1. New laws or regulations

State level: No developments.

Local level (Beijing & Shanghai): No developments.

Communist Party Rules: No developments.

2. Upcoming laws or regulations

No developments.

3. Government Action

(1) It was reported on March 2, 2015 that Fu Chunrong (“Fu”), the former Party Secretary of Huichang County, Jiangxi Province, had been sentenced by the Intermediate People’s Court of Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province to 13 years in prison for taking bribes.

Fu was found guilty of accepting bribes from 38 individuals amounting to RMB 4.45 million (USD 716,505), ERU 30,000 (USD 31,929), HKD 310,000 (USD 40,000) and USD 25,000 during his term of office from 2000 to 2014. In exchange, Fu took advantage of his position, seeking illegal benefits for 22 construction contractors and private business owners in project awarding and development, and 16 state functionaries in position promotions. Fu was given a lighter sentence due to his confession.

(2) On March 19, 2015, Chen Haiju (“Chen”), the former Deputy General Manager of China Eastern Airlines, a state-owned enterprise based in Shanghai, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court of Shanghai for taking bribes, and all his personal property was confiscated.

It was alleged that during his term from 2001 to 2013 as the Director of the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the senior management of China Eastern Airlines Chen had sought illegal benefits from project contracting, Chen accepted bribes from several individuals exceeding RMB 4.86 million (USD 782,520). Chen denied all his crimes at the trial last April.

(3) It was reported on March 24, 2015 that Zhang Zhijian (“Zhang”), the former Party Secretary of Hainan College of Economics and Business (the “College”), had been sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment by the Intermediate People’s Court of Haikou City, Hainan Province for accepting bribes.

Zhang was accused of abusing his power over the construction of the teaching building, administrative building, the library, others, and of seeking illegal benefits for bribe-givers, and accepting bribes totaling RMB 4.51 million (USD 726,288) over 16 occasions. Zhang was given a lighter sentence due to his confession and otherwise meritorious behavior.

(4) On March 27, 2015, Liao Xiaobo (“Liao”), the former Deputy Chief of the Development and Reform Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes by the Intermediate Peoples’ Court of Nanning City, with all his personal property confiscated.

Liao was accused of accepting bribes totaling RMB 32.21 million (USD 5.18 million), HKD 405,500 (USD 52,322) and USD 340,000 in the forms of cash, shopping cards, golf cards, luxury watches, etc. during his term of office from 2006 to 2013. In return, Liao is reported to have provided assistance in project negotiations, contract awarding and project approval in relation to infrastructure construction projects, abusing his position. Liao was expelled from his position and from the Party in October, 2013 for severe violations of law and disciplines.

4. Other

(1) According to Yu Zhengsheng (“Yu”), the Chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from his work report of the CPPCC National Committee’s Standing Committee at the third session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee on March 3, 2015, 14 members have been expelled from the 12th CPPCC since 2013, including two Deputy Chairmen, Ling Jihua and Su Rong. Yu said, “Further efforts should be taken to build a fine Party culture, keep its organizations clean and crackdown corruption.”

(2) According to a work report delivered by Cao Jianmin (“Cao”), the Procurator-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the “SPP”) on March 12, 2015 during the third session of the 12th National People’s Congress, during the year of 2014, the national-wide procurators have investigated 41,487 duty-related crimes cases involving 55,101 individuals, an increase of 7.4% in the number of people, including 28 officers at or above provincial and ministerial level. 7,827 individuals who committed bribery related crimes have been prosecuted, an increase of 37.9% compared with the previous year. The SPP will continue focusing on duty-related crimes in the following year, according to Cao.

5. China-related FCPA Action

No developments.