A businessman was on trial Tuesday at a southwest China court on suspicion of bribing Hu Xing, a former provincial official who has been sentenced to life in prison for corruption.

Chen Zhenggui, 43, was the first of 12 bribes to stand trial in connection with Hu's case.

Chen was accused of having paid Hu, former deputy director of Yunnan province's transport department, 300,000 yuan (US$38,500) between 1997 and 1999 to become Hu's successor as general manager of the government-backed Kunming Urban Construction Investment and Development Co., Ltd, said sources with the Intermediate People's Court of Yunnan's provincial capital Kunming.

Investigators also found that Chen had demanded 6 million Hong Kong dollars between 2004 and 2005 from a company that co-funded a major expressway project in Kunming.

The court did not issue a verdict on Tuesday.

Hu Xing, who was sentenced to life three weeks ago, was accused of having taken more than 40 million yuan (US$5.2 million) in bribes, including an apartment valued at 247,980 yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2007)