Chinese official's son jailed for trying to bribe UK professors

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-04-26

Recruiters from Leeds Metropolitan University at an education exhibition in
Shanghai. (File photo/CFP)

The son of a Chinese official has been sentenced to a year in prison by a British court for trying to bribe his university teachers and carrying a concealed weapon when he met with them.

26-year-old Yang Li, studying for an MSc in Innovation and Technology Management at Bath University, learned he had not been given a passing mark for his dissertation, jeopardizing his plans to enroll at the school for a further year or to exchange his student visa for one for highly skilled professionals.

Yang made an appointment with Professor Andrew Graves and Dr Stephen Shepherd to discuss what his options were, according to Britain's Daily Mail. Yang told his teachers "I am a businessman" and placed ￡5,000 (US$7,730) in cash on the table. "There is a fourth option: you can keep the money if you give me a pass mark and I won't bother you again," Yang is reported to have said.

The two teachers refused and told him to leave. But when Yang picked up his jacket, an air pistol fell out of his pocket.

Yang's lawyer said his client's father is a government official and business man in China and that his client is accustomed to carrying a large amount of cash on him. He offered the money as a rash gesture on the spur of the moment, he said. The lawyer also said that Yang used the imitation firearm for target practice in his garden and this was not a premeditated act of intimidation.

The judge accepted that the gun was not acquired for the purpose of the meeting but ruled that the bribery attempt was premeditated. He sentenced Yang to 12 months for attempted bribery and another six months on a firearms charge, which will run concurrently.

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