Officer Was Ordered to Commit a Crime, Governments at Two Levels in Guangdong both Write to Plead with Court for Leniency

• Author: Ma Xiaoliu

On April 15, He Yuntao, Deputy Bureau Chief of Land and Resources in Lianjiang City, Guangdong Province, was sentenced to a 6-month imprisonment for dereliction of duty. According to the Court, He was well aware that the transferee company, Jindu Corp, did not have full funds to pay for the landassignment fee, and thus was not eligible for the “right to use state-owned land” permit. However, He still agreed to approve the registration, resulting in a loss of 110 million RMB in state assets.

He said that he had refused to issue a permit to Jindu Corp. several times and had reported the unpaid land assignment fee to the Government. However, the decision to reduce assignment payments for the company was advocated for and approved by the Government; he was merely implementing the policy. Lianjiang City had made a deal with Jindu Corp. to agree to reduce partial...