Raising the bar to punish corruption

Last week, courts in Beijing and Chongqing municipality convicted two Chinese officials.

Wen Qiang, former deputy police chief of Chongqing, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of protecting mafia-style gangs, taking bribes totaling 12.16 million yuan ($1.79 million), and owning a huge amount of money and assets he could not justify.

Wang Yi, former vice-president of the China Development Bank, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting 11.96 million yuan in bribes.