Beijing
(AsiaNews) - The Intermediate People's Court of Xiamen today sentenced Lai
Changxing, one of the richest and most influential of President Jiang Zemin's China,
to life imprisonment. Lai
was considered a protégé of former Communist leader and has spent the past 21
years in exile in Hong Kong and Canada. His
sentence is considered by some analysts, one of the preparatory moves for the
next Party Congress which in autumn will kick off the fifth generation of
Chinese leaders.
Son
of former Secretary General of the State Council Ji Pengfei, Lai is known for
being one of the architects of China's transition from communism to state
capitalism. Over
a period of 20 years, he dominated the province of Fujian, industrializing the
Xiamen Special Economic Zone and amassing billions of dollars. Amid
recognized accusations is corruption of public officials, private violence and
appropriation of public goods. In
his network of contacts were Li Jizhou, Ganlu Hu, Feng Liu and Zhuang Rushun:
all senior members of the party.
Lai
fled from China to Hong Kong in 1991 after being disowned by his political
patrons. The
then Premier Zhu Rongji, after yet another scandal, said in fact that the
industrial tycoon "should be shot in public more than once." In
1999 he moved to Canada, from where Beijing demanded his extradition for 12
years. The
final part of his trial lasted less than three weeks.
His
sentence is considered a political move by all. At
the height of his power, Lai had very close relations with the then governor of
Fujian, Xi Jinping, who at the next Party Congress is set to replace current
president Hu Jintao. In
addition, Lai was considered a protégé of the "Shanghai clique", the
power group linked to former president Jiang Zemin who still retains
considerable power in the state apparatus.