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Wanting Qu, Vancouver mayor Gregor Roberton’s girlfriend, has weighed in on the state of her mother’s trial in China for embezzlement, bribery and abusing power.

If convicted, her mother, Qu Zhang Mingjie, faces the death penalty.

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In a post to Chinese social media site Weibo, Qu said she felt the fact the court has taken so long to rule in the case — it concluded a year ago — was a good sign. Qu has proclaimed her mother’s innocence in the past.

“This gives me more confidence in China’s legal progress,” she wrote in Chinese.

“I believe the court will make an objective and impartial judgment,” she added.

Qu has faced criticism forsupporting her mother. She dedicated a song in 2016 — called Your Girl — to her mother.

Zhang, a former official for the city of Harbin, is accusedof embezzling $69 million when she worked on the transfer of a state-controlled farm to private ownership in 2009. Chinese media says Zhang and her co-accused allegedly doctored the sale — eventually to a real estate company building a housing project — while leaving hundreds of workers living on the land with severely undervalued severance packages and “appalling” living conditions. Zhang denied any wrongdoing.

According to the Law Yearbook of China, criminal trials in China have a 99.9 per cent conviction rate.

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