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China Jails Orchid King for 18 Years Mon Jul 14,12:23 AM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Jonathan Ansfield BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sentenced a fallen flower baron once listed as the country's second-richest man to 18 years in prison for commercial crimes in a case underscoring the precarious position of China's entrepreneurial elite. The guilty verdict brought to a close a dramatic reversal of fortune for Yang Bin, the orchid-growing Dutch national detained last year just days after North Korea (news - web sites) named him head of a free-trade enclave planned on the Chinese...

HONG KONG, Oct. 10 — Zhu Xiaohua, the former president of China's sixth-largest bank and previously one of China's leading financial officials, was convicted today in Beijing on bribery charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The verdict, reported by the official New China News Agency, was the latest sign of Beijing's increasingly tough stance in cases of possible corporate malfeasance. Mr. Zhu is the highest-ranking banker convicted so far in the Chinese government's move against executives at state-owned banks. Some have made huge loans to close friends — poor credit risks who are also sometimes the sources of...

Arrest turns spotlight on China's tax cheatsBy Antoaneta Bezlova BEIJING - Beijing's crackdown on tax cheats has gained momentum with the arrest of a prominent businessman Yang Bin - hand-picked by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to lead Pyongyang's bold experiment with free enterprise - as Chinese President Jiang Zemin is struggling to persuade the Communist Party to change its constitution and welcome capitalists into its ranks. Last month, the Chinese orchid tycoon made the headlines when Pyongyang announced that he was to become the chief executive of Sinuiju Special Administrative Region (SAR), a walled capitalist enclave in hardline-communist North...

SHENYANG, Oct. 4, Kyodo - Chinese authorities arrested Yang Bin, the newly appointed Dutch-Chinese governor of a new special economic zone in North Korea on Friday morning, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting a Chinese official. Although the reasons for his arrest have yet to be announced, diplomatic sources in Beijing said the arrest is related to tax evasion, stock speculation and illegal real estate development, Yonhap reported. Yang was arrested at 5 a.m. in Shenyang, northeastern China, immediately before departing for North Korea, Yonhap said in the report from the Chinese capital. One of China's richest tycoons,...