Chinese Former World Champion Sentenced to 14 Years

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Chinese Former World Champion Sentenced to 14 Years

A former Chinese table tennis world champion has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes by exploiting his influence. The case, recently made public by the Hanjiang Intermediate People's Court in Hubei, has exposed a vast corruption scandal involving over 100 million yuan.

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According to the court documents, in the first half of 2010, then-chairman and party secretary of China Yangtze Power Corporation, Cao, met Teng, a former world champion in table tennis, during a social dinner. Teng, well-connected in Beijing and often seen accompanying celebrities and business figures for casual matches, quickly became close with Cao, who sought to expand his personal network through Teng.

Between 2012 and 2018, Teng, leveraging his close relationship with Cao, accepted requests from a company to help secure favorable treatment in major state-led hydropower projects. Teng colluded with Chen and Guo to receive a total of 115.576545 million yuan in bribes—67.576545 million yuan of which were successfully obtained, with the remaining 48 million yuan constituting an attempted offense.

On September 13, 2024, the Tianmen People's Court found Teng guilty of accepting bribes by taking advantage of his influence and sentenced him to 14 years in prison and fined him six million yuan. He appealed the decision. The Hanjiang Intermediate Court later upheld the original ruling.

It was confirmed through media comparison that Cao is in fact Cao Guangjing, former chairman of the China Three Gorges Corporation and former vice governor of Hubei Province, who was dismissed in 2022 and later expelled from the Party. He was accused of abusing power for business favors and accepting enormous bribes. 

On May 24, 2024, Cao was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery and leaking insider information by the Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court.

The Chinese Table Tennis Association's official records list only one person surnamed Teng as a world champion—Teng Yi, who won the 8th Men's World Cup and was part of China's winning team in the 1987 World Championships. 

In total, Teng received over 115 million yuan in bribes; Chen was found to have received 30.576545 million yuan, and Guo 85 million yuan,including completed and attempted.

Teng was deemed the primary offender, using his personal ties with Cao to assist companies in securing project contracts and sharing the illicit proceeds with Chen and Guo. Chen and Guo, acting under Teng's direction, helped negotiate the bribes and handled the money as instructed.

The first-instance verdict included:

• Teng: 14 years in prison, RMB 6 million fine.

• Chen: 10 years (later reduced to 7), RMB 3 million fine.

• Guo: 11 years (later reduced to 9), RMB 3 million fine.

  
  

Seizure of illegally obtained assets and restitution totaling tens of millions of yuan.

All three appealed, but the appellate court upheld Teng's sentence and adjusted the sentences for Chen and Guo.

Source: 新闻坊

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