Officials punished for providing criminals 'protective umbrella'

Thirty-one officials in Central China have been punished for shielding a criminal organization allegedly led by a local businessman who was linked to the suicide of a hospital president in January.

A former political adviser and village police chief were among the government and Party officials who had for years acted as a protective umbrella for the gang in Langfang, Hebei province, anti-graft authorities said.

Most have been expelled from the Communist Party of China, with the rest receiving a serious warning, according to a joint statement on Monday from the Hebei Commission for Discipline Inspection and its Supervisory Commission.

About half have been removed from office, and five are now under criminal investigation for suspected embezzlement, it said.

The punishments follow the suicide of Zhang Yi, president of the privately owned Langfang Chengnan Orthopaedic Hospital in the city's Anci district, who jumped to his death from his office window on Jan 27.

In a suicide note posted on WeChat to his college friends, Zhang accused his investment partner Yang Yuzhong, a former deputy to the Anci people's congress, of taking away management of his hospital and thwarting his attempt to open a new one.

Zhang founded the hospital in 1993, and in 2013 the facility moved to an 11-story building owned by real estate developer Yang, who became a shareholder. According to Zhang's note, early in 2016 Yang began to intervene in the management of the hospital by taking over the financial and human resources departments and replacing doctors in several departments without cause.

"The normal medical order of the hospital was disturbed and the standard medical work was trampled," he wrote. "Some doctors were dismissed and some quit voluntarily."

Zhang and some doctors raised their own funds to reopen the hospital at a new site, and though constantly harassed by Yang, he said, the preparations of the new hospital were almost finished by mid-to late-2017.

On Oct 18, four masked men assaulted Zhang and broke his right leg, and the gang continued to threaten him after his hospitalization, he said. He also said Yang asked accountants to transfer 16 million yuan ($2.34 million) from the hospital without filing any paperwork.

Police detained four suspects on Oct 26 who confessed to the assault, but said the attack was ordered by a man surnamed Zhao. They did not mention Yang's name, according to local authorities.

The widespread coverage of Zhang's suicide and his note resulted in Yang being suspended from his post as a people's congress deputy on Jan 28. Three days later, he surrendered to police and has been held in detention on suspicion of misappropriating funds, according to the most recent information from the local public security bureau.

In their joint statement, the Hebei anti-corruption bodies said Yang's gang had long held power at the grassroots level, engaged in criminal activities including intentional injury, forced transactions, violent demolition and forged seals for illegal interests. It added that he was illegally elected as a deputy to the people's congress.

The 31 officials who protected the gang included Yang Guangheng, former chairman of the Anci committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; Yao Liantao, head of Yangshuiwu police station; Li Yuzheng, deputy head of the district government's construction bureau; and village Party secretaries.

On Jan 24, the central government launched a campaign against criminal organizations, targeting officials who protect them.

So far, 427 people in Hebei have been put under investigation, including 199 who received disciplinary punishments, with 13 transferred to judicial departments, the joint statement said.

Inspection teams, each led by a ministerial-level official, will visit 10 provincial regions over the coming months to ensure smooth progress in the campaign.