Yang Kening Indicted on Bribery and Firearms Charges

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

The indictment follows the completion of investigations by the National Commission of Supervision. The Nantong People's Procuratorate filed Yang's case with the city's intermediate people's court.

Prosecutors informed Yang of his legal rights, interrogated him, and listened to his defense counsel's arguments during the investigation and prosecution stage.

Yang is accused of using 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. He allegedly accepted a particularly large amount of property from others in return.

He is also accused of violating firearms management regulations by illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, with a serious circumstance.

Yang, 62, began working in 1982 and joined the Party in 1987. He spent his career in Sichuan, 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 was 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.