China: Top Executive Facing Charges of Bribery and Embezzlement

Published: 14 August 2014

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Wang Zongnan, a retired Communist Party official and former head of one of China’s largest food groups, has been charged with taking bribes and embezzling money, according to The Australian.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Wang, 59, who was closely tied to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, has been under investigation for several months.

According to the Shanghai prosecutor’s office, the allegations stem from Wang’s activities when he ran  the local retailers, Shanghai Friendship Group and Lianhua Supermarket, before his time as chairman of Bright Food.

The Australian portal quotes a report from the Beijing Times: “Wang Zongnan was an aggressive reformer in his companies… Almost every top executive of state-owned companies has ‘unspoken secrets’ and Wang’s downfall does not rule out the possibility that this investigation was triggered by inside whistleblowers.”

This decision may be an outcome of China’s anticorruption drive, as it came just days after the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that a team of inspectors was sent to Shanghai. No further details regarding the allegations have been provided.