The criminal trials of two of China’s most notorious businesswomen have opened in Beijing and northern China just days after Bo Xilai, disgraced Communist party leader, was handed a life sentence for corruption and abuse of power.
Gong Aiai, a former vice-president of a rural bank, is accused of buying fake identification to purchase dozens of properties in Beijing, while Ding Yuxin allegedly paid huge bribes to China’s former railway minister in exchange for billions of renminbi worth of contracts.
As with the trial of Bo, whose downfall was partly triggered by his wife’s murder of a British businessman in November 2011, the two trials have transfixed the Chinese public with details of excess, greed and corruption.