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A Chinese real estate mogul and critic of President Xi Jinping has been jailed for corruption after calling the president a clown.
Ren Zhiqiang, former chairman of the state-owned Huayuan real estate group, received an 18-year sentence for corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public funds.
He was also fined 4.2 million yuan (£ 484,485), according to the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court.
The court’s verdict, released earlier today, said the 69-year-old “voluntarily and sincerely confessed all his crimes” and would not appeal the court’s decision.
Human rights activists accuse President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of using accusations of corruption to silence dissent.
Ren Zhiqiang (pictured), former chairman of the state-owned Huayuan real estate group, received an 18-year sentence for corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public funds.
Ren, who was once in the inner circle of the ruling Communist Party, disappeared from the public eye in March shortly after writing an essay criticizing Xi’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The piece has since been removed from China’s internet, which regularly censors content that defies the authorities but was widely shared elsewhere online.
“This epidemic has revealed the fact that the Party and government officials are only concerned with protecting their own interests, and the monarch is only concerned with protecting his interests and central position,” Ren wrote, without naming Xi.
He added: ‘Standing there was not an emperor showing off his new clothes, but a stripped-down clown who insisted on being an emperor.’
Human rights activists accuse President Xi Jinping (pictured) and the Communist Party of using corruption charges to silence dissent
An escorted police van, believed to be transporting former Huayuan Real Estate Group chairman Ren Zhiqiang, leaves Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court today
Ren’s influential blog on the Twitter-like Weibo platform drew millions of followers before authorities shut down his account in 2016 after he repeatedly called for greater freedom of the press.
Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since Xi took office in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of expression and detaining hundreds of activists and lawyers.
The Communist Party’s disciplinary watchdog launched an investigation into Ren in April before the trial was opened in a Beijing court on September 11.
A heavy police presence guarded the courtroom with a handful of supporters gathered outside.
One supporter told AFP that they backed Ren because “he dares to tell the truth.”
A heavy police presence (pictured) guarded the courtroom as a handful of supporters gathered outside, with one saying they were backing Ren because he ‘dares to tell the truth’
Ren was imprisoned for 18 years on Tuesday for corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public funds.
The verdict stated that there was embezzled nearly 50 million yuan (£ 5.8 million) of public funds and accepted bribes worth 1.25 million yuan (£ 143,774), according to a statement from the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court.
He was also fined 4.2 million yuan (£ 484,485).
He also stated that Ren “abused his power” in his role at Huayuan Group, causing more than 116 million yuan in losses to the state holding company and more than 53 million yuan in property losses for the group.
Online reaction to Ren’s sentence was also quickly erased on Tuesday.
“The only real estate mogul who dares to tell the truth in China has been censored,” read a comment on Weibo.
“He was born in 1951 and this year he is 69 years old … he may not live to see the day when he gets out of jail,” said another.
Ren, who was the son of a former deputy trade minister and a member of the Communist Party for decades before being ousted in July, was well connected with the party’s elites.
He wrote in his memoirs that he had been friends with Vice President and former anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan since they were teenagers, when his school assigned Wang to mentor young Ren.
He is also a controversial figure, particularly for his defense of high house prices in China, once he told Chinese media that people who had not been willing to invest in real estate before the boom “now deserve to be poor.” .
