Former Shanghai Electric Chief Gets Death Sentence With Reprieve

Zheng Jianhua, former Party secretary and chairman of Shanghai Electric Group, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced today.

Zheng was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and abuse of power by a state-owned enterprise executive.

The court delivered its first-instance verdict today, ordering Zheng to be deprived of political rights for life, confiscating all his personal assets, and imposing a fine of 200,000 yuan (US$27,800). All illegal gains and related proceeds will be recovered in accordance with the law.

According to the court's findings, Zheng abused his positions between 2003 and 2021 to seek benefits for others and solicited or accepted bribes totaling more than 156 million yuan. From 2007 to 2008, he colluded with others to embezzle 2.15 million yuan in public funds. In the first half of 2018, he misappropriated public funds and lent them to others, with more than 700 million yuan still outstanding when the case was uncovered.

Between 2015 and 2021, Zheng violated regulations and abused his authority to fabricate personal achievements and pursue private gain, causing particularly serious losses to state interests.

The court said the bribery amount was extraordinarily large and resulted in especially grave harm to the interests of the state and the people, a level of severity that would normally warrant the death penalty.

In sentencing, the court took into account that Zheng confessed after being apprehended, which justified imposing a suspended death sentence rather than immediate execution.