Zhang Mingjie's Case Pronounced in the First Instance Judgment Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Website: Punish Corruption According to Law The Will of the People

Source: Website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission

Recently, the news of the first-instance judgment of Qu Wanting's mother Zhang Mingjie has aroused great concern in public opinion. On November 17, the Intermediate People's Court of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, publicly pronounced a verdict on the case of Zhang Mingjie, former director of the Office of the Harbin Urbanization Construction Leading Group, for accepting bribes and abusing his power, sentencing Zhang Mingjie to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all personal property; sentenced Zhang Mingjie to ten years' imprisonment for abuse of power, decided to carry out life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all personal property. The illegal gains involved in the case and their fruits shall be confiscated and recovered.

Those who violate discipline and the law should be severely punished by party discipline and state law. In September 2014, Zhang Mingjie was detained on suspicion of corruption, bribery, and abuse of power. In 2020, Qu Wanting posted an article on Weibo that "crying for her mother", which was questioned by many netizens. The masses of the people hate corrupt elements for harming the interests of the state and the people, seizing a large amount of ill-gotten wealth, and satisfying the extravagant lives of relatives and children. Nowadays, the court has publicly pronounced judgments on the basis of clarifying the facts of the case, and punished corruption with rule of law thinking and rule of law methods, demonstrating fairness and justice. Severely punishing corrupt elements is an inevitable requirement for strengthening the high-pressure situation of "not daring to be corrupt," and any corrupt elements must pay a corresponding price for their violations of discipline and law.

The reason why Zhang Mingjie's case has attracted much attention is not only that she is the mother of a well-known singer, but also because she is a "moth" that infringes on the interests of the masses. According to the relevant information ascertained by the court after trial, Zhang Mingjie cheated for personal gain and abused his power, resulting in the state compensation for land requisition being obtained in violation of the law by the merger and acquisition unit, and the resettlement funds for some employees being used in violation of the law, resulting in losses of more than 200 million yuan in public property. Zhang Mingjie also took advantage of his position to seek benefits for the merger and acquisition unit, and demanded 5 million yuan from the actual controller of the unit, as well as more than 93 million yuan of equity.

As a state official, Zhang Mingjieben used the power in her hands to seek the interests of the people, but she completely forgot the truth that power is for the people and profit is for the people, committed the crime of accepting bribes and abusing her power, and the amount of money involved in the case was huge, seriously harming the interests of the people. Severely punishing "moths" according to law is precisely the concrete practice of thoroughly rectifying the problems of corruption around the masses, and is a direct embodiment of fighting corruption for the people and benefiting the people.

Every punishment of corrupt elements in accordance with the law is a manifestation of justice. Netizens commented on the announcement of the verdict in the first instance trial of Zhang Mingjie's case, "The law is fair, justice will not be absent," "Never be soft on corrupt elements," and "must be severely punished and pay the due price for their illegal and criminal acts." This proves once again that anti-corruption is the will of the people, and punishing corrupt elements according to law is precisely in response to the expectations of the masses of the people. (Li Juan)