Taking advantage of a public post to borrow something can be considered as taking bribery in China, and an official has been convicted of bribe-taking for "borrowing" a company's car for five years.

Chen Xiaoping, former deputy head of the energy and transport division of the provincial development and reform commission in east China's Shandong Province, was recently sentenced to nine years in jail in just such a case.

Li Ning, prosecutor in Tianqiao District of Jinan City, told Xinhua that Chen inspected a Jinan-based company in March 2002 and asked the general manager if he could borrow a company car.

The general manager spent 178,000 yuan (about 25,800 U.S. dollars) to buy a new car. He got the vehicle a license plate and lent the car to Chen.

Chen kept and used the car for five years, until he came under judicial investigation. Even when Chen was transferred to be vice mayor of Feicheng City, where he was given a public car in 2003, he kept the borrowed vehicle and let his brother-in-law use it.

Li said prosecutors had encountered borrowing-as-bribery cases in the past but found it hard to pursue a case. Under previous laws, borrowing for such long periods wasn't considered a change of ownership.

The situation changed after the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a judicial interpretation in July 2007.

One of the provisions in that interpretation stipulates that officials who take advantage of their posts to seek profits after accepting apartments and cars will be recognized as taking bribes even if the ownership of vehicles or houses remains with the original buyer.

Prosecutors said Chen borrowed the car for as long as five years and did not return it even after he already had a public car. By doing so, he de facto owned the car and could be recognized as taking bribes according to the new judicial interpretation.

Chen did not appeal after the first trial and the court ruling will be effective.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2008)