Lai Xiaomin, former chairman of Communist Party state-owned enterprise Huarong Assets, was executed on Friday for corruption. The execution took only 24 days from the Time he was sentenced. Comments suggest that such a swift execution is Xi’s attempt to “establish authority” within the party.
Lai Xiaomin, 58, former party secretary and chairman of the board of China Huarong Asset Management Co.
Lai Xiaomin was accused of taking bribes amounting to more than 1.788 billion yuan and was sentenced to death on January 5 by the Tianjin Second Intermediate Court for taking bribes, embezzlement and bigamy. Lai Xiaomin thought he would receive leniency on appeal because of his “significant meritorious performance” in reporting crimes committed by executives of Huarong affiliated companies, but the Tianjin High Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original sentence.
According to similar cases in the past, most death sentences handed down by Chinese Communist Party courts are suspended for two years and commuted to Life imprisonment, and death sentences without reprieve are rare. In this case, it took only 24 days from the time of sentencing to death to the time of execution.
After Lai Xiaomin was sentenced to death in the first trial, the official website of Huarong reported with the headline “Purge Lai Xiaomin’s poison”, and the article expressed throughout the article the need to strengthen the Party’s leadership with Xi Jinping as the core and restore the correct “political ecology”.
And recently, when Xi Jinping emphasized strict governance of the Party at the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, he again mentioned “political judgment, political comprehension, and political execution”, arguing that a major feature of the current anti-corruption situation is the intertwining of political and economic issues, and that there are often political issues behind corruption problems.
Current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan believes that the speedy execution of Lai Xiaomin is Xi Jinping’s way of “establishing authority” in response to the current challenges within the Party.
Current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan: “The Communist Party is now facing an Epidemic, the rapid deterioration of Sino-US relations and economic difficulties, all of which may cause Xi Jinping’s position to be challenged as never before. In this context, he needs to use the sword of anti-corruption again to shock these forces opposing him, so the swift execution of Lai Xiaomin is a very important way for Xi Jinping to establish his authority.”
Lai Xiaomin has previously been exposed as funneling huge benefits to the Zeng Qinghong Family. Tang believes this is also a “demonstration” by Xi Jinping.
The reason why Lai Xiaomin was able to quickly rise to power is mainly because of the power of Zeng Qinghong. Among these groups that pose a threat to Xi Jinping’s current position, Jiang (Zemin) and Zeng (Qinghong) are probably the most threatening and active forces. So the quick battle against Lai Xiaomin may be, to a large extent, a demonstration of the political forces that threaten him the most.”
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