Former Chinese table tennis player Teng Yi has been implicated in a corruption case involving Cao Guangjing, the former vice governor of Hubei Province and former chairman of China Three Gorges Corporation. The Hubei Hanjiang Intermediate People’s Court recently released the verdict of Cao Guangjing’s corruption case, revealing Teng Yi’s involvement in the matter.
According to The Paper, the verdict showed that in the first half of 2010, Cao Guangjing, who was then chairman and party secretary of China Three Gorges Corporation, met table tennis world champion Teng Yi at a dinner party. Teng Yi, well-connected in Beijing due to frequently playing with celebrities, attracted Cao Guangjing’s interest in expanding his network, leading to frequent dinners and gatherings between the two, developing a close relationship.
Between 2012 and 2018, at the request of certain individuals, Teng Yi, leveraging Cao Guangjing’s position, unlawfully sought benefits for a certain company in winning bids for the Jia Ba Dam Project and the Wudongde Hydropower Station series of projects, receiving bribes totaling over 115.7 million yuan, with 48 million yuan remaining unsuccessful.
As a result, Teng Yi was placed under investigation by the Hubei Provincial Supervisory Commission in July 2022, criminally detained on December 22 of the same year, and arrested on January 3, 2023.
On September 13, 2024, Teng Yi was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined 6 million yuan. Teng Yi then appealed the ruling, but the Hanjiang Court upheld the original verdict in the second instance.
According to reports, the only player surnamed “Teng” on the list of world champions published on the official website of the Chinese Table Tennis Association is Teng Yi, the champion of the Men’s Singles at the 8th World Cup.
Cao Guangjing, on the other hand, was investigated in February 2022 and was subsequently expelled from the party in September of the same year. On May 24, 2024, Cao Guangjing was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes and leaking insider information.