Following six months of investigation, a senior official in Henan Province, central China, was formally prosecuted for corruption, including the amassing of 11.05 million yuan (about $1.64 million) in bribes.
Wu Tianjun, a member of the Henan provincial Communist Party standing committee, the head of its Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC), and formerly the Party secretary of the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, stood trial on July 20 in Henan’s Xiangyang Municipal Intermediate Court.
His hair, once dyed jet black, had become completely white—mirroring the court appearance of Zhou Yongkang, the former national-level PLAC director and who was purged in 2015 in current Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
As head of the Henan PLAC, Wu Tianjun participated heavily in the 18-year-long persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, a campaign started by former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin on July 20, 1999. At least 14 Falun Gong adherents died as a result of persecution on Wu’s watch.
Wu is the third provincial level official in Henan to be purged during the anti-corruption campaign, launched in 2012 after Xi Jinping took office. Wu was accused of taking advantage of his positions in addition to accepting bribes. He pleaded guilty to the charges.
