Liu Zhijun is the leader of China's railways and is known as the "father of China's high-speed rail", promoting the rapid development of China's railways and building the world's longest and largest high-speed railway network. However, he is also a criminal, abusing his power and accepting huge bribes, causing serious losses and impacts to the economy and society. On July 8, 2013, Liu Zhijun received the punishment he deserved, and was directly sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all his personal property.
Liu Zhijun, born in January 1953, is a native of Ezhou, Hubei. He graduated from the Southwest Jiaotong University, specializing in transportation management, and obtained a postgraduate degree from the Party School. He began his career in the railway system in 1972 and worked his way up the ranks. He went from Wuhan Railway Bureau to Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, and then served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Railways. On March 17, 2003, he was appointed Minister of Railways and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group.
Liu Zhijun has been a diligent and studious student since childhood, and he excelled during his studies at Southwest Jiaotong University, specializing in transportation management. After graduating, he devoted himself to the railway industry, starting from the grassroots level and gradually accumulating a wealth of work experience and knowledge.
Through years of hard work and outstanding performance, Liu Zhijun has gradually climbed the career ladder of the railway system. He successively served as the Party Secretary and Branch Director of the Wuhan Railway Branch of Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, and made positive contributions to the development of the railway industry in the region. Subsequently, he was transferred to the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau as Deputy Director, providing important support for the management and operation of the Railway Bureau.
During his career, Liu Zhijun also served as the director of the Shenyang Railway Bureau, where he was responsible for the organization and management of rail transport in the region. During his tenure as the director, he demonstrated his extraordinary leadership ability and vicious vision, effectively mobilized the resources of the railway, improved the transportation capacity of the railway, and made the railway development in Northeast China develop by leaps and bounds.
In 2003, Liu Zhijun joined the Ministry of Railways, and first became vice minister, and later directly appointed minister and party secretary. This important position gives him the opportunity to make decisions and lead the direction and policies of the entire Chinese railway system. Liu Zhijun's outstanding contributions and leadership in the railway industry have earned him the reputation of "the father of China's high-speed rail". He promoted the rapid development of China's railways and the construction of high-speed railway networks, making China one of the countries with the fastest development of high-speed rail in the world.
After Liu Zhijun took office, he believed that China's railway development could not be delayed, so the railway development entered a leapfrogging and explosive stage, aiming to make full use of the late-mover advantage, learn from the railway technology of developed countries, and through these experiences quickly solved the problem of insufficient capacity of China's railways due to improper management, and promoted China's railway technology from backward to the world's advanced level. He used a variety of resources to introduce many advanced high-speed rail technologies from abroad, and at the same time absorbed and improved these technologies, and launched large-scale railway construction. During his tenure, up to 180,000 kilometers of railway lines, with more than 30,000 kilometers under construction. This made China the country with the largest mileage under construction in the world that year, laying the foundation for becoming the first high-speed rail in the future.
However, behind Liu Zhijun, there is a serious problem of corruption. After investigation, it was found that between 1986 and 2011, when Liu Zhijun held leadership positions at all levels, he used his power to accept bribes as high as more than 60 million. At the same time, during his tenure as Minister of Railways, Liu Zhijun violated regulations, abused his power for personal gain, and obtained huge benefits for the companies of Ding Yuxin and others through various projects. At the same time, it has received huge benefits from the subsidiaries and projects of various railway groups of Ding Yuxin.
Liu Zhijun's corrupt behavior not only seriously damaged the interests of the country and the people, but also brought serious security risks to China's railways. Among them, the most influential and costly case was the "7.23" Ningbo-Wenzhou Line special serious railway traffic accident that occurred on July 23, 2011, and Liu Zhijun, former Minister of Railways, was identified as the main person responsible for the accident. The accident killed 40 people and injured 172 people, and triggered strong repercussions and questions from the society.
In response to Liu Zhijun's corruption, the CCP decided on February 25, 2011 to remove him from his post as minister of railways and launch an investigation against him. Subsequently, on May 28, 2012, Liu Zhijun was directly double-opened and formally prosecuted. Finally, on July 8, 2013, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court conducted a public trial and pronounced the first-instance verdict on Liu Zhijun's suspected ** and abuse of power: Liu Zhijun was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieveSentenced to 10 years in prison for abuse of power;At the same time, he will be punished for several crimes;Deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property.
Liu Zhijun's case is one of the cases involving the highest amount of money since the founding of the People's Republic of China. According to ** reports, in the process of handling Liu Zhijun's case, the judges went to more than 100 banks in Beijing, Shanghai, Taiyuan and other places to freeze nearly 3 billion yuan of assets such as related stolen money and stolen goods. In addition, Liu Zhijun's case is also one of the most important cases in which he has been sentenced to death with a suspended sentence since the founding of the People's Republic of China. According to statistics, between 2000 and 2019, a total of 14** were sentenced to death with a suspended sentence (excluding cases where the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment or the death sentence was converted to life imprisonment). In these cases, Liu Zhijun was involved in a high amount of money, while Ma Chaoqun (the amount involved amounted to 176.4 billion yuan), Zhang Zhiming (the amount involved amounted to 15600 million yuan) and Zhang Enzhao (the amount involved amounted to 12400 million yuan) followed.