Li Ning, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at China Agricultural University, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on January 3 this year for allegedly embezzling more than 37.56 million yuan in research funds with others. The Jilin Provincial High Court said on December 8 that Li Ning voluntarily pleaded guilty and submitted a letter of repentance, and the second trial was changed to a 10-year sentence. The verdict removes the previous accusation that Li Ning had sold a large number of eliminated experimental animals, just as the global outbreak of the Xinguan epidemic has resumed.
On December 8, the official WeChat of the Jilin Provincial High Court of the Communist Party of China announced the verdict in Li Ning’s corruption case, in which Li Ning was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RMB 2.5 million. Li Ning was sentenced to 12 years in prison at the first trial on January 2 this year, and Li Ning and his co-defendant Zhang Lei filed an appeal.
The charges in the second trial focused on Li Ning’s embezzlement conviction. Li Ning was accused of embezzling more than RMB 34.1 million, among other things, by taking advantage of his position.
Li Ning is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a member of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and a special professor of the Changjiang Scholar Award Program of China Agricultural University. In June 2014, Li Ning was investigated for embezzlement and corruption. Li Ning’s embezzlement case lasted five years, and on January 2 this year, Li Ning was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “embezzlement” in the first trial.
It has been noted that the second trial verdict, compared to the first trial verdict, removed the content related to Li Ning’s mass trafficking of obsolete experimental animals.
In addition to the embezzlement charge, Li Ning was also accused of, “From July 2008 to February 2012, the relevant subjects used research funds to purchase pigs and cattle needed for experiments in the course of research, and defendant Zhang Lei asked Li Ning for advice on how to deal with the proceeds from the sale of experimental pigs, cattle and milk that were eliminated in the course of research. Li Ning instructed Zhang Lei will give the money to the accountant Ou Moujia, Xie Moujia off the books, separate custody, do not hand over. Ou Moujia, Xie Moujia will then deposit the money into a personal bank card, the cumulative amount of RMB 10,179,201.86 yuan”.
Currently originating in Wuhan, Hubei Province, new crowns are wreaking havoc around the world, and the above content deleted from the second-instance verdict raises concerns.
According to a 2016 report by the China Laboratory Animal Information Network, tens of millions of laboratory animals are used in China each year, with approximately 300,000 animals sold or used for experiments at the Hubei Province Laboratory Animal Research Center alone.
The lab animal industry in China is a major concern, and there have been instances of laboratory virus leaks and of researchers contracting viruses from lab animals.
An old man who has lived in a bungalow across the street from the P4 Virus Institute in Wuhan for more than 30 years told Caijing, “Putting such a national-level virus lab in a residential area is like planting a ticking biological bomb that may explode one day. We’ve been reflecting this to the top for more than a decade, but no one listens to you. Look, isn’t that what happened?”
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