CHINA: OFFICIAL SENTENCED TO DEATH WITH TWO-YEAR REPRIEVE

A senior Chinese Communist Party official charged with taking bribes worth more than $100 million was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, Xinhua news agency reported on 31 July 2020.
Zhao Zhengyong, 69, former chief of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, used his position to amass $103 million in exchange for building contracts and other favors during the construction of an illegal resort in the Qinling Mountains.
Zhao was described in a party publication as a "shameless two-faced person" before the sentence was passed at First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin Municipality on 31 July, Chinese news service Caixin Global reported.
Zhao, a former senior national legislator, was a leading Communist Party official in Shaanxi Province from 2003 to 2018.
According to the Tianjin court, Zhao has said he would not appeal the decision. Zhao will not be executed but imprisoned for life if he does not commit further violations of the law in two years.