26 percent from 16.09 percent a year earlier.

Zhang also said GOME will develop “smart community stores” and unstaffed stores equipped with cutting-edge technology, and develop various virtual stores covering both online and offline channels.

“In the next three years, GOME plans to open 3,000 county stores, to fully cover the top 100 counties and other areas in China,” Zhang said.

Last month, bigger rival Suning.Com Co Ltd said 2017 sales surged 30 percent to 243.2 billion yuan, with profit up nearly 500 percent at 4.21 billion yuan amid rapid growth in revenue and net profit margin both online and offline.

GOME shares closed up 2.3 percent prior to the results statement, compared with a 0.8 percent rise in the benchmark stock price index. ($1 = 6.3306 Chinese yuan renminbi)</s>Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is looking to invest in areas such as biotechnology, financial technology and artificial intelligence, according to its chairman, Guo Guangchang. This investment will amount to 20 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) over the next three years, and 100 billion yuan over the next decade, according to Wang Qunbin, the company’s chief executive.

The company said it would not be affected by curbs on outbound investment imposed by Beijing.

“Our investments are compliant with Chinese laws, and they are complaint with the laws of the countries we are investing in,” said Guo.

Fosun buying US$40m majority stake, and will launch full takeover, of Austrian luxury textiles firm Wolford

The company will focus on India and Africa, he said, as well as on Portuguese-speaking countries.

Fosun reported a net profit of 13.16 billion yuan for 2017, a 28.2 per cent increase over 2016. The gain was led mainly by contributions from the health, insurance and finance segments of the company. Revenue for the period increased by 19 per cent and stood at 88.03 billion yuan.

Fosun’s core business operations are divided roughly into three categories: happiness, wealth and health. The wealth segment contributed most of its profit in 2017, at 11.3 billion yuan, followed by health at 1.4 billion yuan; the profit generated by the happiness segment stood at 498 million yuan.

“The net gearing ratio of the company has been dropping in the recent five-year period, so investors feel safe about betting on the company,” said Robin Qiao, a fund manager based in Hangzhou.

Fosun’s current net gearing ratio stands at 49.7 per cent, compared with 86 per cent in 2013. Its net debt, however, amounted to 67.8 billion yuan compared with 52.7 billion yuan in 2013.

Starting out as a small company set up by Guo in 1992, Fosun has pursued an aggressive overseas expansion policy starting in 2010. It now owns Portugal’s largest insurance group, Fidelidade, French luxury resort operator Club Med, a 9.5 per cent stake in jewellery and fashion accessories brand Folli Follie and a minority stake in entertainment company Cirque du Soleil.

Fosun resumes its overseas shopping spree with US$52m purchase of Brazil asset manager

It also took a large chunk of shares in China’s Tsingtao Brewery from Japanese brewer Asahi in December, and announced this month that it was buying a controlling stake in the Austrian loss-making luxury lingerie and legwear specialist, Wolford. It is also a major shareholder of the French fashion label, Lanvin.
A Chinese court sentences Zhang Zhongsheng, the former Vice Mayor of Lüliang, Shanxi, to death. Zhongsheng was convicted of accepting bribes totaling 1.04 billion yuan (US$160 million).