Former Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Liu Wenxin, who fell from power over two years ago, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on December 23rd. After the two-year reprieve, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Liu Wenxin was charged with four offenses, including illegally carrying controlled knives that endangered public safety, attracting public attention. It is known that in early 2020, Liu Wenxin brought 25 knives on board a plane.
On December 23rd, Liu Wenxin, the former Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, was sentenced to death for bribery, corruption, money laundering, and illegally carrying controlled knives that endangered public safety. His sentence was suspended for two years, and all his personal assets were confiscated. After the two-year suspension period expired, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of reduction, parole, or probation. The amount involved in the bribery case was as high as 6.09 billion yuan.
Liu Wenxin previously served as a member of the Guizhou City Committee, Executive Deputy Mayor, and Mayor. In August 2017, he became the Secretary of the Qianxinan Prefecture. Official reports from April 2022 indicated that he had been appointed as the Deputy Secretary (Director-level) of the Political and Legal Committee of the Guizhou Provincial Committee.
On October 26, 2022, Liu Wenxin was investigated. In September 2023, official reports revealed that he had “illegally accepted gifts and money, leading a highly corrupt and decadent lifestyle, engaging in power-for-sex and money-for-sex transactions, having long-term improper sexual relationships with others, engaging in prostitution, gambling; losing oneself in pursuits and becoming obsessed with knives,” and more.
A mainland Chinese WeChat public account called “Sidao” disclosed details of Liu Wenxin’s offense of illegally carrying controlled knives that endangered public safety, as well as his obsession with knives.
According to reports, on January 4, 2020, when Liu Wenxin was the Secretary of the Qianxinan Prefecture, he evaded security checks and carried 25 controlled knives onto a civilian aircraft. The article mentioned, “As a prefectural Party secretary, how could someone without special powers and connections manage to bring 25 knives onto a plane all at once?”
Interestingly, it took from January 2020 when Liu Wenxin brought 25 knives on board a plane until recently to be charged with the offense of illegally carrying controlled knives that endangered public safety.
Many corrupt officials within the Chinese Communist Party have been accused of having peculiar hobbies.
The “Sidao” article mentioned that the former Director of the Shaoxing Public Security Bureau in Guangdong, Ye Shuyang, had a hobby of killing pigs. To cater to his preferences, local officials would prepare fat pigs for him to practice his skills during inspections. Surprisingly, over an 8-year period, Ye Shuyang managed to kill 3,600 pigs, averaging 450 per year, a rate comparable to a professional pig slaughterer.
Moreover, the former Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Committee, Zhou Benshun, had a passion for raising turtles. He built a luxurious turtle pond at his residence and hired specialists to care for his expensive imported turtles, spending over a million yuan. Yang Weize, who served as a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Nanjing City Committee, besides enjoying drinking and sauna baths, surprisingly loved riding imported thoroughbred horses. He had a stable full of high-quality horses flown in from abroad.