File photo: Liu Bin

Liu Bin, a leading archaeologist credited with discovering the ancient city at China’s Liangzhu site, pleaded guilty at a public trial last week to charges of taking bribes and embezzling research funds, according to people who attended the hearing.

The case was heard May 20 at the Suichang County People’s Court in Zhejiang province. Prosecutors accused Liu, 65 years old, of accepting more than 4.65 million yuan ($690,000) in bribes and embezzling 300,000 yuan from a research project related to Liangzhu civilization, the people said.

Liu told the court he accepted the charges and punishment, the people said. A verdict will be announced later.

The trial marks a sharp fall for one of Chinese mainland’s best-known archaeologists. Liu, a native of Xi’an in Shaanxi province, graduated from Jilin University with a degree in archaeology and was assigned in 1985 to the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. He later served as deputy director and director of the institute.

Liu helped lead the excavation of Liangzhu Tomb No. 12 in 1986 and in 2007 discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Liangzhu, a site that later became central to China’s case that the lower Yangtze region was home to one of the world’s early urban civilizations. He was regarded as the third-generation leader of Liangzhu archaeology and played a prominent role in the site’s discovery, protection and bid for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Two sites whose excavations Liu led were selected among China’s top 10 archaeological discoveries. He also received national honors, including the title of national advanced worker, a special government allowance from the State Council and inclusion in a national talent program.

In September 2020, Liu joined Zhejiang University as a leading humanities scholar. He later served as a professor at the School of Art and Archaeology, director of the university’s Museum of Art and Archaeology and head of its Institute of Cultural Heritage. From July 2025 until the case surfaced, he remained a professor at the School of Art and Archaeology.

Before the trial, Liu had been absent from public view for some time. Caixin noted that social-media accounts belonging to Zhejiang University’s School of Art and Archaeology and related institutions had deleted content associated with him, prompting public speculation.

Materials read in court showed Liu was placed under detention by supervisory authorities on Dec. 2, 2025, and formally arrested on Feb. 25, 2026, according to people who attended the hearing. At the May 20 trial, Liu appeared with graying hair and a haggard expression, they said.

Prosecutors alleged that from 2009 to April 2021, Liu used his positions at the Zhejiang institute to help companies and individuals secure and pass acceptance reviews for cultural-relic protection and archaeological-exploration projects. In return, they said, he accepted money and property totaling more than 4.65 million yuan.

In one instance cited by prosecutors, Liu in 2008 used his authority as head of the Liangzhu archaeological workstation to award an exploration project covering seven square kilometers outside the ancient city to Shaanxi Longteng Cultural Relics Protection Co. A shareholder of the company, Wang Lin, was the younger brother of one of Liu’s university classmates, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Liu later gave the same company an exploration assignment in 2016 at the Longshan ancient-city site in Anji county. Wang paid Liu more than 1.4 million yuan in “thank-you fees,” prosecutors alleged. Liu also contracted a Liangzhu digital-information collection project to another company effectively controlled by Wang, receiving 30,000 yuan, prosecutors said.

One point of dispute in court was whether a total of 2.2 million yuan that Wang gave Liu after Liu had stepped down from the institute should be treated as a disciplinary violation or as a criminal offense.

Liu left the director’s post at the Zhejiang institute around August 2020, according to people who attended the hearing. Wang gave Liu 2 million yuan in March or April 2021, money that was used as a down payment on a home for Liu’s daughter, the people said. Wang had indicated that the money did not need to be repaid, they said.

In 2023, the day before Liu’s daughter’s wedding, Wang gave another 200,000 yuan as a gift. Wang also gave 10,000 yuan in a red envelope on the wedding day, but prosecutors did not count that amount as a bribe.

Wang also advanced three years of rent totaling 450,000 yuan for a Beijing studio rented by Liu’s daughter, according to people who attended the hearing.

Liu’s wife told the court that she and their daughter each earned about 200,000 yuan a year, while Liu earned about 800,000 yuan annually at Zhejiang University, the people said.

Liu’s defense lawyer argued that the 2.2 million yuan from Wang was received after Liu had left public office. Citing judicial interpretations on bribe-taking by former state employees, the lawyer said such conduct constitutes bribery only if there was an advance agreement while the official was still in office.

The lawyer said the 2 million yuan was prompted by a funding gap for Liu’s daughter’s home purchase and that there had been no prior arrangement. The 200,000 yuan wedding gift, the lawyer argued, was an expression of personal goodwill that should be handled as a violation of discipline rather than a crime.

On the embezzlement charge, prosecutors said Liu was selected in 2014 for a national publicity-department talent program and oversaw a project marking the 80th anniversary of the discovery of the Liangzhu site. The project commissioned Nanjing Zhaowu Digital Culture Media Co. to produce a documentary, “Liangzhu: Exploration and Discovery,” for 400,000 yuan. After completing the documentary, the company returned 300,000 yuan to Liu personally, prosecutors alleged.

Three prominent archaeologists submitted statements to the court describing Liu’s major contributions to archaeology and the study of Chinese history, in the hope that the court would take them into account, Caixin learned. People who attended the hearing said the presiding judge, in closing remarks, expressed regret that a scholar of Liu’s stature had failed to understand and observe the law.