Former senior political advisor in Sichuan indicted

Yang Kening, a former senior political advisor in Southwest China's Sichuan province, has been indicted in Nantong, Jiangsu province, on suspicion of accepting bribes and illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced on Thursday.

Following the completion of investigations by the National Commission of Supervision, the people's procuratorate of Nantong filed Yang's case with the city's intermediate people's court, according to the SPP.

Prosecutors had informed the defendant of his legal rights, interrogated him and listened to the defense counsel's arguments during the investigation and prosecution stage, the SPP's statement said.

Prosecutors accused him of capitalizing his various positions in Sichuan, including chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, head of the prefecture and vice-chairman of the CPPCC Sichuan provincial committee, to seek profits for others and allegedly accepted a particularly large amount of property from others in return.

He also violated firearms management regulations by illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, with a serious circumstance.

Yang, 62, a native of Sichuan, began working in 1982 and joined the Party in 1987. He spent his career in the province, including about 23 years in Sichuan's Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefectures. He rose to the position of vice-chairman of the CPPCC Sichuan provincial committee in 2021.

He was placed under investigation in November 2023, and expelled from the Party and removed from his public posts in May this year. Yang's arrest was approved one month later.

Yang used to be a member of the China Writers Association and wrote under the pen name Ningke Duojie. He began publishing works in 1980. In addition to some poetry and essays, a significant portion of his work consists of officialdom novels.