What’s new: Zhang Fusheng, ex-deputy chief of the fire and rescue department at the Ministry of Emergency Management, has been charged with accepting nearly 40 million yuan ($5.5 million) in bribes over a period of 25 years, a local court said.
Prosecutors accused Zhang of exploiting his influence in the emergency management and public security ministries to help others with project contracts and promotions from 1997 to 2022. He allegedly took over 38.93 million yuan in bribes in return, Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement published Thursday.
Zhang pleaded guilty as he stood trial Thursday, the court said, adding that they will announce the verdict at a later date.
The background: Zhang’s case was featured in an anti-corruption documentary aired in January by state broadcaster CCTV, which said he accepted bribes from hundreds of people — a “small amount each time but at high frequency.”
Zhang was said to have bragged to subordinates that he had influence over fire rescue cadres’ job transfers “in any part of the country,” prompting them to hand over “red packets” of money in return for promotions, the documentary showed.
The 61-year-old is a native of Shenyang, Northeast China’s Liaoning province. He worked in the Ministry of Public Security from 1995 to 2018 and became the deputy chief of the emergency management ministry’s fire and rescue department in 2019, until he fell under a graft probe in November 2022.
The department was integrated into the National Fire and Rescue Administration in January 2023.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
